Editor:
Re: Don’t pander to tech opponents, Dec. 13 letters.
Letter-writer Emile Fuchs should provide more updated and accurate information – 2004 was a long time ago in our technological world.
In May 2011, the World Health Organization reclassified Microwave electromagnetic radiation as a class 2B carcinogenic risk – the same category as DDT and lead. This classification includes all wireless information receiving and transmitting technology, like the smart meters. This does not include things like radios and TVs, which have been around for a long time.
Please read the independent research, not industry-based research. There is a vast difference.
Our schools, parks and homes are being flooded with this technology from an unregulated industry.
Just because it is widespread doesn’t make it right or safe. We choose to have technology in our home that is wired not wireless.
Our mayors had the courage to stand up and vote yes for a moratorium on smart meters and it is being ignored. Do we live in a democracy or a corpocracy?
There are many reasons to be concerned. Health. Cost. Privacy.
As far as I can see no one is pandering to wireless-tech opponents. Quite the opposite; wireless “smart” meters are being forced onto every home in B.C., whether we like it or not.
Ian Kobayashi, White Rock
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“Pander” Definition: “to gratify or indulge.” Wireless tech “opponents” are neither gratified nor indulged in the Peace Arch News.
Listening, thinking, being open to respectful, balanced debate and participating in solutions is not pandering. In all fairness, we need editors, publishers and citizens who aren’t afraid to go there.
There are pressing reasons for sober second thought about wireless technology. Yet, because of the Canadian tendency to trust and comply, most of us are oblivious to its personal and social effects.
Wireless smart meters are being installed right now in White Rock. Ultimately, if all goes as planned, they will be deployed in every home and business in B.C., regardless of legitimate reasons for choice. They are corporate money-making tools that, if unregulated, could profoundly impact everyone.
Strange that this has still been largely unacknowledged and unopposed, due mainly to a lack of basic, balanced information.
BC Hydro, with its $8.6 million promotions budget, says whatever will advance their agenda. Citizens trying to educate the public must rely on volunteers, word of mouth, donations and unbiased news sources, of which there are few.
To raise awareness is not pandering. Democracy needs brave, intelligent voices to speak up, proactive citizens to listen and act, and brave editors to present, ethically, both sides of issues.
Let us not be victims of ignorance, which is seldom blissful.
Barry Belec, White Rock