Just the facts, please

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Based on the number of letters to the editor recently published on smart meters, I feel obliged to comment

I am a professional electrical engineer with over 30 years of experience and have no affiliation whatsoever with BC Hydro.

The opposition to smart meters is not based on faulty reasoning, only faulty science. BC Hydro has done a terrible job of promoting the use of these devices and has caused a backlash that seems to have taken on a life of its own.

For example, the WHO is nearly always quoted as stating that EMR (electromagnetic radiation) produced by smart meters is carcinogenic. Of course, if you actually read it, this is not what the WHO literature states and there is no specific reference to smart meters. It’s like everything in life, if you climb a cell phone tower and stay immersed in the EMR for a few hours you probably won’t be having any more children.

On the other hand, the minute amount of radiation produced by a smart meter is far less than anything else each of us are exposed to everyday in the form of cell phones, tablets, wireless networks, etc.

Another example is the claim that the “burst” of energy from the meter (read signal generation) travels throughout the home wiring and may come out of the outlets as some sort of deadly force. Not so. The signal is way too small and using an electric heating pad plugged into your wiring will give you thousands of times more EMR than a smart meter ever will.

There are many causes to fight for to protect our environment and hold large corporations accountable for their unsafe actions. This isn’t one of them.

Anthony Grice

Parksville