Smart meter fear-mongering

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• Smart meters safe, installation imminent: BC Hydro
• Smart meter arguments inaccurate
• Refusal of smart meter within charter rights
• Issue not Smart Meters, but where to draw the line

Dear Editor:

Just for grins I decided to attend the recent meeting at the Merritt Civic Center hosted by The Coalition Against Smart Meters Merritt Branch, with guest speakers from Kelowna and Kamloops — what a joke. Right from the start they got into fear-mongering with irrelevant, inconclusive information.

There was a comment about how some things like DDT, lead and some other chemicals, which are in the WHO’s listing for carcinogen 2B classification, were banned from use in our everyday lives. What they didn’t tell you is that gasoline exhaust and coffee are also on this list, why isn’t it banned? Because, DDT, lead, etc. are chemically toxic to humans which has absolutely nothing to do with it being under this particular classification, but they left that part out. It doesn’t fit with their promoting the evils of EMF (Electro Magnetic Frequency) which have recently been added to that list. The classification 2B is only a list of ‘possible’ carcinogens that they dump things into when there is inconclusive evidence for anything else. If you want to put things into perspective, then you should read articles from people like Dr. Otis W. Brawley, M.D., the American Cancer Society Chief Medical Officer.

Then a self-proclaimed expert in thermal imaging, shows two pictures, one before a person uses a cellphone and one after he uses it for an hour. Wouldn’t it make sense that your face would be warmer after holding a hand to your face for an hour with a warm cellphone, but they want to blame it on the evil EMF. Everyone knows electronic devices generate heat that has nothing to do with EMF.

I couldn’t take it anymore when the presenter tried to convince the crowd that EMF was responsible for an increase in SIDS. That’s just fear-mongering at it’s lowest level. I spent years worrying about that with my own children, hopeful that their genetic stuff was strong enough to survive such a harsh and dangerous world. I’ve read all the literature about SIDS and to even attempt narrowing it down to one thing is nothing but lunacy. I’ve no doubt that some people may be sensitive to EMF and just like peanut allergies, they need to protect themselves by moving to the north pole or living in a bubble.

I may be just the average citizen without any sort of expertise in ‘thermal imaging’ but I can sure tell BS when I hear it. We are, and have been constantly bombarded by EMF in many forms from the sun’s radiation and planetary EM fields down to the closest radio station transmitter for many thousands of years or more. We seem to have survived just fine so far.

At this meeting, they eventually talked about the privacy issues, economic stuff and all that, which is what I came for, but by the time they got finished with only 20 minutes of fear-mongering the health issues, I really don’t think anybody was paying attention.

This is technology folks. We invented it and if there is something wrong, we can fix it, but society is headed nowhere without it and there is no conspiracy fuelling its integration into our lives. Someday they may cure cancer and all this will be irrelevant, but that’s kind of a Catch 22 now isn’t it? Because the cure for cancer will most certainly be because of technology, so don’t be so quick to demonize it, eh?

At the end I had a guy in my face with his camera, several people jeering me, others asking if I was a BC Hydro employee and a few nosing me out the door which promptly got closed. They thought I was angry and negative. Applause even caught my ear, which only made me wonder if they were cheering my voluntary departure or the brave souls who thought they were standing up to an evil government spy. Nothing could be further from the truth, just a local businessman who is tired of all the dark clouds people like to hide under so they don’t have to face their own common sense when it comes to technology.

I look forward to soaking up all the radiation from the massive EMF signature in my games room. Including the smart meter, only two feet away from me on the outside wall. Apparently our privacy is now violated because BC Hydro knows when we turn on our lights. These folks would have you believe they could see through our walls.

Economically they think our rates are going to sky rocket, but I’ll bet the BC Utilities Commission has something to say about that, or did everyone just forget that these things are regulated for a reason? At least BC Hydro is looking toward a better future where we have power for our electric cars, better control over outages, reduced energy waste and a greener planet. These jokers at the meeting were nothing if not hypocrites by showing up in their cancer 2B classed gasoline fume generating automobiles, polluting our atmosphere at every turn, and offering the known ‘possible’ carcinogen of coffee at their meeting.

Darrel Brooks

Merritt, BC