Why a Little BC Town Wants to Banish Cell Phones
New Denver's cells pitch: Relax, ring free.
'Insidious' annoyance?
Looking for a nice quiet place to get away and unwind? The Village of New Denver in eastern British Columbia wants to make an unusual sales pitch:
Come, stay, and never hear the ring of a cell phone.
New Denver's citizens voted against the introduction of mobile phone service in a referendum in January. The vote was a close one -- 117 to 110 -- but the village council said before the referendum that it would live by the result. And it wants Telus to do the same.
New Denver (population about 600) is located in the Slocan Valley north of Nelson.
The issue has been passionately debated in the streets of New Denver and in the pages of the bi-weekly Valley Voice over the past few months. There are three reasons for the opposition: some citizens say radiation emitted by cellphone technology is a health hazard; others want to market the area to tourists and new residents as a tranquil cell-free sanctuary; and still others are just angry at Telus for what they see as its unwillingness to follow the community's wishes.
Proponents and opponents of cellphone service both claim to be in the majority.
Peace and quiet
"A cellphone-free zone would be competitive advantage in marketing the area as a tourist destination and as a place to live," says Bill Roberts, New Denver's citizen representative to the 11-member Slocan Valley Economic Development Commission of the Regional District of Central Kootenay.*
"The insidious part of cellphones," says Roberts, "is that they tether you to the office. A lot of people want to get away from that. And the fact that we're without cell phone service means that we're able to enjoy life without the incessant sound of ring tones, immediately followed by someone's shouted conversation."
While the development commission supports New Denver's position, it also represents localities that may wish to have cell phone service. The Slocan Lake Chamber of Commerce is squarely behind the idea of a cell-free New Denver.*
'The pressure's off'
"Some people think we are just Luddites," says Roberts. "But I've seen the wired world. I'm a retired foreign affairs officer. And I was involved in getting high-speed wireless Internet to this valley." Roberts admits to owning a cell phone, which he uses when he travels outside the New Denver area.
The website of the Slocan Lake Chamber of Commerce opens with a lovely photo of the lake ringed by the Selkirk Mountains, and the words, "The pressure's off. You're in the Slocan Valley, beyond cell phone service. Breathe deep, walk tall, skip stones, then paddle home. Come unwind with us . . ."
"We're just trying to leverage our best local resource," says Roberts. He likens cell phones to other tranquility-busting technology such as motor boats and off-road vehicles.
"Unspoiled nature does not exist on Christina Lake or on Osoyoos Lake," he says, "and we don't want to become like them."
The health argument
In September 2007, the Valhalla Committee for Environmental Health, a subgroup of the Valhalla Wilderness Society, submitted a 611-page scientific report about cellphone hazards to the New Denver Village Council. The BioInitiative Report was published recently by the University of Albany, New York, and claims to be the most comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and independent scientific study of electromagnetic health risks in existence. (An interview with one of the authors of the report can be watched here.)
"That report brings together extensive findings by medical doctors and research scientists from the U.S., Sweden, Denmark, Austria, China and the U.K.," says Richard Caniell, the chair of the Valhalla Environmental Health Committee. "It corroborates the concern about health hazards expressed by villagers here."
Telus wants to place its transmitter on an existing tower already being used by the CBC at the edge of Centennial Park in New Denver. Telus has so far been unreceptive to the idea of moving it outside the municipal boundary, according to Julia Greenlaw of the Healthy Housing Society, another group that opposes the cellphone tower.
"Telus has been very bullheaded about this," she says. "Their cell phone service will only reach 3-5 kilometres up and down the lake anyway, so it doesn't make sense."
Opponents 'misinformed': Telus
Caniell has circulated two information pamphlets throughout New Denver, outlining his group's case against the tower, mostly based on the BioInitiative Report. The pamphlet says that governments around the world are beginning to question the safely of wireless technology and it quotes the report: "There is enough evidence of increased risk of brain tumours to warrant intervention with respect to their use . . . good public policy requires preventive action." The report is quoted as expressing particular concern about the health of children.
Caniell says his group went door to door with the pamphlet, and many people refused to read it. "They said, 'I like my cell phone, and I don't want to read that.'"
Shawn Hall of Telus told The Tyee that the company stopped construction for a while in 2007 when it heard of the opposition. Telus representatives attended a public meeting and "engaged in ongoing dialogue with everyone. We have had a lot of support in the community."
Hall champions the need for cell phone service in New Denver and calls opponents "well-intentioned but misinformed."
"We listen to Health Canada and Industry Canada," says Hall. "It's their life's work to protect Canadians' health. They have some of the world's leading experts on radio transmission. They have set levels on what they have determined is safe. Our signal will be thousands of times lower than that level."
Mixed signals?
The BioInitiative Report, as quoted by the Valhalla Society, says something quite different: "The existing public safety standards limiting radiation levels in nearly every country of the world look to be thousands of times too lenient. Changes are needed."
The problem is that the Valhalla Society and Telus are talking about two different kinds of electromagnetic signals. Health Canada's standards are based on high-intensity or thermal effects. According to that standard, Hall is probably right when he states that "the signals from the CBC and the local public works crew are the same as ours would be."
But the Valhalla Society says the concerns expressed by the authors of the BioInitiative Report are about low-level or non-thermal effects, which threaten health at levels much lower than those Health Canada says are safe.
Greenlaw wants to see the studies Telus and Health Canada are relying on, and she wants them to at least comment on the BioInitiative Report. "They keep telling us there are all these studies that prove their case, but they never bring them forward and they won't respond to the ones we have brought forward."
Telus's special status
If Telus really wants to locate its signal in New Denver, there appears to be nothing anyone can do about it. That's the third reason for some of the opposition.
"The telecommunications companies have a very effective lobby," says New Denver Mayor Gary Wright. "They are the only industry that is guaranteed universal access to any location anywhere they want, in order to make their for-profit services available to anyone. Churches can't do that, hospitals can't, you can't build a gas station or grocery store wherever you want, but telecom companies can do that. I don't think Telus has abused that special status. The location they have chosen is cheaper for them and as far away as you can be within village limits. But that's not to say it's right."
Telus's Shawn Hall, when asked by The Tyee about this apparent special status for Telus, replied that the municipal government does have local control because Telus had to apply for a building permit to install the tower.
"But a municipality cannot refuse to grant a permit to a telecommunications company," says Wright.
Village asked feds to intervene
Telecommunications are regulated by Industry Canada, an agency of the Federal Government.
In the past five years, the Union of B.C. Municipalities has twice asked the provincial government to help them gain some control over the location of telecommunications towers, citing citizen concerns about health effects, property values, and self-determination. In both cases the provincial government simply replied that it does not have jurisdiction.
In the meantime, Industry Canada has developed some guidelines for public consultation (outlined here). The guidelines include an unspecified alternate dispute resolution process if discussions fail.
The Village of New Denver has formally asked Industry Canada to intervene on its behalf in its dispute with Telus.
Industry Canada will mull tower
Morris Bodnar is Industry Canada's director for B.C. and the Yukon. He told The Tyee that his office has received the Village of New Denver's written submission, and that staff in his office will evaluate it and consider whether the tower site is appropriate.
Asked how "appropriate" may be defined or what the criteria might be, Bodnar said it was too early to comment and that "we will have to look at what is brought forward." Asked about how the opposition of the New Denver Council and Chamber of Commerce might affect the outcome, Bodnar said those things will be taken into consideration.
The policy contains many references to public consultation, discussion, and mutual interests. Bodnar says Industry Canada expects the same approach from providers such as Telus. "We want to know that the company has consulted with a community and that all relevant concerns are addressed. That is part of the conditions attached to their licence, and that will be part of our review."
Asked whether health effects or the desire for a cellphone free zone as a tourist attraction would be considered "relevant concerns," Bodnar said those things will be taken into consideration.
Asked whether Telus's active advocacy of the need for cellphone service in New Denver constitutes consultation or the opposite of consultation, Bodnar said he could not comment without more information.
Mayor Wright thinks Industry Canada will rule in favour of Telus. "They cannot afford to make a decision that would allow municipal governments to control what happens within their own borders."
*Paragraphs marked with an asterisk were change at 1:50 p.m. on Thursday, March 13, 2008.
Related Tyee stories:
- The World Comes to Nelson
How a town of 10,000 attracts a city of cosmopolitan talent. - A Tale of Two Kootenays
The towns and their cultures a product of geography, and the history the land imposes on them. - One Community's Firm 'No' to Tourist BoomOn Columbia Lake, Fairmont Hot Springs Resort has big plans -- and creative opponents.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
Luke Skywalker
12-03-2008
I'm of two minds on this
I'm of two minds on this matter. Firstly, nothing irritates me more than hearing someone's cell phone ringing in a public place.
That's why I personally always keep my cell phone either on "silent" or "vibrate" mode out of respect for others, not to mention I don't wanna get annoyed by the ringing either. Furthermore, I never answer in a public place.
It also doesn't surprise me that such a proposition would come out of the West Kootenays, considering it's more relaxed lifestyle.
Also, when I'm on vacation, I don't pay much attention to most calls and just let 'em go unheeded.
Having said that, there are a few reasons why I would want cell phone service while on vacation based upon past experience with family not knowing how to reach me.
One such occurance dealt with a death in the family, which required my immediate return home. Without a cell phone, I would have been away for another week.
Another was being stranded out on a lake due to boat mechanical problems. Without the cell phone, we could have been stranded on the lake overnight.
When it comes down to it, it's these type of reasons that I appreciate having a cell phone... for the unforeseen emergency.
seanorr
12-03-2008
One question
Does that mean you can't text? OMG
Stump
13-03-2008
Buses and Cops
I've seen more than one bus driver here in Metro Van using a cellphone while driving a bus full of paying passengers. Suprised Coast Mountain allows that.
Saw a cop doing a crappy job of parking one-handed and chatting on the phone on West 5th just the other day. Makes you shake your head that so-called professional drivers can't grab a clue and put public safety first, esp. after countless studies showing driving and chatting on the phone is akin to impaired driving.
Skookum1
13-03-2008
freedom from wired-ness
I spent most of August in Winlaw, farther down the Slocan Valley and found myself in a place where people were not walking around having disembodied conversations or interrupting conversations to answer calls or make or read texts. A sharp contrast to other areas of BC, and of the Lower Mainland in particular. There's an eerieness in Vancouver nowadays; so many people with Ipods, cells with wireless headsets (I can never tell with one of those people if they're listening to another conversation while talking to you, if they even engage at all; it's like the real person in front of them isn't real, and only what's on the cell is real. They're "plugged in" and it's all too reminiscent of a dystopian science fiction scenario. Manners and civility have been destroyed by the omnipresence of the wired world; people watchng movies or vids on their IPodNanos while walking along the street, on a beautiful sunny day, or otherwise disconnected from the reality around them by whatever part of the Greater Web has swallowed them; oblivious to reality, obsessed with cybernetic reality, bound and chained to it....yes, you can't live without a cellphone, modern society demands it. Supposedly; we're sold that as a bill of goods.....
Bill Joy's famous article in about the cyberneticization of human existence mostly worried about genetics, nanotechnology and so on; but in reality our absorption into The Machine has been far more insidious; we don't have to have implants inside of us to be cyberneticized; cellphones and their kin have done that to us by mere accessorization.
Let there be somewhere where robot-humans with wireless headsets aren't the dominant life form.....this isn't luddism, it's a plea for human-to-human contact.
One thing in Winlaw I noted - when you want to talk to someone, you go and find them and talk to them in person. Fascinating.
Fiat lux
13-03-2008
Any technology has its
Any technology has its place, when it is used in the appropriate manner.'
Cellphones can be very useful in emergencies and have saved a lot of lives.
We have no service here, where we live, but I've been carrying one around for some 10 years, after we broke down on the road and had no way to ask for help for over 2 hours.
The difference is that only one other person knows the number and I never have the thing on when in town, so it makes no difference anyway. On the average I make 2 calls per month, for a total of about 2 to 5 mins. which cost me $31. but I look at it as a lifeboat on a ship.
In any case, I'm glad there were no cells around when I was in business in Vancouver.
At least no damn phone rang when I was on the road, which was several hours every day.
Watching people yakking on the damn things all over the place is a pathetic example of
how people are being led by the nose by the powers: Never have a minute to think for themselves.
In the stores, mealymouthed punks screeching crude noises from the speakers, now called "music", the phones are ringing in people's pockets. The same in their vehicles and homes from radios and TVs.
Ed Deak.
snert
13-03-2008
Sheesh!
Just how many times are cell phones going to ring in New Denver anyhow? Once, maybe twice a day.
More and more people are switching to mobile only phone services. It just makes more sense as cell phones are way more useful than fixed land lines.
Cell phones have probably saved way more lives than they have cost. Emergency situations where time can be a critical factor can even arise in small backwoods communities.
Work on the etiquette factor instead of becoming Luddites.
G West
13-03-2008
cell phones have saved more lives
Really.
Could you provide some data for that?
Given the fact that dozens of studies show people talking on cell phones while driving are as dangerous as when they're impaired I really doubt it.
You might want to talk to the relatives of the 2800 odd people who died on New York on 9/11 too. Cell phones didn't save many lives that day did they?
Car crashes cost the American economy about 164 billion a year - lets say 10% of those involve cell phones as a causation factor - that's almost 20 billion bucks a year - without even considering the lives lost.
Idiots are people who continue to hit themselves on the head even though they know the blood in their eyes is their own.
woody
13-03-2008
Twilight Zone
Bill Roberts said,
And I was involved in getting high-speed wireless Internet to this valley." Roberts admits to owning a cell phone, which he uses when he travels outside the New Denver area.
Whats the point in even entering into this absurd conversation, I think the microwaves have already affected some of the communities ability for rational reasoning. Now, will there also be no TV satellite dishes, Xray, allowed in town. Nor dept sounders or radar on the lake within 3-5 kms of the town. Naturally all cigarette smoking , and consumption of alcohol will be disallowed, most definitely pot will not even be brought into this equation as surely such health conscious citizens would never contemplate the use of the mind altering weed.
G West
13-03-2008
this too
Talk isn’t always cheap, as International Paper Co. learned recently when it agreed to pay $5.2 million to settle a personal injury suit related, at least in part, to one of its employees’ use of a cell phone while driving.
According to the complaint, filed in Fulton County, Ga., Superior Court in 2006, International Paper employee Vanessa C. McGrogan was using her company-supplied cell phone as she drove west on Interstate 16 near Dublin, Ga., when she rear-ended a vehicle driven by Debra Ford. The collision pushed Ford’s vehicle into the ditch on the right side of the road, overturning it so that the driver’s side hit and then slid along the roadway — with Ford’s arm trapped between the door and the asphalt.
Medical complications eventually forced Ford, a widowed mother of four, to have her arm amputated almost up to the shoulder.
“We have a cell phone statute in Georgia that says the driver is not to do things that are distracting,” said Ford’s attorney, Katherine L. McArthur of The Law Firm of Kathy McArthur in Macon, Ga. McArthur explained that this essentially means reasonable cell phone use is acceptable within the purview of the statute. The International Paper employee’s cell phone use was not reasonable, McArthur continued, because the employee had set her cruise control at 77 miles per hour — in a 70 mph speed zone.
nominalis
13-03-2008
Amazingly enough, half of
Amazingly enough, half of the worlds population now owns a mobile phone. May as well try to ban people from communicating. Oh, that has been tried in various forms, fascism, communism, military dictatorships.
To those who think cellphone "radiation" can harm you, no more than the "radiation" coming out of your heating vents.
I would support a cellphone free library.
murdock
13-03-2008
Can't stop the signal...
so this little town may be able to short circut local calls but I see nothing here to stop sattelite telephones or other 'high guard' communications tech.
dr evil
13-03-2008
Telepathy
I don`t use telephones of any kind I like telepathy as it is so much quieter
Right now I`m calling Bobb999..
What confuses me with telephones is the voice you hear on the phone so resembles the person who`s calling...anyone noticed that ?
I`ve heard that cell phone numbers will soon be sold to advertisers...the septic tank and Bahamanian holiday people.
Skookum1
13-03-2008
someone farther up said...
I totally agree, having suffered through SFU's "information commons" while trying to write a paper on Euripides...
But if so, if you would support a cellphone free library, then why not a cellphone free wilderness or rural area or smalltown? Why does everywhere have to be interconnected. Is there nowhere that will be left in peace. Libraries, like churches and theatres, should be switch-off zones for phones; likewise buses (the nattering of somebody talking trash about someone else with their mother or buddy or girlfriend while everybody else has to listen.....and five or six of these inane conversations going on, with maybe one or two yups conducting business in public, maybe a drug deal or two, all in half a dozen or more languages, and usually shouted.... Yuck....what dark tribe have we spawned with these devices, people who will grow up with all contact filtered through the network, unable to engage people in person unless digitally connected first.....quelle etrange
But if libraries are worthy of silence, then why not the sanctuaries of nature, of the last, lost valleys that BC still has a few of. The social and cultural/behavioural changes since the introduction of mobile phone networks is all too obvious; especially if you hang in a place like the Slocan or other areas "off the net", and then come into the city and see all those plugged in and cocooned and oh so cool and modern....
Any Trek fans here will recall a TNG episode where these hypnotic spectacles 3-d game thingies were used to enslave the ship the programmers' designs. The glass-eyed look on headset wearers is all too like that; the human organism hijacked by a machine.
For those who haven't read it, here's a link to Samuel Butler's The Book of the Machines from Erewhon, publ. 1840.
http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Butler/Erewhon/erewhon23.html
Umslopogaas
14-03-2008
Blockers
You can buy signal blockers that shut down cell phone reception in the area around the blocker. They are used in churches and theaters. They work well in other places too. One in your car does wonders for the area around your car.
It is such fun to wean the unwitting cell phone addicts from their electronic teats, watch the puzzled looks on their faces as they beat and shake their cells and laugh while they redial frantically.
fishworks
16-03-2008
From Dubai to New Denver
Living a "connected" life via cellphones is a duty here in the United Arab Emirates! Living without it would probably get you fired!! We hear the tones of these beloved mobiles everywhere, theatres, public toilets, restaurants, gym...Even third graders in my children's class text faster than me!When I hear that New Denver/Silverton are going to be "connected" my head is shaking and a deep feeling of anger creeps in. Why spoil such a quiet place with a Nokia's ring tone. This summer we are coming back for our summer vacation, and i can assure you that the first cellphone ringing will end up in the lake. I might get myself in some trouble, but i think this is the ultimate response to any incoming cellphone calls...
woody
16-03-2008
GWest, and back to the future.
GWest, Ive had pay a as go cell phone plan for years. Im register with the carrier. But, I think your way off the mark about cell phones being the choice of transmitters for terrorist, bombers, the GMRS radios are far more popular and simpler to attain, no registration or subscription required. I also bet you, a good many of the back to bush types in New Denver have their own personal GMRS radios. I myself have a set of them, and let add, they can be as intrusive or worse than a cell phone, and there is absolutely no restrictions on there use.
Shy
17-03-2008
cell-phone free zone
I live in the Village of Gold River and have for 11 years. I must admit, it is nice being in a community that doesn't have cell coverage because we don't have phones ringing all over the place and people sitting in a restaurant over lunch yakking on the phone. It is entertaining to watch visitors walking around looking perplexed because their cell phone doesn't work. And when we tell them there is no cell coverage here, they are usually quite stunned.
The only drawback to no cell phones is travelling our highway between Campbell River and Gold River. With no phones between here and there (aside from a small resort/residential pocket who use sat. phones) it can be a dark and lonely road if you're in trouble. We have come across travellers who have had a break down or accident and have been stranded for some time.
Overall though, I really don't miss cell phones and I'm often shocked at the behaviours of some cell phone users when we do go into the city. People driving and talking, talking in restaurants, movies, etc.
It's a shame that a community feels it needs to regulate something that should be common sense and decency.
jwlaurie
17-03-2008
Cel Phone use
I have had a cel phone for 10+ years and do find them annoying in public but ever so useful in private. My family are the only ones who know my number and use it for urgent calls only.
On the other hand my wife has become addicted to what many others and I call the "Crackberry". This is a super cel phone that also receives e-mail. She uses it for business and so many people know her number it never stops receiving these messages. It is very seldom a phone call but usually unimportant e-mail or text messages. The thing is, for a very intelligent and aware person she cannot stop. She accidentally dropped it in the loo recently while out of town and she was absolutely ill and nervous and very hard to talk to until she got home and picked up another one. The other day the "return" button fell out of it and she now uses a paper clip to access that feature rather then have the thing taken in for repair, even though she bought a maintenance agreement when she got it so it won't even cost her anything.
Her sister in Minneapolis is a high-end executive who just got one as well and my wife and her are together now for a few days visiting. I can only imagine the electronicity that's happening with them.
As far as the situation in New Denver goes I'd have to side with those who want it for safety's sake. You can install blockers inside your place of business so they won't work which should satisfy those who run the idyllic and quiet businesses in town. As a recently retired paramedic of 25 years here in Vancouver I can certainly attest to the Cel phone's usefulness in getting quicker medical aid to those whose lives hang in the balance.