Thanks but no thanks: I prefer to opt out

As you may realize, I am an older Canadian. In the past I would have trusted ‘officials,’ but now, because of my age and so many situations were that trust was violated, I know all too well that justice and fairness are only available to the well informed.

Now, as much as I love real books, (I currently have 3 on the go), as well as real libraries, I do take advantage of the easy access to the world wide web. As a family therapist I was also trained to be a social scientist, who looks objectively at the data, understands statistics, probability and projections.

I am reasonably skeptical of assurances from agencies such as Health Canada. Look at their track record for drugs, food and environmental effects. A case in point is the recent media review of imported seafood (shrimp) that indicated they were proverbially asleep at the switch.

Now our power monopoly wants us to accept Smart Meters. They have the UARB’s approval to charge consumers if they do not want this technology. The extra charges a month added to a person who opts out which may very well be that life sustaining medication, food and heat will be compromised.

You will be told that there is no real evidence that smart meters have an effect on health, but we were told Thalidomide was okay and wind turbine syndrome was a myth. We now know that was not accurate. Extremes yes, but you get my point.

Submissions to the NS UARB, from respected sources stated, “We know that a significant proportion of society is consciously sensitive to electromagnetic field emissions, and an another is not consciously so, yet can suffer malaise without attributing the cause to be at least partially caused by such emissions: such as memory and attention, impaired motor function, cardiac arrhythmias and arrest, dizziness, irritability, insomnia, fatigue, difficulty in breathing, chest pain, and indigestion, among others. Biological effects on humans such as infants, pregnant women, the sick and the elderly are not implicitly considered by the federal guidelines. Consider alone that by 2021, by when AMI could have been in place, the proportion of older persons (65+) in Nova Scotia would be about 16%.”

We also know the Emera entity, NS Power’s parent, is all about profit over people. It seems they habitually defer maintenance, which I feel puts their employees at risk in an outage. I also have personal experience of a situation where they were extremely disrespectful to a consumer when it was their faulty infrastructure. Their unresponsive actions put a former hard working, retired consumer at great health, safety and financial risk. It took five years and dogged persistence to get a reasonable response from one of their employees who I must acknowledge was truly delightful.

My other concern is privacy/security. Reports with respect to the intrusions associated with ‘smart devices’ like Amazon Echo and Echo Dot have demonstrated those privacy implications. Smart meters can do more than monitor your electricity use. If you have a smart meter to monitor your electricity usage, there is a potential for hackers to use this technology. Hackers could get into your meter, monitor your power usage and determine when your home is vacant for extended periods of time.

Many moons ago, one of my undergrad courses was Utopian literature. This is so reminiscent of George Orwell’s Nineteen EightyFour, often published as 1984.

Let us look at this objectively. Since other international academics, and jurisdictions have significant questions, perhaps we should as well. The facts are not clear with the research with respect to health impacts.

For now I am opting put of the smart meter program. herronkristyella@gmail.com