IMPORTANT:

RIGHT AWAY, to keep your analogue meter (if you are lucky enough to still have one . . .), even before you send the following letter, post the
NO TRESPASSING SIGN and/or COPE STOP SIGN, or other visible deterrent for Corix, Hydro's official installer.  Write your address and your name on the sign, along with the date.  Secure it beside your meter AND on your front door. A photo would also help to prove it was there . . . 

Hydro claims they will respect letters and signs for the time being, but very often the Corix installer is not doing so . . .

Also: DO NOT PHONE BC HYDRO to refuse a Smart Meter. This is no longer a wise use of your time, as Hydro simply uses it as an opportunity to promote their Smart Meter Program or convince you that you have no choice.  

You do have a choice. 

To register refusal of a B.C. Hydro wireless Smart Meter, the following letter is useful. It is not guaranteed that B.C. Hydro will not install, but it eliminates the "implied consent" argument that they are using to justify the installation of the meters without notification or permission.

It is recommended that you keep copies for your files, and perhaps post one by your meter.

send 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_____________

Address: ___________________________________________________________

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 ________________________________________________________________

Address: ___________________________________________________________________

Copy (Cc) to

Liberal BC Leader Christy Clark, Minister of Energy Rich Coleman, NDP Energy Critic John Horgan, BC Chief Medical Officer Perry Kendall, NDP Deputy Health Critic Sue Hammell, Green Party Federal Leader Elizabeth May, Minister of Health, Mike de Jong, NDP Health Critic Mike Farnworth, NDP BC Leader Adrian Dix, Green Party BC Leader Jane Sterk, BCRefed Leader Ingrid Voigt                       

premier@gov.bc.ca, rich.coleman.mla@leg.bc.ca, john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca, perry.kendall@gov.bc.ca, sue.hammell.mla@leg.bc.ca, elizabeth.may@greenparty.ca, mike.dejong.mla@leg.bc.ca, mike.farnworth.mla@leg.bc.ca, adrian.dix.mla@leg.bc.ca, leader@greenparty.bc.ca, ingridrefed@gmail.com 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This letter format can be accessed, downloaded, cut and pasted into your own email from:citizensforsafetechnology.org   (Smart Meter Action Kit under "Letter Alert!")

CST's "Doctor's Information Package" is now ready to use.

Citizens for Safe Technology Society has made application to the BC Human Rights Tribunal to represent all those with medical conditions who feel disadvantaged by the forced exposure within their own home or residential complex to wireless emissions beyond their control from Smart Meters.

The following "Advice about How to Obtain a Letter from Your Medical Doctor" explains how to use the "Doctor's Information Package" most effectively. The information in the package can be used to help doctors understand the issue more fully. The resulting letter can then be used as part of CST's application to the BC Human Rights Tribunal.

Once you have received a medical letter from your doctor explaining your condition and advising that you avoid smart meter emissions, please scan and send it by e-mail to Una St.Clair, CST, at una@citizensforsafetechnology.org or fax to 1-866-824-8865. Any further queries, such as a mailing address if you wish to mail your letter, can be addressed to Una St.Clair at una@citizensforsafetechnology.org.

This two-page introduction contains the following:

• Instructions on how to use this package 
• Suggestions for wording to be used by your doctor 
• Contact information

Also available on this website:  Advice about how to obtain a letter from your medical doctor

"Dear Medical Professional:

"Your patient has asked us for support in providing you with information regarding the possible health risks from non-thermal microwave radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation, recently reclassified by the WHO/IARC as a Class 2B, possible human carcinogen.

"This WHO risk category also includes lead, DDT, chloroform, and dioxane, and is relevant to all wireless devices emitting radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, including cordless phones, cell phones, IPads, Wi-Fi routers, wireless games, baby monitors, and smart meters . . .

"Many doctors have already given medical advice to their patients by way of a medical letter or note on a prescription form stating that the patient should avoid, for medical reasons, living in a residence or residential complex at which a wireless meter is operating in order to maintain their health or avoid aggravating a medical condition. This medical advice stating the health condition and advising the patient that they should avoid ongoing exposure to wireless radiofrequency and smart meter emissions will allow your patient to participate in the Human Rights Action currently underway. We are hopeful that the individual's right to protect their health as advised by their medical doctor will be upheld by the Human Rights Tribunal, and this forced exposure within their own home to undesirable microwave radiofrequency emissions will be replaced with reasonable and respectful accommodation by BC Hydro . . . "

Information categories contained in this package: 

1. Microwave Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Radiation - General 
2. Smart Meters
3. Interference with medical devices (Smart Meters Risk)
4. Children
5. EHS/ES - Electrosensitivity
6. Diabetes
7. Heart
8. Tinnitus / Microwave Hearing
9. Sleep and Insomnia
10. Infertility / Sperm Damage
11. Cell Towers - Applicable to constant low-level exposures
12. Cell Phones
13. Published Articles
14. BEES - This section included due to potential impacts on human health from loss of bees and pollination
15. Lawsuits, Scientific Statements and Letters

Experts Comment on Smart Meter Health Effects 


"The notion that non-ionizing radiation is harmless - the assumption of innocence - is no longer tenable. Research findings suggest that radiofrequency exposures are potentially carcinogenic and have other health effects. Therefore, prudent avoidance of unneeded exposures is recommended as a precautionary measure." John R. Goldsmith, M.D., M.P.H., TV Broadcast Towers and Cancer: The End of Innocence for Radiofrequency Exposures, American Journal of Industrial Medicine 32:689-692 (1997)  http://www.wirelessimpacts.org/publicpolicy.html

" . . . we are creating a potential time bomb. If smart meters are placed on every home, they will contribute significantly to our exposure and this is both unwise and unsafe." Havas report on smart meters for California Council on Science and Technology, January 17, 2011 http://www.magdahavas.com/2011/01/18/havas-report-on-smart-meters-for-ccst/

"... no positive assertion of safety can be made ... currently, the data made available by the utilities that are installing smart meters is non-existent, piecemeal and without sufficient basis to verify." Sage report on radio-frequency (RF) exposures from smart meters, February, 2011 http://sagereports.com/smart-meter-rf/?page_id=460 

"...In what are called "mesh networks," signals can also be bounced from house-meter to house-meter before reaching the final hub. So exposures will not just be from your own meter, but accumulating from possibly 100-to-500 of your neighbors' as well... That's a hefty barrage of radiation." - from "The Problems With Smart Grids" by B. Blake Levitt and Chellis Glendinning, Mar 18, 2011 http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-03-23/problems-smart-grids 

". . . When the chart is corrected to reflect the same units of measurement, it appears that smart meters are at least 100x more powerful than cell phones, which are increasingly being linked with brain tumors."  Dan Hirsch, Nuclear Policy Analyst, 21 April, 2011

http://stopsmartmeters.org/2011/04/20/daniel-hirsch-on-ccsts-fuzzy-math/

"It's one thing to be on a cell phone for one hour per day, but if you are exposed to smart meter or a cell tower, you are exposed 24/7 so the effect is cumulative." Henry Lai, PhD, Professor, Bioelectromagnetics Research Laboratory, Dept. of Bioengineering, University of Washington (Seattle) http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/emf_concerns_causing_smart_grid_interference/

"We have evidence...that exposure to radiofrequency radiation...increases the risk of cancer, increases damage to the nervous system, causes electrosensitivity, has adverse reproductive effects and a variety of other effects on different organ systems.  There is no justification for the statement that Smart Meters have no adverse health effects . . . An informed person should demand that they be allowed to keep their analog meter." 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. nosmartmeters.blogspot.com/.../public-health-physician-warns-of-smart.html -    

"The duration of the radiation seems to be more important than its strength, with the effects being cumulative as more and more cells are damaged  . . . Diem et al. (2005) also found that the effect on DNA damage was still greater if the microwaves were pulsed or modulated to carry information (modulation involves sudden stops and starts of the signal, which are even more damaging).   Smart meters, which operate 24/7 and radiate modulated microwaves intermittently, can therefore be expected to be particularly harmful to DNA."  Dr. Andrew Goldsworthy, Lecturer in Biology (retired), Imperial College London "How Smart Meters May Cause Autism And Cancer." July 2011 http://www.foodsmatter.com/es/dect_smart_meters/articles/smart_meters_autism_2011_goldsworthy.pdf 

 
"Who can support that the constitution, any constitution of any country should allow installations to take place (as the one with Smart Meters) against the rights for health of the citizens." Professor Lukas H. Margaritis, National and Kapodistrian, University of Athens, Faculty of Biology, Department of Cell Biology & Biophysics, Electromagnetic Biology Laboratory http://www.ccst.us/projects/smart2/documents/letter20.pdf

"Cells in the body react to EMF's as potentially harmful, just like any other environmental toxins, including heavy metals and toxic chemicals. The DNA in living cells recognizes electromagnetic fields at very low levels of exposure; and produces a biochemical stress response. .... The science is very strong and we should sit up and pay attention." Dr. Martin Blank, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University, quoted in  "Radiofrequency Radiation: The Invisible Hazards of "Smart" Meters " by Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri   http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26082

"It should be noted that we are not the only species at jeopardy, practically all animals and plants may be at stake . . . the inauguration of smart meters with grudging and involuntary exposure of millions to billions of human beings to pulsed microwave radiation should immediately be prohibited..." Olle Johansson, PhD., Dept. of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Sweden: "Open Letter on SmartMeters"  http://sunroomdesk.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Olle-Johansson-The-California-Council-on-Science-and-Technology-response.pdf

"The question for governmental agencies, especially those concerned with public health and safety, is that given the uncertainty, should we err on the side of safety and take the precautionary avoidance measures? Unknown does not mean safe . . . Governmental agencies for protecting public health and safety should be much more vigilant towards involuntary environmental exposures because governmental agencies are the only defense against such involuntary exposure. Given the uncertainty of the SmartMeter safety, one rational first step of public policy could be to require household consent before installation of SmartMeters. Finally, because of the nature of universal exposure, many susceptible and vulnerable populations including pregnant women and young children are unknowingly exposed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Usually, the threshold of harmful level is much lower for susceptible populations." Dr. De-Kun Li, Research Scientist, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Oakland California; Lecturer, Stanford University, Department of Health Research and Policy.           http://www.citizensforsafetechnology.org/Dr-DeKun-Li-Letter-re-Smart-Meter-Safety,5,1298

"The World Health Organization IARC Classifies Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans."  May 31, 2011        

             http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2011/pdfs/pr208_E.pdf

A position regarding the use of Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic Radiation, including WiFi, in the Workplace Researched and presented by the OECTA Provincial Health and Safety Committee January 2012

There are growing health and safety concerns regarding the widespread use of technology, such as cellular phones and wireless computer networking (Wi-Fi), which produce non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation. It is estimated that at least 3 per cent of the population has an environmental sensitivity to the radiation that is emitted by these devices and, as a result, experience serious immediate physical/biological effects when exposed.

As has been the case with other known societal health and safety issues, such as exposure to cigarette smoke or asbestos, the health effects of unprecedented long term exposure to this radiation may not be known for some time. Widespread use of, or exposure to, wireless communication devices and WiFi technology in Ontario schools, can be positioned as a potential workplace hazard.

This paper examines what is currently known about the impact of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, reviews the implications it can have for Ontario schools, including OECTA members, and makes recommendations to the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association on the issue.

Table of Contents 

• Introduction
• What is Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic Radiation?
• Health Canada's Position
• The World Health Organization and Other Jurisdictions
• Exposure Increases with Use
• Effects From Exposure
• Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity
• Environmental Sensitivity is a Disability
• Role of the Joint Health and Safety Committee
• Hazard Control and Prudent Avoidance
• Summary
• Recommendations
• Appendix - Occupational Health and Safety Act

". . . Many people do not understand the implications of Smart Meters. Since most of us have wireless devices, many people say, "what's the big deal?"   I won't go into the detail on the issues of RF radiation that these Smart Meters generate. Wendy Mesley of the CBC National stated that 60% of Insurance carriers refuse to insure cell phone manufacturers and other wireless carriers for health lawsuits based on these devices. It's also interesting to note that in the United States U.S. power companies and other providers have been granted immunity from future lawsuits that may arise over health and safety concerns posed by Smart Meters. How convenient. Maybe Mr. Olynyk can tell us if this is the case with B.C. Hydro . . .  I urge to all to fight this Legislated Tyranny to preserve what democracy we still have in this country."

PRESS RELEASE

"Citizens for Safe Technology Society (CST) has launched a Human Rights action against BC Hydro requesting accommodation of individuals refusing a wireless smart meter for health reasons. These are persons with a variety of health concerns ranging from cancer to heart problems, from seizures to electrosensitivity, and who have medical letters from their doctors requesting BC Hydro accommodate their health conditions by allowing an analogue meter to remain.

"On January 19, 2012, The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) officially stated its opposition and request for an immediate moratorium on the installation of wireless "smart meters" based on a scientific assessment of the current medical literature. Their letter states, "Chronic exposure to wireless radiofrequency radiation is a preventable environmental hazard that is sufficiently well documented to warrant immediate preventative public health action." The AAEM confirms that public health standards are inadequate and obsolete and cannot be used to protect the public from chronic, low intensity radiation exposures that raise credible questions about genetic and cellular effects, hormonal effects, male fertility, blood/brain barrier damage and increase in certain types of cancers. The AAEM warn that children are at heightened risk for "altered brain development, and impaired learning and behaviour" from such wireless exposure.  http://aaemonline.org/images/CaliforniaPublicUtilitiesCommission.pdf    

"CST agrees with the AAEM that physicians have an obligation to urge precaution when sufficient scientific and medical evidence suggests health risks which may negatively impact the health of vulnerable individuals and groups, and potentially affect large populations, as is the case with BC Hydro's wireless "Smart Meter Program."

"CST calls upon physicians and medical experts in BC to support public health and the Human Rights action by recommending an immediate moratorium on "smart meter" installation until these serious public health issues are resolved. We ask that they support patients seeking relief from involuntary and forced exposure to wireless "smart meter" emissions within their homes by requesting that BC Hydro accommodate them with an analogue meter, without additional cost or penalty. http://citizensforsafetechnology.org/Doctors-Information-Package-for-medical-conditions-connected-with-EHS,77,1766
  
"The emissions given off by wireless "smart meters" have been classified by the World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a Possible Human Carcinogen.

Una St.Clair
Executive Director, una@citizensforsafetechnology.org

"The Present risk of electromagnetic fields, such as mobile phone radiation, is scientifically untenable. In the official assessments from the World Health Organization (WHO) of the modern, man-made electromagnetic fields' health risks, epidemiology (the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a society) has had a strongly dominant position.

"From the point of view of theory of science it is not justifiable to establish safety mainly on epidemiology because this is a so-called "soft" approach with significant weaknesses that prevent reliable risk assessment. There are many examples of how epidemiological methods have lead to wrong conclusions . . .

Out of great concern for the health of our fellow human beings do we - as established physicians of all fields, especially that of environmental medicine - turn to the medical establishment and those in public health and political domains, as well as to the public . . .

" . . . Above all, we are, as doctors, the advocates for our patients. In the interest of all those concerned, whose basic right to life and freedom from bodily harm is currently being put at stake, we appeal to those in the spheres of politics and public health. Please support the following demands with your influence:

• New health-friendly communications techniques, given independent risk assessments before their introduction and, as immediate measures and transitional steps: 

• Stricter safety limits and major reduction of sender output and HFMR pollution on a justifiable scale, especially in areas of sleep and convalescence 

• A say on the part of local citizens and communities regarding the placing of antennae (which in a democracy should be taken for granted) 

• Education of the public, especially of mobile telephone users, regarding the health risks of electromagnetic fields 

• Ban on mobile telephone use by small children, and restrictions on use by adolescents 

• Ban on mobile telephone use and digital cordless (DECT) telephones in pre-schools, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, events halls, public buildings and vehicles (as with the ban on smoking) 

• Mobile telephone and HFMR-free zones (as with auto-free areas) 

• Revision of DECT standards for cordless telephones with the goal of reducing radiation intensity and limiting actual use time, as well as avoiding the biologically critical HFMR pulsation 

• Industry-independent research, finally with the inclusion of amply available critical research results and our medical observations

If you suffer due to Electrosensitivity or Electrohypersensitivity and could provide a one-page description of your situation that could be shared (anonymously if you prefer) for the purposes of possible public action and/or legal action, please email wrscouncil@aol.com.

Please include: 

• any reason(s) you attribute your sensitivity to exposure to electromagnetic radiation; 
  
• whether or not your physician has diagnosed ES or EHS;  
  
• one-page (or shorter) description of your situation; and 
  
• your preferred method of contact if you would consider providing more indepth information now or at some time in the future.