Dear Editor:

Re: Smart Meter chairman presents in Merritt, Sept. 20 article

I am thoroughly disgusted and appalled at the lack of professional journalism displayed by your reporter’s coverage of the above noted presentation.

Please note that your reporter, Phillip Woolgar, wrote an outlandish and distorted article that I feel was intentionally done to misinform, mislead, and to manipulate our local readers’ point of view in regard to smart meters and wireless technology. I think the term for this is called “cherry picking” selective information to influence/manipulate public opinion.

The Merritt Herald was invited to attend the aforementioned smart meter presentation. Your reporter, Mr. Woolgar was incorrect citing that the World Health Organization (WHO) “confirm that wireless meters don’t pose a health risk.”

The fact is that the WHO, on May 21, 2011, listed RF EMF, which includes the microwave frequencies that wireless meters use to communicate, as a possible Class 2B carcinogenic. Other toxic agents in this class include lead, DDT, chlordane, diesel exhaust to name but a few.

It was a very shoddy move to “slip” in BC Hydro’s talking head Gary Murphy’s propaganda into the report. There are so many misleading and inaccurate statements in the article which I cannot go into because of your papers word limitation, re. letters.

In conclusion, if for nothing else, I believe the Merritt Herald should write a retraction on the findings of the World Health Organization as cited above.

Deborah Rose

Merritt, B.C.

 

Editor’s Note:

According to its website, the World Health Organization established the International EMF Project to assess the scientific evidence of possible health effects of EMF in 1996. In June 2011, the WHO published a fact sheet outlining the risks associated with EMF in mobile phones. Because many cancers are not detected until many years after the interactions that led to tumours, studies can only assess those cancers that become evident within shorter periods of time.

However, results of animal studies consistently show no increased cancer risk for long-term exposure to radiofrequency fields.

The fact sheet states: “IARC has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), a category used when a causal association is considered credible, but when chance, bias or confounding cannot be ruled out with reasonable confidence.”