Dear Editor:
Last week’s letter by Hans Karow deserves a response from an informed citizen (I am holding a M.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics and worked with various types of electro-magnetic energy for over 20 years).
The claim that smart meters cause danger to our health has been refuted many times by scientists, engineers and government task forces around the globe.
Unfortunately, there still are people like Mr. Karow and Mr. Flynn who ignore scientific evidence and cause anxiety among uninformed citizens.
Mr. Flynn, on whose technical expertise Mr. Karow is basing his article, retired from the Canadian military in 1978. At that time, cell phones, the internet and remote controls did not yet exist. Steve Jobs was selling his first Apple computers out of his parents’ garage. The Canadian military was still stocking vacuum tubes to repair their radio equipment.
The reason why Mr. Flynn’s PowerPoint presentation was never rebutted was simply because the B.C. Utility Commission deemed his expertise “not relevant” and his evidence frequently “incorrect, exaggerated and/or unsubstantiated” (see http://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/225052202.html?mobile=true).
Smart Meters are installed outside our homes and transmit low level, very short radio signals for one to two seconds per day.
Smart meters generate less radio energy over 10 years than a cell phone transmits during a single 15-minute call.
Even more important is that radio energy drops very quickly with distance.
If baseballs lost energy as quickly as radio waves, even the best pitcher could not pitch a ball more than five meters. Then it would drop to the ground. So the home base would have to be a couple of meters from the mound and the outfielders could nearly touch each other.
Perhaps not a bad thing because then we could play baseball in the IOOF Hall year-around. The only draw-back is that one inning could take several days because Smart Meters transmit (pitch) only three to four times a day.
It is unfortunate that the Summerland Review decided to publish Mr. Karow’s letter without trying to put it into context. The debate about smart meters has been going on for years and there are excellent resources that would help understand the matter (see the Final Report issued by the BC Utilities Commission on July 23, 2013 bcuc.com/Documents/Proceedings/2013/DOC_35184_C-7-13_FBC-AMI-ProjectDecision-WEB.pdf). If the concerns raised in Mr. Karow’s letter were proven to be valid, then I could only suggest stopping the use of microwave ovens, cell phones and iPads: they could kill you instantly.
Henry Sielmann
Summerland