W.E.E.P. News
Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution News
30 March 2011
Please note - WEEP news will not be available for a few days.
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Viewpoint - Smart meters and grids put public at risk
By Contributed Opinion - Gulf Islands Driftwood
Published: March 30, 2011 10:00 AM
By CHRIS ANDERSON
Why is our publicly owned utility allowed to dictate that we must accept a powerful source of continuous electromagnetic radiation — in the form of a so-called electrical "smart" meter — on every home and workplace?
The billion dollar — and rising — "smart grid" plan, developed and now being deployed in relative secrecy by BC Hydro, with no open public consultation, is to be part of an interconnected, continental and very vulnerable "smart" power grid. The problem lies in the intention to track power usage in — virtually — real time, via meters that transmit data via EM radiation that science shows is unsafe. There is a need for wide-scale improvements to the present semi-dysfunctional system. But Gulf Islanders for Safe Technology takes the position that improvements must not be introduced at the expense of public health and security.
Hydro takes the position that Health Canada's very lax and unprotective exposure limits are not being exceeded, so the new wireless system is "safe." Yet our widely discredited guidelines offer protection only from extremely high levels of exposure that cause body tissue heating. (Think microwave ovens.) But from much lower intensities — at "non-thermal" exposure levels — we're not protected by these irrelevant guidelines. And if we had realistic exposure limits based on how biology is affected, never would "smart meters" use radiation to exchange data. They would all be and should be hard wired.
At greatest risk from "smart grid" radiation — as is the pattern with any hazardous contaminant — are the young, the elderly, the immune-compromised, those who are pregnant and the growing population of those with electromagnetic or electrical sensitivity. Soon, if we allow Hydro to get away with this so-called "smart" experiment, we can never be free of electromagnetic contamination. All wiring systems will be linked with all other wiring systems throughout North America, as meter after "smart" meter shoots powerful periodic bursts of data-laden radiation to awaiting antennas. These then blanket the area with more radiation linking with the grid.
In addition to damage to public health, loss of privacy and risk to personal data security by "smart" grids, another great concern is the issue of cyber security. In Canada we have recently seen major intrusions by hackers based in China, of ultra secure federal departments such as finance and defence research. We're now in an age of cyber warfare where nothing is immune from intrusion. Iran has just threatened a possible "retaliatory cyber strike" against the North American power grid — a snap if it's all interconnected and "meshed."
"There's a general consensus amongst . . . most of us in the security business that smart meter technology has gotten way out in front of the security technology," says top cyber expert Mark Weatherford, chief security officer for Washington-based North American Electric Reliability Corp.
These new radiating "smart" meters are increasingly a cause of ill health, in other areas where they are deployed. The public has consistently never been consulted about being experimented on in this way, as companies rush for a share of the largest, most profitable economic bubble ever dreamed into being. "At stake: a global market worth $45 trillion." (N. Hodge: The Second Leg of Smart Grid Profits, November 2009).
Fortunately, the new "improved" Clark administration and new Energy Minister Rich Coleman have called for a review of this expensive wireless plan. Questionable insider dealings during the Campbell regime have also surfaced. The cost to B.C. taxpayers is huge. Anything this momentous, involving change on such a grand scale, must in a democratic society involve the public.
Rate hikes for electricity — to pay for "smart" technology — will make it difficult for many to keep the lights on, let alone to stay warm. Hydro admits to a whopping 50 per cent increase for the next three years. B.C. Public Interest Advocacy Centres say it will be 10 per cent for 10 years! And what's so "smart" about that?
The writer heads the Gulf Islanders for Safe Technology group.
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To: info llrc info@llrc.org
Subject: Beta spike in California. BBC recklessly endangers life
From Radnet data https://cdx.epa.gov/SSL/cdx/EPA_Home.asp
It appears that there has been a sudden increase in beta radiation in California today (30th March 2011). We are not able to say what has caused it. We hope to do some analysis tomorrow, Thursday 31st, and see what Radnet data show then. See the LLRC site <http://www.llrc.org> for the graph. We bring you this information so people on the western seaboard of the Americas can take the elementary precaution of staying indoors.We hope this is a false alarm but it is prudent to assume it is not.
Earlier we posted that the BBC is recklessly endangering people by ridiculing people for taking Iodine tablets as a precaution against radioactive pollution. On Monday 28th March Material World - a regular Radio 4 science programme - featured Professor Robin Grimes, Director of the Centre of Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College, London.
He sneered at Californians for taking stable Iodine (the stable Iodine fills up the thyroid gland so it can't absorb Iodine 131). He added that it was not necessary even for people in Tokyo. He said: I believe people in California are buying Iodine tablets and things like that which is completely, completely crazy. However there will be people close to the [Fukushima] plant who should be taking that [Iodine] as a precaution and they are being told to do so; that's being dealt with in a sensible manner but [for] people in - say - as far away as Tokyo that would not be necessary at this point in time - not even close.
Mindful that after Chernobyl increased thyroid cancer was observed in Britain as well as Russia, LLRC's current advice is that people in Japan definitely ought to be taking stable Iodine; California is borderline (or it was borderline when we uploaded) In the UK it's probably unnecessary at present. However, as the UK Health Protection Agency agrees, there are no risks associated with Iodine tablets so long as the dose is not grossly exceeded. There is no argument against taking them as a precaution. Grimes' remarks can only be seen either as ignorant or as just one more attempt to play down the hazard of nuclear power.
US Attorney Stuart Smith of environmental and personal injury specialists Smith Stag <http://www.smithstag.com> told LLRC Grimes' advice would, if followed, increase risks with possibly fatal conseqences, especially for children. People would be justified in prosecuting him, his employers and the BBC for recklessly endangering life. Stuart Smith's law firm is a pioneer in the field of Technologically Enhanced Radioactive Materials and oilfield waste litigation.
The UK has no law of reckless endangerment but in USA and Scotland among other countries it is a criminal offence to put lives at risk through an action or by failing to act.
LLRC's Secretary Richard Bramhall said: BBC producers seem to have forgotten that they are required to balance the expression of opinions on controversial issues. On radiation and health the BBC is institutionally unbalanced, routinely allowing "experts" like Professor Grimes to claim that only 50 deaths are attributable to Chernobyl without reference to the countervailing evidence.
The "Horizon" documentary "Nuclear Nightmares" in 2006 was an outstanding example. My complaint eventually led the BBC Trust to rule "Nuclear Nightmares" was biased. I hope the threat of a class action in California or Japan will concentrate minds a bit.
The Material World broadcast is the first item on this listen again link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00zm31w/Material_World_24_03_2011 ,
which is scheduled to be on the BBC web site until Friday.
LLRC supports the Nuclear Information and Resource Service Grassroots Platform for Nuclear Safety and Security
"><http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6195> .
It calls for the radiation risk model of the European Committee on Radiation Risk
to replace the International Commission on Radiological Protection - as LLRC has long recommended.
Go to
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6195 to sign up online or email nirsnet@nirs.org
Mast Sanity
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A Technology Detox
http://www.fitnessgoop.com/2011/03/a-techology-detox-can-you-turn-off-your-gadgets-for-24-hours/
Dr Magda Havas
drmagdahavas@gmail.com
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A Real Pain
http://www.canada.com/Sensitivity+wireless+frequencies+real+pain/4525150/story.html
In regards to A. Richards letter regarding wireless hydro meters, I want to state that I totally agree with his concern of making personal choices.
Several years ago I got wireless internet for my home. Eight months later my ankles and feet were so painful I could not walk more than a block. X-rays showed nothing wrong, so surgery was scheduled to fuse the bones in my feet.
All my life I had been lucky to have been a sound sleeper, but now I had insomnia for the first time in my life.
It was on the third night of not having slept, I decided to unplug everything in my house because I kept feeling constant rhythmic vibration pulses when I lay in bed or on my couch or on the floor. Actually after three nights without sleep I thought I was going mad. To my surprise, when I unplugged my wireless router, all vibration stopped.
When I phoned my internet provider, they didn't seem surprised and said that some people are more sensitive to Electromagnetic Frequencies (EMF). Researching this on the internet I found much information, including that EMF sensitivity is considered a disability in Sweden, and that employers must provide shielding for these persons.
I got rid of my wireless, installed shielded cables for my internet and am now sleeping soundly every night. My feet hardly hurt anymore and I have cancelled the surgery. I am getting my health back!
Take a look at these publications by Dr. Magda Havas, PhD,
and
and
regarding wireless and EMF radiation concerns.
Wireless baby monitors should be a concern for parents. Maybe that's why the baby is crying?
Out of necessity I have a cell phone, but try not to carry it too close to my body or I turn it off when not in use.
We seem to have forgotten that in the 1950s X-rays were considered harmless, and those were considerably stronger than what we use today. In the 1950s in Germany, children's feet (including mine) were x-rayed in shoe stores for every pair they tried on to see if they fit.
The radiation could be measured outside the store.
Monika Krause
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The UK EM Radiation Research Trust (RRT) recently updated and redesigned the RRT website which includes a new online EHS survey and the Save the Males poster campaign.
The website also includes our new fundraising campaign document containing our aims and objectives. Take a look at the new design here, we hope you like it:
http://www.radiationresearch.org/
Also take a look at our new Facebook and please share with your friends, colleagues and family:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/EM-Radiation-Research-Trust/141400382553499
Kind Regards,
Eileen O'Connor
Director
EM Radiation Research Trust
http://www.radiationresearch.org
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http://ec.europa.eu/health/electromagnetic_fields/policy/index_en.htm
Policy
Electric and electronic systems have become so pervasive that it is now difficult to imagine life without them. While they contribute to our quality of life in many ways, they also create electromagnetic fields (non-ionising radiation) which, when emitted at sufficient levels, may warm biological tissues (as they do in microwave ovens).
Electromagnetic fields have different frequencies - expressed in Hertz (Hz), or oscillations per second - suited to different uses, for example:
- strong static fields (0 Hz) are used in medical MRI scanning
- low frequencies (50 Hz) are used by the standard alternating electric current (AC) feeding our homes and offices
- high frequencies are used by mobile phones (900 MHz).
Until about 20 years ago, the main manmade sources of electromagnetic fields were radio and television broadcasting stations and high voltage power lines. The rapid development of mobile telecommunications and other electronic appliances since the 1990's has substantially increased the number of sources and types of electromagnetic fields we are exposed to. This has raised concerns about their possible adverse health effects.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/30/3178011.htm?section=world
Japan nuclear plant boss hospitalised
By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy, wires
Japan is now considering plans to drape special covers over the shattered nuclear reactor buildings at Fukushima. (TEPCO)
The president of Tokyo Electric Power, the company that runs Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, has been admitted to hospital.
The strain of the crisis appears to have taken its toll on Masataka Shimizu, 66, who was hospitalised with high blood pressure and dizziness.
Mr Shimizu fell ill during the Fukushima nuclear crisis and took several days off from the joint taskforce set up by the company and the government.
He has not appeared in public for more than a fortnight.
As Japan works to contain the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, the level of radioactive iodine in the sea off the stricken nuclear plant has reached its highest reading yet - more than 3,300 times the legal limit.
The Japan government is now considering plans to drape shattered nuclear reactor buildings with special covers to limit radiation and pump contaminated water into a tanker.
The embattled nation is also inviting foreign experts to help stabilise the overheating Fukushima station.
The United States has lent Japan robots that can crawl through, film and clear rubble in the blast-hit reactor buildings which humans cannot enter because of high radiation.
And France, which relies on nuclear power for three-quarters of its domestic energy needs, was sending an expert team from Areva, its state-run reactor maker, to assist TEPCO.
An official with Japan's nuclear safety agency said it was time to think outside the box.
"We are in an unprecedented situation, so we need to think about different strategies beyond what we normally think about," the official said.
Japan must pump water into reactors to stop them from overheating, even as highly radioactive runoff leaks out, halting crucial repair work and threatening the environment.
Iodine-131 detected in Pacific Ocean near the plant surged to a new high of 3,355 times the legal limit, compared to the previous top level of 1,850 times the legal maximum taken days ago.
"The figures are rising further," nuclear safety agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said.
"We need to find out as quickly as possible the cause and stop them from rising any higher."
Radioactive steam has also wafted into the air, contaminating regional farm and dairy produce, and last week led to elevated iodine levels in drinking water in Tokyo, 250 kilometres to the south west.
Japanese authorities have repeatedly stressed that none of the affected food products or water presents an immediate threat to human health, and that ocean currents will dilute radioactivity in the sea.
With crucial control room functions still disabled, experts are not sure what is happening inside the reactors, and some international experts have issued dire warnings that a meltdown may already be in progress.
