Dear Editor,

Your correspondent (a BC Hydro PR person, one presumes) deludes himself about the “benefits” of smart meters [Digital future has bounty of benefits, May 1 Letters, TIMES].

Any benefits will accrue to industry only.

For you and me, the smart meter bounty will include unlimited taxation through time-of-use billing, invasion of privacy, and reckless endangerment of our health.

Hydro is mounting, on our homes and without permission, a device emitting radiation rated as a “possible carcinogen” by the ultra-conservative World Health Organization. In the true Nazi spirit, “There is no opt out,” says Gary Murphy, the American running the program, not even for the disabled or chronically ill.

So great is their fear of any opposition getting traction before the installation blitzkrieg is complete, Hydro will not tolerate a single citizen refusing the meter.

How Canadian of Mr. Murphy!

The only public health agency to do a independent and unbiased investigation of the radiation levels (Santa Cruz County, Daniel Hirsch, UCSC) found the smart meter to generate approximately 50 to 450 times the whole body radiation exposure of a cell phone (at three-foot and one-foot distances).

When Hydro tells you it transmits for “less than a minute a day,” it omits the critical fact that that is comprised of millisecond pulses every few seconds, a 24/7/365 relentless barrage of radiation. Think X-ray every day for the rest of your life.

The adverse effects of prolonged low-level radiation are well documented, however Canada’s Third World standard (Safety Code 6) offers no protection – not even acknowledgement of danger. Wireless is, in essence, an unregulated industry, and global corporations see their chance to steal everything in sight. This obviously includes our timid political class.

The meter itself is just the start, to be followed by wireless water and gas meters and smart meter “hubs” (basically, cellphone towers courtesy of the Telus “the future is friendly” people) in your neighbourhood.

Next you’ll need new wireless appliances.

Enjoy the bounty, everyone.

Ron McNutt, Maple Ridge