"At issue are the effects of radio-frequency and microwave emissions from the transmission resulting from the operation of 120kV transmission line located southeast of St-Hyacinthe, Quebec having a particular configuration and function. Mortality rates in the metal-clad pig barn 250 meters from the transmission line have increased from less than 1% before the line's installation in 2004 to 5-10%.

"According to EMF expert Michrowski, microwave and radio frequency emissions from the line will continue to increase, and eventually, the barn and the family home/office are likely to become unusable. Until the line became operational in 2004, White Canada Geese used to land and feed by the thousands each fall in front of the home. Dr. Michrowski believes that the reason they no longer do so is because the microwave emissions from line induce large nerve, sciatica pain. Microwave emissions are frequently employed as a technology to ward off birds from airport runways . . .

Letter to the Honourable Michael de Jong:

" . . . When I voiced my concern, B.C. Hydro said I had "no choice in the matter" and that if I refused to have one installed that they would cut off my power."

"  . . . Shortly after the installation, which was on the outside of my house nearest to my den, my 12 year old dog Trapper started to exhibit distress and odd signs of behavior which we had never experienced before. The den was where he slept since he was a 3 month old puppy and where he went to seek refuge if he was ever scared. After December 14th, he avoids that room at all costs and has spent many sleepless nights walking and pacing from room to room, trying to sleep and lifting up his head in distress countless times, and the only place he can calm down is outside on our deck, outside of the house . . . 

"When we take him to friends' homes (who don't have smart meters) to get some moments of solace, he is like our old dog, relaxed, sleeping peacefully . . . no whining, crying, pacing etc. . . and then as soon as we bring him back home, it all starts in again. . . 

"Will the Communications Industry be the Final Straw for Our Planet's Ecosystems?"

"Within my presentation to the beekeepers' association at Glastonbury in 2008, I referenced 14 articles explaining why the bees are particularly susceptible to microwave irradiation. I stressed that bees could be exposed to magnetic fields roughly 640 times more powerful than they normally encounter with the Earth's field.

"The consequences of this can be two-fold:

i) the ferromagnetic compounds within their heads, thorax and abdomen can produce hysteresis loops affecting proprioception (spatial awareness); and

ii) the very size of the bee's antennas, brain and body render it susceptible to resonance (unwanted vibrations). (9) Put simply, I would argue that the bee is disorientated with a failing immune system and like AIDS in humans will become victim of any infection(s) or infestation(s) which came along . . ."

"Orientation, navigation, and homing are critical traits expressed by organisms ranging from bacteria through higher vertebrates. Sensory systems that aid such behavior have provided key selective advantages to these groups over the past 4 billion years, and are highly evolved; magnetoreception is no exception. Across many species and groups of organisms, compelling evidence exists that the physical basis of this response is tiny crystals of single-domain magnetite (Fe3O4). It is the opinion of the authors that all magnetic field sensitivity in living organisms, including elasmobranch fishes, is the result of a highly evolved, finely-tuned sensory system based on singledomain, ferromagnetic crystals . . .

Editor:

I am the unhappy recipient of a Smart Meter in spite of my telephoned objection noted in my Hydro file in October.

I have been experiencing intermittent physical symptoms and physical distress. If it were not for the reaction of my cats, I would be tempted to think that I am just "off"; but my two youngest cats exhibited abnormal hyperactivity during the first two nights after the Smart Meter was installed; a third cat experienced acute diarrhea and vomiting for 24 hours and has not eaten in over a week.    

In a registered letter to Grey Reimer, executive vice president of transmission and distribution for BC Hydro, I stated: "Substantial scientific data exists relative to the health hazard from the neurological effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation.  The purpose of this writing is to memorialize my objection & demand to remove the device.  If you fail or refuse to do so, this writing is to serve as my notice of litigation to you."

I included a deadline replacement date of Dec 15. The Coalition to Stop Smart Meters lists symptoms of electrohypersensitivity at http://www.stopsmartmetersbc.ca/html/?page_id=179.

If you or other members of your family and pets are having similar experiences, you might follow the bread crumb trail. If you too send a letter, the paragraph quoted and a deadline date for replacement are suggested.

Jalien Shandler

Madeira Park

STUDY Cell Tower - EMF Effects on Wildlife


A review on the impact of radiofrequency radiation from wireless telecommunications on wildlife is presented. Electromagnetic radiation is a form of environmental pollution which may hurt wildlife. Phone masts located in their living areas are irradiating continuously some species that could suffer long-term effects, like reduction of their natural defenses, deterioration of their health, problems in reproduction andreduction of their useful territory through habitat deterioration. Electromagnetic radiation can exert an aversive behavioral response in rats, bats and birds such as sparrows. Therefore microwave and radiofrequency pollution constitutes a potential cause for the decline of animalpopulations and deterioration of health of plants living near phone masts.

(Related Christopher Ketcham Article: Warning: Your Cell Phone May be Hazardous to Your Health, February, 2010)

"Consider this story: It's January 1990, during the pioneer build-out of mobile phone service. A cell tower goes up 800 feet from the house of Alison Rall, in Mansfield, Ohio, where she and her husband run a 160-acre dairy farm. The first thing the Rall family notices is that the ducks on their land lay eggs that don't hatch. That spring there are no ducklings.

"By the fall of 1990, the cattle herd that pastures near the tower is sick. The animals are thin, their ribs are showing, their coats growing rough, and their behavior is weird - they're agitated, nervous. Soon the cows are miscarrying, and so are the goats. Many of the animals that gestate are born deformed. There are goats with webbed necks, goats with front legs shorter than their rear legs. One calf in the womb has a tumor the size of a basketball, another carries a tumor three feet in diameter, big enough that he won't pass through the birth canal. Rall and the local veterinarian finally cut open the mother to get the creature out alive. The vet records the nightmare in her log: "I've never seen anything like this in my entire practice... All of [this] I feel was a result of the cellular tower."

"Within six months, Rall's three young children begin suffering bizarre skin rashes, raised red "hot spots." The kids are hit with waves of hyperactivity; the youngest child sometimes spins in circles, whirling madly. The girls lose hair. Rall is soon pregnant with a fourth child, but she can't gain weight. Her son is born with birth defects - brittle bones, neurological problems - that fit no specific syndrome. Her other children, conceived prior to the arrival of the tower, had been born healthy.

"Desperate to understand what is happening to her family and her farm, Rall contacts the Environmental Protection Agency. She ends up talking to an EPA scientist named Carl Blackman, an expert on the biological effects of radiation from electromagnetic fields (EMFs) - the kind of radiofrequency EMFs (RF-EMFs) by which all wireless technology operates, including not just cell towers and cell phones but wi-fi hubs and wi-fi-capable computers, "smart" utility meters, and even cordless home phones. "With my government cap on, I'm supposed to tell you you're perfectly safe," Blackman tells her. "With my civilian cap on, I have to tell you to consider leaving."

"Blackman's warning casts a pall on the family. When Rall contacts the cell phone company operating the tower, they tell her there is "no possibility whatsoever" that the tower is the source of her ills.

"You're probably in the safest place in America," the company representative tells her.

"The Ralls abandoned the farm on Christmas Day of 1992 and never re-sold it, unwilling to subject others to the horrors they had experienced. Within weeks of fleeing to land they owned in Michigan, the children recovered their health, and so did the herd.

"We are now exposed to electromagnetic radio frequencies 24 hours a day. Welcome to the largest human experiment ever.

"Not a single one of the half-dozen scientists I spoke to could explain what had happened on the Rall farm . . .

"A divided Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that two Wabasha County farmers can seek money from an electric utility, whose stray voltage, they say, has caused their cows to give out less milk . . . The stray voltage is also believed to have killed 80 dairy cows.

"In upholding a lower court's ruling, the Supreme Court said Greg and Harlan Siewert of Zumbro Falls are free to seek damages from Northern States Power Company, the parent of Xcel Energy. When the two moved to their new farm in 1989, they noticed the milk production decreased from their 150-200 cows. Experts said it was because electrical current returned to the ground through the cows.

"It's a slow, painful tortuous death, is what it is for them," Greg Siewert told the Star Tribune in 2008. "It's like watching someone die of AIDS."

"The court rejected the utility's claim that any damages would impact electricity rates in violation of state law, especially if it had to redesign its electrical distribution system . . .

"Dairy farmers could improve milk production and quality by keeping a close check on stray electricity voltage in their milking parlours and collecting yards . . .

"And according to New Zealand service technician, Tim McDonald, mistakes as simple as using tape to connect an electric fence to collecting yard steel can generate enough voltage to upset cows when they are about to be milked.

• Symptoms of stray voltage: 
• Excessive or unusual nervousness and excessive movement
• Reluctance to enter, or eagerness, to leave the milking parlour
• Increased frequency of defecation and/or urination in the milking parlour
• Reluctance to consume water
• Poor milk let-down
• Increased milking time
• Lowered milk production
• Increased somatic cell counts and incidence of clinical mastitis