Smart Meters are continuous surveillance devices. "It is a search without a warrant." Smart meters are radio transmitters, shooting off your living habits to whomever purchases this information from the power company. http://goldsilver.com/video/smart-meters/
Should every study be given equal weight? Is the so called debate, industry grown or do we really not know? Dr Martin Blank, Columbia University on the scientific 'weight of evidence" & industry biased studies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6wLFeIrCtU : 9 min
Karolina Institute's Dr Olle Johansson- an urgent plea for awareness Dr Olle Johansson of the Karolina Institute (home of the Nobel prize) Announces the Selatun Resolution & attempts to correct the sorry state of electromagnetic awareness in our society. He has officially spoken out against 'smart' meters in a letter that is available through me. http://vimeo.com/18018440
International Science Speakers on Health and RFR Scientific Conference on EMF and Health- several high level scientists speaking out and explaining research on EMF. Major international studies such as the Interphone Study are reviewed and Critiqued. Best speakers in my opinion are Dr Olle Johansson and Lloyd Morgan. Over one hour, total sections. http://electromagnetichealth.org/watch-videos/
The portion of this blog following the legal letter to send to your Power Company contains links to research presentations by doctors and scientists regarding the electromagnetic radiation given off by smart meters.
Smart meters are surveillance/monitoring devices that give off considerable amounts of electromagnetic radiation. I would say that such devices are not a 'smart' investment for taxpayers. Starting as soon as this summer the BC government is going to put a powerful wireless transmitter ON YOUR HOUSE. At a cost of One Billion Dollars to BC taxpayers. For their reasons, not ours. If the old meters can't be replaced, then let's start up a BC industry building new ones.
Union of BC Municipalities vote for a province-wide moratorium http://citizensforsafetechnology.org/Democracy-Wins-at-the-UBCM,15,1382 "The BC Liberals' attempts to silence the growing Smart Meter controversy have failed at the Union of BC Municipalities convention with delegates voting for a province-wide moratorium. Could the heavy-handed, dictatorial edicts of Rich Coleman and the Liberals have actually prompted this clear vote for democracy, pushing back this denial of democratic process, denial of human rights, and denial of the freedoms and liberties enshrined in our Canadian Charter? "
Walt McGinnis talks about the dangers of all-wireless technology -- including the ability of Hydro and other hackers to invade your privacy by reading your meter output -- which will be linked to ALL of your electrical devices -- and data mining your usage habits. This will allow Hydro to bill you based on peak or low times and it will allow marketers to target you based on your data. They also discuss the intentional dismantling of BC Hydro, the lack of public consultation and education and, most important, the health impact of ElectroMagnetic Radiation on living organisms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR8tILAxhjI
- The people of the Netherlands and Australia raised such an outcry against mandatory smart meters that the government was forced to abandon the policy: http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/whats-wrong-wireless-smart-meter (Please note: the temporary moratorium in Australia has been lifted and issues are being addressed)
WARNING: BC Hydro has a “List to Delay” smart meters. If you want to get on this list: DON'T DO IT. why? because by doing so you are giving Hydro your permission to eventually install one on your home. Is that what you really want?
Instead copy print and fill in your name and details on the legal document below and send by registered mail. Otherwise, you are giving the power company "implied consent". Tell the power authorities that they may not install any surveillance device or smart meter on your property....ever.
and do it this week!
1st Sample Letter
A sample letter addressed to BC Hydro refusing them the right to install a wireless smart meter on your home or workplace.
Via electronic mail to: smartmeters@bchydro.com and info.utilities@corix.com
Also via Canada Post to:
BC Hydro, Smart Meter Specialist Department 6911 Southpoint Drive, Burnaby BC, V3N 4X8
Attention B.C. Hydro, Corix Utilities and agents and/or assignees thereof:
Re: Refusal of Smart Meter on my Residence / Workplace
Dated: _______________, 201__ B.C. Hydro Account # on bill_____________
Please accept this as your official notice from this date forward of my absolute refusal to allow the installation of a wireless Smart Meter on my home or premises at full address _______________________________________________________
Take notice that B.C. Hydro, Corix Utilities and /or agents and assignees thereof do not have my authorization, permission or consent to enter my property, business or premises for the purpose of replacing my current meter with a wireless Smart Meter.
Any attempt to install this device on my property or residence will constitute trespass and a violation of rights afforded to me as a citizen of Canada.
I refuse your wireless Smart Meter on the grounds that it has the capability of being a surveillance system, used by you or other parties, which could violate my right to privacy.
Also: my fundamental democratic right to protect my health from a possible carcinogen, specifically radiofrequency electromagnetic fields emitted by your wireless Smart Meter, supersedes any right you have to install a wireless Smart Meter on my property.
You still have authorization to attend at my property for the purpose of reading the non-wireless meter manually.
Name in full ________________________________________________________________
NDP Energy Critic John Horgan: john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca NDP Deputy Health Critic Sue Hammell: sue.hammell.mla@leg.bc.ca BC Chief Medical Officer Perry Kendall: perry.kendall@gov.bc.ca Green Party Federal Leader Elizabeth May: elizabeth.may@greenparty.ca Minister of Health, Mike de Jong: mike.dejong.mla@leg.bc.ca NDP Health Critic Mike Farnworth: mike.farnworth.mla@leg.bc.ca Minister of Energy Rich Coleman: rich.coleman.mla@leg.bc.ca Liberal BC Leader Christy Clark: christy@christyclark.ca NDP BC Leader Adrian Dix: adrian.dix.mla@leg.bc.ca Green Party BC Leader Jane Sterk: leader@greenparty.bc.ca
2nd Sample Letter: FOR B.C. HYDRO REGISTERED LETTER - FORM LETTER FORMAT:
No consent to trespass. No consent to surveillance. Notice of liability. Following is the form letter format for mailing by registered mail to the address as shown with copy to the Privacy Commissioner.
FROM: [* Your name] [* Your account number as stated on your bill] [* Your address as stated on your bill, including Province and Postal Code]
Certified Canadian Postal Mail # _____________________
TO: B.C. Hydro Attention: David Cobb, President and CEO BC Hydro Building 503-333 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 5R3
Cc: Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC: Elizabeth Denham P.O. Box 9038 Station: Provincial Government Victoria, B.C. V8W 9A4
NOTICE OF NO CONSENT TO TRESPASS, NOTICE OF NO CONSENT TO SURVEILLANCE, NOTICE OF LIABILITY
[* Date of letter]
Dear Mr. Cobb, B.C. Hydro and all agents, officers, employees, contractors and interested parties,
If you intend to install a wireless "Smart Meter" or any activity-monitoring device at [*address of occupant], you and all other parties are hereby denied consent for installation and use of all such devices on the above property and installation and use of any activity-monitoring device is hereby refused and prohibited.
Informed consent is legally required for installation of any surveillance device and any device that will collect and transmit private and personal data to undisclosed and unauthorized parties for undisclosed and unauthorized purposes.
Authorization for sharing of personal and private information may only be given by the originator and subject of that information.
That authorization is hereby denied and refused with regard to [*address of occupant] and all its occupants.
"Smart Meters" violate the law and cause endangerment to residents by the following factors:
1. They individually identify electrical devices inside the home and record when they are operated, causing invasion of privacy.
2. They monitor household activity and occupancy in violation of rights and domestic security.
3. They transmit wireless signals, which may be intercepted by unauthorized and unknown parties. Those signals can be used to monitor behavior and occupancy, and they can be used by criminals to aid criminal activity against the occupants.
4. Data about occupants' daily habits and activities are collected, recorded and stored in permanent databases which are accessed by parties not authorized or invited to know and share that private data.
5. Those with access to the smart meter databases can review a permanent history of household activities complete with calendar and time-of-day metrics to gain a highly invasive and detailed view of the lives of the occupants.
6. Those databases may be shared with, or fall into the hands of criminals, blackmailers, law enforcement, private hackers of wireless transmissions, power company employees, and other unidentified parties who may act against the interests of the occupants under metered surveillance.
7. "Smart Meters" are, by definition, surveillance devices, which violate Federal and Provincial wiretapping laws by recording and storing databases of private and personal activities and behaviors without the consent or knowledge of those people who are monitored.
8. It is possible, for example, with analysis of certain "Smart Meter" data, for unauthorized and distant parties to determine medical conditions, sexual activities, physical locations of persons within the home, vacancy patterns and personal information and habits of the occupants.
9. Your company has not adequately disclosed the particular recording and transmission capabilities of the smart meter, or the extent of the data that will be recorded, stored and shared, or the purposes to which the data will and will not be put. I forbid, refuse and deny consent of any installation and use of any monitoring, eavesdropping, and surveillance devices on my property, my place of residence and my place of occupancy. That applies to and includes "Smart Meters" and activity monitoring devices of any and all kinds.
Any attempt to install any such device directed at me, other inhabitants, guests, my property or residence will constitute trespass, stalking, and unlawful surveillance, all prohibited and punishable by law through criminal and civil complaints.
All persons, government agencies and private organizations responsible for installing or operating monitoring devices directed at or recording my activities, which I have not specifically authorized in writing, will be fully liable for any violations, intrusions, harm or negative consequences caused or made possible by those devices whether or not those negative consequences are justified by "law."
This is legal notice. After this delivery the liabilities listed above may not be denied or avoided by parties named and implied in this notice. Notice to principal is notice to agent and notice to agent is notice to principal.
All rights reserved.
[* Signature]
[* Name, in full, of energy user and/or customer]
MAIL IT AS: <RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED>
More Debate: BC Hydro says 'Smart' Meters are safe. Dr Carpenter says otherwise. See this two minute video. Dr. David Carpenter, a Harvard Medical School-trained physician who headed up the New York State Dept. of Public Health for 18 years before becoming Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Albany, where he currently directs the Institute for Health and the Environment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7L21XOC2wA&feature=related
'Smart' meters vs cell phones BC Hydro says, 'You can stand in front of your 'smart' meter for twenty years and get the same exposure as a thirty minute cell phone call." Dr Hirsch says otherwise. BC Hydro says the meters are a small source compared to other sources. Isn't this like saying, "We're all going to be exposed to second hand smoke anyway, so we may as well all smoke" ?
See this four minute video to debunk Hydro's comparison to cell phones. Dr Daniel Hirsch, Nuclear Scientist and Professor at UCSC (UC Santé Cruz) against Smart Meters:
Hydro Bills Triple MPP Ontario, Randy Miller says 8000 Ontario Hydro customers have seen their bills triple. Four minute video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja54cKWGsy0
Regarding smart meter 'emissions'. Are we forgetting that there will be tens of thousands (and in cities, hundreds of thousands) of these smart meter emissions happening throughout the day. BC Hydro says the meters operate a millisecond long for a total of only 3-5 (some figures say as much as 13) minutes a day. The truth is that they cannot tell us how often the meter will emit as it depends on how many other meters and devices it is interacting with. Let's say it is five minutes, as claimed. There are 1000 milliseconds in a second. 60,000 in a minute, 300,000 in 5 minutes. A 24 hour total of five minutes a day would work out to 12,500 radiation spikes an hour, or 208 a minute. This is a lot of extremely high radiation bursts. The average power density they have stated is 20 microwatts per square centimeter. Biological damage begins at 0.00000001 microwatts per square centimeter. At this level, mice immune systems were permanently damaged when exposed for five minutes a day, for five days.
The most conservative European standards are Salzburg, Austria at .0001 (inside level.) BC Hydro was comparing themselves to Switzerland and implying that they are the most conservative. Switzerland allows 4.5 microwatts per cm squared, which is still far from biologically safe! The levels BC Hydro is proposing are more than four times as high as the Swiss levels. They are 200 thousand times higher than the indoor levels for Austria.
Even the 20 microwatts per meter that they expose is not the full story. This is the average, not the maximum exposure. In California, where they use the same Itron meters, an electrical engineer measured spikes at 4000 microwatts/cm2 or 7 times the maximum safety code 6 level (600 microwatts/cm2 allowed for this frequency). This level also does not take into account the wireless appliances that go with them, the communications back and forth with as many as a thousand other houses, nor the wi-max collector emissions, nor the coming water and gas meters. And in some California cities, the cell phone companies are using the wireless grids for cell phone communications! The wireless part of this program will exponentially increase our RFR exposures in our communities.
BC Hydro spokesmen do not mention the increasing rates of depression, sickness, multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), or electro-hypersensitivity that have been reported by individuals exposed to wireless transmissions. No study has been done that mimics exposures to a smart grid, especially in addition to the existing exposures from other radiation sources.
Overall exposures are increasing yearly but they are consensual Old phone technology, in stand by, sent beacon signals a few milliseconds a minute. New phones send long beacon signals as much as 30 seconds per minute! This is a massive increase in daily exposure. Four G cell phones and four G cell towers increase our exposures further and the way people use wireless is different. People live stream data from the net and receive text messages all day long on phones that are constantly updated from cloud computing sites and GPS services. Add the cell phone radiation to 24-7 ambient levels of exposure and now 'smart' meters and we've got a rapidly changing health time bomb waiting to go off. The key difference between all of the personal communications technologies and 'smart' meters is that they can be shut off and that they are voluntary. 'Smart ' meters cannot be shut off.
Should every study be given equal weight? Is the so called debate, industry grown or do we really not know? Dr Martin Blank, Columbia University on the scientific 'weight of evidence" & industry biased studies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6wLFeIrCtU : 9 min
Karolina Institute's Dr Olle Johansson- an urgent plea for awareness Dr Olle Johansson of the Karolina Institute (home of the Nobel prize) Announces the Selatun Resolution & attempts to correct the sorry state of electromagnetic awareness in our society. He has officially spoken out against 'smart' meters in a letter that is available through me. http://vimeo.com/18018440
International Science Speakers on Health and RFR Scientific Conference on EMF and Health- several high level scientists speaking out and explaining research on EMF. Major international studies such as the Interphone Study are reviewed and Critiqued. Best speakers in my opinion are Dr Olle Johansson and Lloyd Morgan. Over one hour, total sections. http://electromagnetichealth.org/watch-videos/
