Say NO To Smart Meters

A plan by BC Hydro, together with certain financial interests, which has been hatched in secrecy, with zero public consultation, is being sprung on an uninformed population and now threatens our right to choose to live in safe environments. Gulf Islanders for Safe Technology, an ad hoc group formed to oppose “smart metering”, urges residents to examine Hydro’s ill-conceived plan to force a wireless electric power meter radiating at roughly 100 times the strength of a cell phone, 24/7, on every home and workplace.

This is part of a continent-wide “smart grid” plan whereby radiating “smart meters” are being installed on all gas, water and electrical services. Based on what can be understood from the little that Hydro admits about their end of this plan, as well as on the bad experiences of victims of this wireless metering technology in areas where it has already been deployed, it is obvious that citizens now need to work together to bring a halt to the entire program until it can be shown to be safe.

And what better place to halt deployment of this unsafe technology than here, where Gulf Islanders have long understood the need to take action to defend the environment? There is great power in an informed citizenry and this is what we need to become once again in order to protect our community. It is essential to get informed and to see the smart plan stopped here.

Meanwhile, it is crucial to register refusal of smart meters with the BC government and with BC Hydro. In addition, it would be wise, although illegal, to physically to prohibit all access to the meter itself, else you will find it changed to a radiating type without your permission.

The issue is that with no public review, no democratic choice, no documented benefit to customers or the environment, and no energy or dollar savings to be gained by the public, BC Hydro and Fortis are to bill taxpayers over $1 billion for a completely new, province-wide wireless electrical “Smart Grid” to be set up by the end of 2012. The Gulf Islands have been chosen as one of the first test sites for a plan that some scientists and researchers warn may harm public health.

No more will meters be read by people, but by a new wireless data transfer system. Alarmingly, this means massive increases in our everyday electromagnetic radiation (EMR) exposures. This is of great concern as the exposure to radiofrequency and microwave radiation is involuntary, continuous and harmful. This will affect all citizens adversely, especially the growing cohort of EHS (electrical hypersensitivity syndrome) sufferers. EHS is recognized by the WHO (World Health Organization), the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and by many EU (European Union) governments. Moreover, as is the case with any contaminant, non-ionizing radiation will adversely affect children, the elderly, the immune-compromised and those with medical implants, pacemakers, insulin pumps, etc., most seriously.

Despite claims by Health Canada and BC Hydro to the contrary, findings of ‘independent’ scientists – those not controlled by and beholden to industry or it’s government assistants – indicate that EMR used by wireless technologies in general, and smart meter emissions in particular, are dangerous. Expert bodies from around the world, including the EU Parliament decry the false thermal standards, such as that being used here, and are calling for safer biologically-based exposure standards.

In a surprising admission, in a taped interview, “smart metering” spokesman Dr. John Blatherwick, admits that Canada’s ‘Code Six’ radiation guidelines are “grossly out of date” and are all “based on heat”.  In other words, the professional expert used to defend the smart plan has admitted publicly that the very guidelines used to claim that EMR emissions from smart meters are safe, are based on a premise that is false – an incredible admission! Therefore, ironically, the “what doesn’t heat you doesn’t hurt you” theory is discredited even by those who use these widely ridiculed “thermal” guidelines to assure us that “smart” meters and the WiMAX transmitters used to collect and relay data are safe!

The Clean Air Act specifies that conventional power meters can be replaced with new wireless types “without the consent of the owner”. There is to be no public scrutiny, since ominously the Act strips the BC Utilities Commission of their power to review this massive, overly expensive and risky mega project.

With many thousands of health complaints being registered wherever radiating meters are installed, and with many citizens committed to refuse this dangerous technology, one wonders why would the BC Liberals allow this to continue? One reason for this massively expensive and risky program is that it represents the creation of a vast new market sector estimated worldwide at roughly $45 trillion. Were BC Hydro and the former Campbell administration simply doing their part to establish huge business opportunities, cloaked in green language, for the market benefit of certain BC interests?

A March 2011 TheTyee.ca article “First to Profit From $1 Billion Smart Meter Program: Liberal Insiders”, gives some insight. It explains how this massive change for the worst has all been quietly arranged with questionable business and political activity, with government insiders standing to make millions, while the public has been kept uninformed.

“Smart meters” serve corporate efficiency regrettably at the expense of public health and that of the natural world. The primary rationale for radiation meters is to even out periods of peak consumption with those of little consumption. There are better ways to do this that do not require wireless systems. As seen in California, Ontario and elsewhere, wireless “smart meters” increase electricity bills, invade privacy, cause interference even in non-wireless appliances, and make people sick.

These systems are anything but smart. They are fraught with flaws; they ruin power quality and power efficiency for the customer, and for the power grid as a whole, by causing harmonic distortion, or ‘dirty power’ that actually increases Hydro bills. This problem is in addition to RF (radio frequency) radiation emitted by the meters to connect with the grid. The ‘dirty power’ signal flows into houses and neighbourhoods, causing harm to health and interference to other systems.

Smart meters burden taxpayers with huge debt and customers with painful rate hikes. Alarmingly, cyber experts warn that they can be hacked into and that intimate information about our lives can be misused. A U.S. cyber security firm InGuardians tested five different brands of “smart meters” and they were all easily hacked into, meaning that personal electrical use is open information to whoever has motive and means.

Our new group Gulf Islanders for Safe Technology, recommends that citizens demand an open, independent public inquiry regarding what our publicly-owned utility is up to with this secretive development. Meanwhile, it is important to write to BC Hydro and register our refusal of the “smart” meter, and consider preventing easy access to our existing meters.

Jim Quail, Executive Director of the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre, indicates that Hydro’s business plans and putative energy savings estimates are highly questionable. Quail called on Rich Coleman, the new Energy Minister, to order BC Hydro to abandon the program, stating that: “Someone has to tell Hydro to stop signing contracts and kill smart metering.”

There are many groups and individuals opposing this rush for spoils in the hot “smart” wireless market sector. To preserve and protect these beautiful islands we need to collectively say “NO” to smart metering. And we need to say it soon before it is too late.

Chris Anderson is a Salt Spring Island resident and the spokesperson for Gulf Islanders For Safe Technology. Visit: www.gifst.ca

Smart Meter image via www.turn.org

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