Westend wireless safety hazard

I live in the Westend in Vancouver at 1395 Beach Avenue at Sunset Beach, near our beautiful Stanley Park. I have been living at the same address for 22 years.

On March 10, the property owner posted a notice in the elevator and in the lobby advising that the building would be undergoing a utility upgrade project, but gave no specifics. A retired lawyer friend directed me to Vancouver City Hall. I found that two separate permits were issued in February of 2008 to Bonniehon Enterprises Ltd., the owner of the property, with its mailing address located in Montreal, QC, at Le Complex Desjardins. An electrical permit was issued to Mott Electric for “7 roof antennas” for cell phones and the second for wireless internet. I later learned that the project involving Bell Mobility would have an electric power service of 200 kilowatts. It appears there is provision for a standby diesel generator for power when BC Hydro fails. Carbon monoxide monitors are a requirement on the permit, presumably for tenants to be forewarned of being overcome by diesel fumes, as the standby generator will be tightly nested by surrounding apartments.

I have serious concerns because Canada has no regulations in place to protect the environment which, in this case, includes humans of all ages including nursing mothers, from the effects of electromagnetic radiation, and this project will be an equal or higher capacity than the maximum 150 kilowatts broadcast that FCC allows on remote mountain tops. (The permit, I am told by an electrical engineer, is for 200 amps 600 volts three phase which computes to 200 kilowatts). Surrounding apartments are as much as 10 floors higher. The City of Vancouver is complicit in that they did not even require the applicant to give public notice to surrounding tenants. Also federal, provincial and city elections are all less than 12 months away.

I further understand that Health Canada appears to be relying on junk science to determine that there is no “… convincing scientific evidence that human exposure to RF fields below the limits outlined in Safety Code 6 produce any adverse human health effects.” Yet Dr. George Carlo, a leading authority on the dangers of radio frequency radiation, says that wireless technology is the most serious threat that we will face in this lifetime, in terms of our health.

It appears to me that what is being done by the owner of 1395 Beach Avenue and by the Electrical Contractor Mott Electric and by Bell Mobility is akin to a terrorist act against the tenants of 1395 Beach Avenue and surrounding residents in the Westend. For profit, the owner of the property has put everyone at risk, knowing that the heavy equipment in the indoor garage of the property is hazardous, as the outside parking lot above, when it rains, leaks into the inside parking lot, where the heavy equipment is being installed.

One has to question whether or not the property owner, along with others involved in the project, is keeping the project a secret from the tenants and the Westend community because they know the intense radiation from microwave antennas poses a serious threat to public health and the environment.

I would like to see the project stop, forthwith, and the only possible way, if the city does not assist, is through some wide-ranging publicity.

Tina Zanetti, Vancouver

Doctor pushes for fewer drugs

Thanks for publishing Dr. Cassels’ excellent articles on statins and anti-depressants. As a Victoria physician, I’d like to say that not all physicians are fooled by pharmaceutical advertising. I, for one, spend a lot of my time trying to encourage people to reduce their intake of many of these drugs. But it’s an uphill slog, especially now with CDM (Chronic Disease Management) guidelines encouraging their widespread and almost indiscriminate use.

Michael Greenwood, Victoria

Who can afford to get old?

Alan Cassels’ article “Big Profits in Drugging Seniors” really struck a cord (April 2008). I’ve been working in the health care field as a residential care aide for 14 years. When I started in the industry, I worked strictly in homecare. After a few years’ hiatus, I am now back in the field but this time I work for an agency which sends me out to long-term care facilities.

I, too, am interested in justice for anyone being taken advantage of. While I would be the first to defend almost all the healthcare workers I have met along the way, most of whom do great work despite staff shortages, (most places I’ve been to have this problem) too much overtime and heavy work loads, I am also saddened to hear comments like, “oh don’t worry, they’ll be a lot easier to handle once their med’s kick in” and “it would make my job so much easier if he/she was medicated.”

I am just a care aide, and know little about what is and what is not appropriate in terms of medications for the treatment of the elderly. I am not a big believer in the whole pharmaceutical machine and have always believed that is mostly all about the money anyway. Now, after having read Cassels’ article and seeing the connection between developers, “big pharma” and greedy owners, I am even angrier.

I had been talking to some of the residents at one of the private facilities I have been working at recently and was amazed to find out that the average rent for a room there is $5,000 per month. I can’t recall if meals were included, but at some other places they are extra (as are many other things such as meals in your room if you are too ill to come down to the dining room). I also discovered from some of the residents who had been there for a few years that many of the things they had before are now either non-existent or have been cut back sharply. The quality and variety of the meals provided (the kitchen staff do the best they can with the supplies they are given), many outings and recreational trips, in-house entertainment and recreation/fitness programs are a few examples of these changes.
Some of these people will end up spending their life savings in a few short years living with these expenses. Just where does this money go? After their money is gone what will happen to them? Where will they live?

It seems to me that many of the owners of these facilities are only in it for the money and compassion be damned. Who’s looking out for these people who have come to the end of their lives only to be preyed upon by money-hungry, unscrupulous owners and big business?

Kevin Porter, Victoria

Grow food, make friends

Thank you so much for printing Carolyn Herriot’s article “Contributing to our Local Food Supply” (March 2008). Our community in the Cowichan Valley is currently working on a food security plan. In public consultation, we have found that many people are keen to learn more about becoming more independent regarding their food. If anyone has those skills (gardening, canning, jam making etc.) please don’t be shy about offering to teach someone.

Susan Smith, Cowichan Valley

Emerson misfires with RADARSAT

[This letter was originally sent to David Emerson, Vancouver-Kingsway MP.]
I’m writing as a Canadian citizen who is outraged by the behaviour of the federal government of Canada for its continued disregard for the best interests of the people in favour of the best interests of corporations.

I am referring to the latest example I have encountered of a corporation and its shareholders being placed in higher regard than the taxpayers of this country. In the February 2008 issue of Common Ground magazine, a beacon of independent alternative media, there is an article entitled “Canada Sells RADARSAT to US Weapons and Space Industry.” For the complete article, please see commonground.ca/iss/199/cg199_radarsat.shtml. In this article, author Richard Sanders describes how this satellite, designed for “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,” cost Canadian taxpayers $900,000,000. This is money that could have been used to fund health care, education, environmental protection or any number of worthy causes, for which we’re told there is no money.

However, after paying the better part of a billion dollars, Canadian citizens did not benefit one bit. Who reaped the rewards of this investment? MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates of Richmond, BC; RADARSAT was handed over to the company in a secret contract with the government of Canada. Then, on January 8 of this year, MDA announced that they had sold its Information Systems and Geospatial Services operation, including the publicly funded RADARSAT as well as the much-lauded Canadarm, to Alliant Techsystems of Minneapolis for $1.325 billion in cash. So while the shareholders of MDA had a great day on the stock market, in actual fact, Canadian taxpayers had just handed a US weapons giant $900,000,000.

Where does this begin to sound democratic? Which aspect of this demonstrates a government that is “for the people”? This is clearly a government working against its own people to win the friendship or approval of the US military-industrial complex with its pro-corporate, pro-privatization agenda.

I’m ashamed of Canada’s complicity in US war mongering, and this handing over of some of our best technology further decreases our ability to stand tall as global peacekeepers, a misconception that is becoming more and more transparent.

You were elected to represent the people of Vancouver-Kingsway and it is your mandate to act in our best interests. Allowing the misuse and misdirection of my tax dollars to aid US military corporations is a gross violation of that mandate.

Catherine Hay, Vancouver