By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Saturday, August 06, 2011 12:30 PM

Prince George, B.C.

When Marina Jang first heard about BC Hydro’s smart metering program she was encouraged to hear the key phrases: ‘clean’, ‘green’, and ‘energy-saving’.

Her initial reaction has changed to one of mounting concern as she digs deeper into growing criticism, world-wide, of the meters and their implications.

And now the Prince George resident finds herself in an unfamiliar position, as she attempts to galvanize the community to ‘say no’ to smart meters until those implications – health and otherwise – can be fully assessed. She realizes time is her enemy, as Prince George is one of two cities – Richmond being the other – where BC Hydro has chosen to roll out the meters. Hydro’s Media Relations Spokesperson, Jennifer Young, could not provide the number of meters already installed in our city when contacted by Opinion 250 yesterday – as of July 27th, it was ‘less than 200’ – and said no one would be available to discuss the program until Monday.

Jang says a red flag first went up when she received an emailed article from a health website in the U.S., raising concerns about the danger of prolonged exposure to radio frequency radiation from the meters. A page on BC Hydro’s website entitled, “Ten straight facts you’ll want to know about the program,” says, “The exposure to radio frequency from a smart meter – over its 20-year life span – is equivalent to a single 30-minute cell phone call.”

But Jang says comparing cell phone use to the smart meters is like comparing apples to oranges. A nuclear scientist who heads a non-profit group on nuclear policy matters in the U.S. agrees. In fact, Dr. Daniel Hirsch says a study that California’s utility, PG&E, used to make a similar assertion was flawed because it compared exposure to just the ear in the case of the cellphone to whole-body exposure with the smart meter, when both should have been looked at in terms of whole body exposure. Speaking with smartmeterdangers.org in April, Dr. Hirsch says there was also an inaccurate comparison in terms of the cumulative effects of the exposure and when corrected for those two factors, “a smart meter turns out to be roughly 100 times more cumulative exposure than a cell phone.”

Hirsch says the health risks of such exposure are really unknown at this point in time. “It could turn out to be significant, it could turn out to be insignificant.” But he adds, “It’s a large experiment on a very large population and a big chunk of that experiment is an involuntary one.” He points out people choose to use cell phones, while they’re being given no choice in having smart meters installed on their homes.

Being a health-conscious mother of three, these ‘unknowns’ are gravely concerning to Jang, “I’ve read and watched testimonies of people’s bees disappearing and animals dying who are near the new smart meter. How is this affecting us humans?”, says Jang. “All one has to do is Google smart meter dangers to find countless reports of health and privacy concerns.”

“The privacy issue, I kind of ignored at first,” says Jang. “And then I realized what the implications were: that BC Hydro could get information from my home, it’s almost like a camera into my home of what appliances I would be using at what time.”

“And what will they do with this information? And what about it being wireless – who can possibly hack into? And what will they do with this information?” Jang queries. (Opinion 250’s Ben Meisner has raised concerns on this front and BC’s Privacy Commissioner recently announced she was launching an investigation into this aspect of the smart meter program.)

Jang has been in contact with the group, Citizens For Safe Technology in the Lower Mainland, for suggestions and guidance. CFST Executive Director, Una St. Clair sought and won support from councillors in Langley Township on July 25th to send a letter to both the federal and provincial governments requesting a moratorium on smart meter installations.

Jang says BC’s Clean Energy Act, passed in May of last year, mandated that BC Hydro replace every meter in the province with smart meters by 2012, while stripping the BC Utilities Commission of the power to review the project. She wants independent, third-party review and full public consultation of the project.

She’s passed on some internet links she’s discovered to Mayor Dan Rogers and city councillors and is considering appearing before council to request support for a moratorium.

“Again, I’ve never done this before – I’m not a scientist, I’m not an electrician, I’m not a doctor – but I would love to hear from people who have more expertise in these areas because I’m sure they would recognize the implications of these smart meters,” says the concerned city resident.

Jang would like anyone who shares her concerns to contact her at [email protected]

http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/21054/1/local+concern+over+smart+meter+installations=