Dear Editor:
Regarding NIMBYism Colours Cell Tower Opposition (Nov. 20, North Shore News):
Sometimes the not-in-my-backyard reaction is well founded. We all have a right to safe and healthy lives. The proliferation of wireless radiating devices, from Wi-Fi, to smart meters of all sorts (hydro, gas, water) to cell towers in the middle of residential areas is an increasing and cumulative health hazard. Read the Bioinitiative Study of 2012 (see citizensforsafetechnology.org). In the younger age groups brain cancers have actually skyrocketed.
What is wrong with keeping your cellphone off unless you are well away from communities? It’s illegal to drive and talk/text anyway. We have wired all the computers on the faster and safer fibre optic cables in our home. We have several landline phones. They work well, and are reliable. Not all new things are an improvement.
The real problem in Canada is that our safety standards via Safety Code 6 are archaic and don’t protect either human or animal health. The 2000 Salzburg Resolution recommended allowable radiation at one tenth of a microwatt per square centimetre. Our permissible standards are 1,000 microwatts per square centimetre! Their cellphones work. We could have our cake, and eat it too, it seems, if the will was there!
In the meantime the federal government is planning to sell a new 700 MHz band to the highest bidder. This would be even stronger, and more penetrating than the existing cell tower wave lengths. Maybe Rogers will win. Who knows? Do you want to be a guinea pig?
I don’t.
Eva Lyman
West Vancouver
