It amazes me that the cellular phone transmission tower located on Granite Avenue was erected five years ago with little or no consultation with the public and no scientific testing to determine its safety.

But then one must consider that at the federal level, very little has been done in the way of assessing the biological effects from non-thermal electromagnetic frequencies (EMF).

Safety Code 6, Health Canada’s attempt to protect Canadians from microwave radiation at a thermal level, basically gives telecommunications companies carte blanche to blanket cities and towns with their ever expanding 3G and 4G technology, in the form of tall steel poles, like the one in downtown Merritt, or rectangular antennas on building roofs.

In speaking with some of the attendees at a recent House of Commons Standing Committee on Health which met with industry and health experts, it became apparent that Health Canada embarrassed itself in front of the whole world.

Swedish professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm Olle Johansson said that Health Canada members in the room hadn’t a clue about the health effects from EMF. But is Health Canada entirely to blame or has industry been withholding information?

In speaking with several Merritt residents who reside or work in the downtown core, within a close radius of the cell phone tower, the majority of them spoke of experiencing negative health symptoms closely resembling those associated with exposure to EMF.

They range from headaches, memory loss, nausea, and dizziness, to name a few.

The unfortunate thing is, even if Merritt residents decided that enough was enough and the majority agreed that the tower should be taken down and moved to within a safe distance from humans, it would be very difficult to do.

To date, only one cell phone tower in Canada has been taken down at the behest of public protest. Telecommunications infrastructure is under federal jurisdiction, and right now Ottawa shows no signs of carrying out scientific studies that are not funded by industry, let alone amending Safety Code 6, which is one of the loosest guidelines in the world, even among lesser developed countries.

Remember in 2008 when the B.C. Government banned artificial sweeteners in elementary and middle schools despite the “findings” by Health Canada that they are completely safe? Not so with telecommunications. It seems Ottawa has the provinces by their necks on this one.

I am still waiting to hear back from Stockwell Day on the matter, but clearly, Health Canada can only be gaining a poor reputation around the world, particularly in Europe where many federal government bodies have warned the public of the health dangers associated with wireless technology.

— John O'Connor