Jackson for Council 2011

Smart Meters. Worse and Worse.

This is a bit of a long post, but I have more information to share with you.

Last week I found what I thought was a heartening report from an independent study about smart meters which concluded:

“In summary, with respect to Industry Canada ICES 001 regulations for BC Hydro’s Smart Meters, there was a margin of 14 dB below legal radio interference limits but at only 20 cm from the meter; well below the requirements. With respect to ’s safe exposure limits, the un-averaged peak readings were only 0.002 percent of the safe legal limit.

“The investigation demonstrated that as tested in the purported worst case scenario, BC Hydro’s Smart Meters pose no threat of illegal radio interference, or health hazards according to Canadian regulations.”

I have since had my relief blown out of the water by the following:

This is the same Rob Stirling report which has already been identified by Michelle Khong to contain a huge (three orders of magnitude!) error in the field strength of the bank of smart meters measured in volts per meter. Apparently this Professional Engineer has trouble distinguishing between millivolts and microvolts.

The Stirling report concluded that the peak radio field detected at 20 cm from center of the network of 10 transmitting Smart Meters was 80 dBuV/m which he then converted to 10 microvolts per meter. As can be calculated from the following website: http://www.compeng.com.au/emc_conversion_tables_field_strength_calculator.aspx , 80 dBuV/m converts to 0.01 volts per meter (V/m), which is equivalent to 10 millivolts per meter, NOT 10 microvolts per meter (an underestimation of 1000 times, or THREE ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE.) The report goes on to calculate this as a percentage of Canada’s Safety Code 6 guideline of 49 V/m and incorrectly arrives at 0.002 percent. The correct figure is 0.02 percent because Stirling makes another error using his own incorrect figure when calculating the percentage.

In fact, throughout the article, out of four uses of the unit “microvolts,” three are incorrect and should have “millivolts” substituted to correct them. Each of these is out by a factor of 1000, or three orders of magnitude. Only the third instance at the top of page 6 is correct. Regardless of his measurements and how they compare to Safety Code 6, the whole analysis of safety is nonsense because Safety Code 6 has been demonstrated to be inappropriate with respect to the safety of exposure to microwave radiation since it only considers thermal effects and not non-thermal biological effects which have been proven by peer-reviewed science.

The BC Center for Disease Control released a report in June of last year which reports vastly higher field strength readings than Stirling’s at the same measurement distance of 20 cm. Converting The BC CDC measurement of 0.02 mW/cm2 to V/m using the previously mentioned calculator yields 8.68 V/m. This is 868 times the field strength reported by Stirling.

To summarize, the Stirling report:

1) indicates a field strength over 800 times less than the result measured by the BC Center for Disease Control;
2) has at least four technical errors, three of which are off by a factor of 1000, putting the entire analysis into question;
3) evaluates the safety of the smart meter’s microwave field strength using Canada’s Safety Code 6, an outdated, inappropriate standard that only considers thermal effects without considering non-thermal biological effects which have been proven by peer-reviewed science.

Hugh Hinskens, B.Sc. Physics, EET

Here’s a a table that will blow you away in terms of international standards–600 µwatts/cm2 is basically Code 6!

Microwave Exposure Limists

US Nuclear Expert Dr. Daniel Hirsch: The Cumulative radiation emitted by Smart Meters are at least 100 time more powerful than a cell phone.

Comments on the Draft Report by the California Council on Science and Technology
“Health Impacts of Radio Frequency from Smart Meters”

And here is an email from Ted Olnyk head of BC Hydro, to Richard Hughes about how to not get a Smart Meter installed for now.

From: Olynyk, Ted [mailto:Ted.Olynyk@bchydro.com]
Sent: January-17-12 4:26 PM
Subject: Re: Do Not Install

Richard

For do not installs you need to one or both of these:

Put a note on your meter indication your desire

And/ or

An email to smartmeters@bchydro.com with your address

Hope things are well.

Ted
Ted Olynyk
BC Hydro

Smart Meters. Big Brother Coming to Duncan?

Smart Meter Installation

“Meter exchanges in your community will commence in January 2012 and are scheduled to be completed by the end of May 2012,” Olynyk’s letter read. “BC Hydro customers in your community will receive a letter a few weeks prior to their meter upgrade. The letter will notify customers when their meters will be exchanged and what they can expect during the process.” This is from the letter from Ted Olnyk of BC Hydro to Mayor Phil Kent.

This despite the fact that council voted unanimously for a moratorium on Smart Meters for the city of Duncan.

We have been given an ultimatum. “Accept the Smart Meter or go off the grid.” How democratic is that?

Personally, I am not too concerned about the alleged health impacts. But I cannot believe that this is not the foot in the door of Time of Day billing. Their own website states, “While smart meters are installed across B.C., rate structures will remain the same. If voluntary or mandatory time-of-use rates are considered in the future, they’ll be implemented only after extensive public consultation and an independent regulatory review. ” Oh yeah.

The program which is reported to be costing $1 Billion in total has awarded the very first smart meter contract — $73 million to install up to 1.8 million of the new devices — went to a company with close ties to the BC Liberals. Indeed, that company is directly connected to a BC Hydro director.

Read the full article here.

Smart Meters are Coming Whether We Like it or Not

Smart Meter Coming to Duncan

Mayor Phil Kent has just received a letter from Ted Olnyk of BC Hydro that installation of Smart Meters in Duncan will begin January 2012 and are scheduled to be completed by the end of May 2012.

The letter states that BC Hydro customers in our community will receive a letter “a few weeks prior to their meter upgrade.” The letter will notify customers when their meters will be exchanged and what they can expect during the process.

I am not sure what his definition of a few weeks is, since January is one week away. You can read the letter here.

And now that the election is behind us

I look forward to working with returning councillors Tom Duncan and Joe Thorne as well as the three new councillors, Michelle Bell, Michelle Staples and Martin Barker. I think the next three years will see a lot of changes.

Good bye to Jesse Winfrey, Ray Cadorette and Paul Fletcher, all of whom worked very hard over the past years.

I look forward to 2012, our centennial year, and to seeing and talking to you all.

One more sleep until the election

Today is the last day all candidates can be out on the streets campaigning. I expect to spend a couple of hours downtown.

I support Phil Kent for Mayor. I believe he is the one with the real vision for Duncan. He understands the process. He is thoughtful and respectful. He is inclusive.

This election has been marred by invective that I have never witnessed before and which I never want to hear again. On Saturday night we will have a new council, one that will have to learn to work together as a team, no matter who gets elected.

I believe that is far more likely to happen if Phil Kent is re-elected.

The alternative is unthinkable.

Tomorrow, we present ourselves to the residents of Sunridge Assisted Living

I am looking forward to tomorrow afternoon when we go to Sunridge Assisted Living to do pretty much what we did yesterday. It is wonderful to talk to people who have actually thought about issues, ask intelligent questions and best of all feed you tea and cookies.

Thank you to the friendly residents of Wedgewood House

We got to meet a large group of intelligent, very interested and engaged residents of Wedgewood house yesterday. They served light refreshments while we sat at tables talking to each other. It was delightful and I even met a couple of old friends.

One more week to go!

Thanks to Kevin Rothbauer at the Cowichan Valley Citizen for the great article about my candidacy.

This has been a long haul, I have been delivering fliers and door knocking since early October. I am certain that most people are sick of seeing us and just want all the signs to disappear. Note to self: If elected, bring forward a resolution limiting the number of signs posted by any one candidate. It is getting ridiculous and some intersections look like junk yards. The city is one square mile. No one needs 300 signs.

Closed Doors and Self Serving Agendas?

Misha Koslovsky’s letter to the Cowichan Newsleader yesterday was not from a disinterested, outraged taxpayer. Misha is Paul Fletcher’s Official Agent. While this is not strictly against the Local Government Election Act, it is very poor form indeed and not fair on the Newsleader.

Endorsed by the Nanaimo Duncan & District Labour Council

Thank you to the Labour Council for their endorsement. They are right, municipalities do matter and local government impacts the lives of everyone more directly than any other level.

I spent two hours yesterday up in Centennial Heights, door knocking and dropping off fliers. People are very generous with their time and ideas.