To the Editor,
It is the plan of power and energy authorities worldwide to replace current hydro, gas and water meters with wireless devices using radio frequency waves to monitor and transmit information about each household’s consumption.
These ‘smart meters’ are enthusiastically promoted by governments and industry as a ‘green initiative’, supposedly enabling utility companies to efficiently monitor consumption during peak and down times, and encourage wise use of energy and resources.
All of this sounds ever so positive on the surface. However, these radio waves, transmitting 24/7, bombard homes and neighbourhoods with radiation, which affects all living systems, particularly electrohypersensitive persons, children and pregnant women, persons with heart arrhythmia, anyone with a compromised immune system and others who rely on medical implants or equipment.
The costs of installing the new wireless meters is huge – nearly $1 billion – their accuracy is debatable, and there is much controversy about their effectiveness in decreasing power use, and in increasing power costs to consumers.
Government employees who now read the disk-style meters total approximately 3,000 men and women in B.C. alone. Digital smart meters will effectively eliminate these jobs.
So as always, the question we really need to ask is: who benefits?
Chris Stafford
Nanaimo