AltaLink information sessions: Lundbreck Hall 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm October 22, 2014 or Heritage Inn Pincher Creek October 22, 1:00 - 4:00 pm.
This is an update to a letter that I presented to the MD of Pincher Creek and submitted to them some years ago. It dealt with the issue of electrical generation and the effects on the local population.
The letter pre-dated all the new wind generators installed after the old original ones on Cowley Ridge had been in place for some years.
There are economic and conservation benefits that I support, but "From a distance".
My concern at the time involved the immediate and distant future when I could see the whole plan would be huge and out of anyone's control. My concern is in the projects close proximity to the public, whether it be generation or transmission. I did not hear back from any Municipal representative regarding my concerns..
I am in no way a genetics or cancer expert but I do know some rudimentary facts. The genetic and epigenetic information that is passed most importantly through the woman's egg is affected by and includes to an unknown degree what a great grandmother ate for breakfast plus emotional and environmental stressors.
The effects from the presence of varying electromagnetic fields from wind electrical generators and then the high KV power transmission lines thus required is largely unknown. My fear is the community in and around Pincher Creek is a captive population waiting for multigenerational health study: We just have to find an interested medical researcher.
I have submitted to the Voice a convincing health study publicised by the U.S. Health Agency. If you wish to present any questions to the main power transmitter, AltaLink, please attend either meeting at the following times: 4:00 - 8:00 pm Lundbreck Hall October 22, 2014 or Heritage Inn Pincher Creek October 22, 1 - 4 pm.
I have asked the Voice to Print a copy of the study regarding the risk of Leukemia in children exposed to direct and close to very high voltage lines. We have no idea of the multi-generational genetic effects from these electrical-power transmission lines.
Thank you for your interest.
Bruce Anderson, Cowley Alberta (A long time rural physician)
Indicated study can be reached at: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23558899
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Well. What deeply timely and cogent remarks from Bruce Anderson. Recent observations pertaining to epigenetic changes amongst study populations do indicate that our assumptions regarding environmental pressures on organisms as being non-transferable over immediately successive generations are false - it would appear, rather, that specific environmental impact accrued to one generation can be directly traced to manifestations within their immediate progeny, or progeny's progeny - not at all the lengthy, classical Darwinian suppositions of incremental morphology to which we have become accustomed in such considerations. So, indeed, although little or no verifiable evidence exists which would suggest that electromagnetic radiation as occurs within a certain radius of high-voltage power lines has any immediately appreciable effect on those living within its proximity, there is mounting evidence to suggest that elevated caution is in order when dealing with either chemical or energized inputs which might well have as yet undetermined, and potentially deleterious, effects on both genetic sequencing and the very nature of the integrity of the DNA molecule itself.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the 1950s. My tender little corpuscles were routinely bombarded with plutonium and strontium 90 from air-burst atomic bomb testing, DDT pretty much up the ying-yang, asbestos in the play-dough at Kindergarten, lead in the gas and the paint and the toothpaste tube and Mom's lipstick, gobs of mercury to play with, cigarette smoke absolutely everywhere - you name it - if it was bad for you it was there in abundance. Now there was an experimental generation - recipient to the wide-ranging benefits of industrial technology run amok. But I'm still alive - though a large and growing roster of my peers is not. However, if we were to take the premise of epigentics into proper account, we simply have no idea just what mayhem may or may not be visited upon unsuspecting generations to come. I am prepared for the worst. Given current knowledge of such matters, I will not be totally surprised if my grandchildren grow up to be Conservatives - then I will know that it is true. Aberration and mutation are the dire consequence of efficacy and lack of foresight. Look at the state of the world. We should suppose the worst outcome, then work back from there to see where it went off the rails. It has a name - long-term cost/benefit analysis. In a province that claims business acumen as a birthright, you'd think we might exercise a vision that reaches somewhat beyond our own noses. But such, perhaps, is the rush to riches - stumbling headlong after that Great Cheeseburger in the sky - with a Big Gulp Slurpee, and a side of Bitumen Poutines. Woh - pass the Gaviscon....maybe the Imodium too. I can feel a sizeable gene movement working down through.