To the editor:
Who in their right mind would choose the inconvenience and hardship of life without all the electrical appliances and devices we consider normal essentials without some critical compelling reason.
When the only options given are a wireless radio on or radio off smart meter in which both have associated adverse health effects, the choice between damaging or a little less damaging is hardly a choice.
Fortis claims “ongoing attempts” and that “we are customers they have been working with”. If that were true, a reasonable alternative such as the option to continue having electricity with an analog meter, which has no health, fire or privacy risks, should have been offered. If BC Hydro has an analog option, why shouldn’t Fortis?
Instead, Fortis uses Goliath resources, like Exponent, defender of big tobacco, and asbestos to argue their case before the BC Utilities Commission against good standing customers who only want to be allowed to live in a healthy home environment. We are not surprised that the reasons are calculated in dollars, where the potential windfall has an even greater future benefit in the sale of our personal data. According to Myles Keogh, director of grants and research at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, “The data is going to be worth a lot more than the commodity that is being consumed to generate the data”.
So why is our government blindly accommodating and supporting all this proliferation of wireless technology? When Fortis says it wants to be clear that we have met all of our legal and regulatory requirements, they reference being within our government’s Health Canada Safety Code 6, irrespective of the fact that this code is based on archaic, flawed science circa the pre-mobile phone era.
Further, they are ignoring the many multiple thousands of peer reviewed independent research which have generated headlines such as:
Canadian Medical Association Journal reports Health Canada’s Wireless Limits are “A Disaster to Public Health”
Cell Phones and WiFi are a "Serious Public Health Issue" - Canadian Parliamentary Report 2015
Pediatric autism specialist calls for smart meter moratorium
Public Health Physician Warns of Smart Meter Dangers, Stresses Need For Analog Option.
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine: “The Evidence is Irrefutable” Smart Meters Correlate with Adverse Health Effects.
Scientists ‘can’t all be quacks,’ as RDOS calls for moratorium on Smart Meters.
Why would our government ignore such obvious health risks to the public? “Federal government raises $5.3 billion from telecom firms that bid on licenses,” up from $4.3 billion raised in 2008. With this kind of revenue at stake it is easy to see why they ignore the inherent downside of smart meters; a downside recognized in a recent US Supreme Court decision that concluded that: “A cost-benefit analysis (of smart meters) should include health, safety, and privacy issues” and held that “any disadvantage could be termed a cost…including, for instance, harms that regulation might do to human health or the environment.”
We are just one B.C. family of an increasing number of B.C. residents who are currently experiencing the duress of feeling forced to accept a smart meter or bear the hardship of having their electricity cut off.
We appeal to Fortis and our governments to restore their own credibility and the public trust by offering the reasonable safe choice of an analog meter option.
Marilyn Limbert,
Kelowna