“Scientific Victoria is a fledgling political organization that advocates for the consideration of science in local government decision making. We believe this will improve governance and save tax dollars throughout the Capital regional District.”

Dr. Evan Wood is perhaps best known for his scientific research at Insite, the supervised injection site in Vancouver. He is a professor of medicine at UBC as well as the founder of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy.  He is also a UVic alumni and the 2010 recipient of the British Medical Journal’s Doctor of the Year Award.

This Tuesday evening, he will be speaking at a forum at Alix Goolden Hall in Victoria. He will discuss his work at Insite as well as the importance of evidence-based student drug education. Also speaking will be Neill Franklin (a retired Baltimore police officer and the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) and Denise Savoie (Member of Parliament for Victoria). The goal of this forum is to kickstart a conversation about community, crime & education:

Date: November 8th
Time: 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Where: Alix Goolden Hall at 907 Pandora (corner of Pandora & Quadra)

Here is the Facebook event page.

This is a campaign event in support of David Bratzer. (David is the founder of Scientific Victoria, as well as a candidate for school trustee in the Greater Victoria School District.) Admission is by donation and everyone is welcome.

Those who are familiar with Havas’ work will know she is a controversial figure. Scientific Victoria disagrees with her views, but we also recognize this is a great opportunity for people in Victoria to listen to someone who is at the centre of the Wi-Fi debate in Canada.

The timing of the Wi-Fi song was interesting. The next day the World Health Organization announced that it was moving radiofrequency electromagnetic fields into group 2B – possibly carcinogenic. The Times-Colonist has a great editorial about this. Dan Gardner (Ottawa Citizen) has a good column as well.

One factor to consider is that the strength of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is not constant. It decreases in a manner proportional to the square of the distance between a source and an object. This is known as the inverse square law. 

If Alice is standing twice as far away as Bob, you might think she receives half the EMR. But that’s not the case. In fact, Alice receives one quarter of the EMR. And if Alice is standing three times as far away, she receives only one ninth of the EMR that Bob does.

This is important because cell phones use stronger signals and they are held directly to the side of the head. Wi-Fi routers are usually positioned a larger distance (say, between five to fifty feet)  from the end users. From a safety perspective, the inverse square law favours Wi-Fi.

This may be one reason the Wi-Fi committee of the Greater Victoria School District has recommended no changes to wireless networks in schools. This decision still needs to be ratified at the Operations, Policy and Planning committee meeting on June 13, and then at the school board meeting on June 20th. Scientific Victoria will be at both meetings and we’ll let you know how they turn out.

When: May 17 from 7pm – 10pm

Where:  St. John the Divine Hall, 925 Balmoral Rd.

Who: Robert Whitaker, Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative journalist

What: “Whitaker will discuss the controversial findings about the dangers of psychiatric medications revealed in his Anatomy of an Epidemic, winner of the 2010 Best Book award from the U.S.-based organization Investigative Reporters and Editors.” (From the Facebook event page.)

Cost: Free (donations welcome)

“Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative journalist and science writer Robert Whitaker will speak in Victoria on Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 (7pm – 10pm). Whitaker will discuss the controversial findings about the dangers of psychiatric medications revealed in his Anatomy of an Epidemic, winner of the 2010 Best Book award from the U.S.-based organization Investigative Reporters and Editors.”

I’m the first to admit that I don’t know enough about this subject to have any firm opinions. I’m keeping an open mind and looking forward to hearing Mr. Whitaker speak. Judging from the book reviews and his YouTube clips, this will be a fascinating presentation.

Mark your calendar for May 17th! Admission is free and Scientific Victoria will have a table set up at the event.  This is a great opportunity to hear a well respected author, to consider a new scientific idea, and to meet some of the folks involved with SV.

“The public, through our elected representatives, must continue to make the decisions that affect our lives. And while some decisions will continue to be made because they feel right — our region is known for preferring a progressive approach, especially on environmental issues – we also need to know that at the heart of our political agenda we’re doing the right thing based on sound, empirical evidence.”

The IdeaWave conference – first mentioned in one of the earlier posts below – was held at the end of February. It was a huge success. I’m part of the conference advisory board and this year we awarded $500 scholarships to four student speakers. Here are the winning entries:

1. Kelsey O’Gorman forever changes a primary school in Africa with her Rabbit Project.
2. Tamiya Leung advocates for healthy high schools.
3. Rose Jang examines the rewards of breaking conventional norms.
4. Geoff de Ruiter wants to start his own wind farm.

This month, local journalist Rob Wipond mentions Scientific Victoria in his Wi-Fi article in Focus magazine. There’s a lively debate going in the comments section.

I presented an overview of Scientific Victoria this evening, March 9th, to the James Bay Neighbourhood Association. Details here. And, by the way, if you’re wondering who I am, here is my personal web site.

If you like the work that Scientific Victoria is doing, please tell your friends and colleagues about us!

Board members, CRD staff and members of the audience: thank you for listening to this presentation in support of the tanning facility regulations bylaw.

My name is Karen Dearborn and I am a long time Saanich resident. I am also a member of the strategic advisory board for Scientific Victoria. This is a new political organization that advocates for the consideration of science in local government decision making. Our goal is to encourage elected officials to embrace information produced by valid scientific methodology.

I’m here today in lieu of the founder of the organization, David Bratzer, who has a work commitment that he is unable to change. After reviewing this bylaw, we support the proposed indoor tanning regulations as a way of protecting young people throughout the Capital Regional District.

Now, often when we consider terms such as “protection” or “public safety,” what comes to mind is a violent crime and the subsequent intervention by a law enforcement agency. Or we consider the term “public health” and we think of an outbreak of disease and the quarantine efforts that follow.

But the scope of public safety and public health is broader than these two examples. It can be preventative in nature rather than simply reactive. It encompasses everything from food safety to workplace safety and, in this case, the regulation of artificial tanning.

In reviewing this bylaw, it is important to emphasize what it will and will not accomplish. The aspect that deals with minors has attracted the most attention. However, in both science and law it is recognized that minors often have a diminished ability to give voluntary, informed consent. Therefore it is appropriate for governments at all levels to create barriers that will reduce the likelihood of children and young adults engaging in high risk activities.

In addition, this bylaw will not restrict minors from using self-tanning lotions. Nor will it prevent them from making use of professional spray tan equipment in commercial tanning salons.

And so it becomes clear that the liberty of parents, to the extent that it is restricted, is restricted only for the purpose of reducing the incidence of skin cancer in their own children. In cases where a parent believes that exposure to UV radiation is medically necessary, it should be noted that the bylaw contains an exemption for tanning equipment in a physician’s office or a medical clinic.

The remainder of the bylaw covers other important health measures dealing with tanning. These include regulations for signage, protective eyewear, equipment and facility requirements, sanitation and educational material for customers.

In conclusion, we believe this bylaw is reasonable, enforceable and, most importantly, backed by medical professionals and credible organizations such as the Canadian Cancer Society. Should this bylaw pass, we sincerely wish the owners and employees in the tanning industry well as they adapt to these changes.

Thank you for listening to Scientific Victoria’s first submission to the CRD board. We do plan to grow larger as the year progresses and we anticipate providing feedback on other bylaws in the future.

The tally for the presentations to date is twelve to two against Wi-Fi. It would be nice to see a couple more presentations in support of Wi-Fi. That said, I’m confident the committee will look at the science rather than simply counting how many presentations were for or against.

Thank you for having me here today in support of Wi-Fi in the school district. I’ll caution that I’m not an expert in this field. Like all of you, I am simply someone who has challenged myself to try and understand a complex issue.

I’m also the founder of Scientific Victoria. You may have heard about us during the past few weeks. We are a new organization that advocates for the consideration of science in local government decision making. We do recognize there are other factors that affect such decisions. Two such factors, for example, might be financial and social responsibility. Still, our goal is to encourage elected officials to embrace information produced by valid scientific methodology.

We would also like officials to place less weight on conclusions drawn from pseudoscience. This is why I am here today and I do appreciate that this is a passionate topic for many people. That said, what we all have in common is that we want the very best health and education outcomes for students enrolled in this school district.

It is worth noting that a parliamentary committee in Ottawa, at considerable taxpayer expense, examined the potential health impacts of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation last year. Beth Pieterson is a Director General at Health Canada. In appearing before this committee, she testified that Safety Code 6 was reviewed as recently as 2009 and that the review included consideration of thermal and non-thermal effects.

In considering the phenomenon of electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), it is important to note that the World Health Organization has acknowledged the plight of people suffering from symptoms. In other words, the WHO is not calling them liars. But the organization also states that electromagnetic fields have not been shown to cause such symptoms. My concern here is that a student in the district may be experiencing a number of real symptoms, such as dizziness and a racing heartbeat. He or she may incorrectly conclude that EHS is the cause. In these situations, a serious and legitimate medical illness might then go undiagnosed.

Scientific Victoria’s position is that concerns about Wi-Fi are often based on poorly designed research studies. As an example, you should know that there are serious problems with a recent study by Dr. Magda Havas. It claims to show that the base station of a cordless phone caused racing heart beats in some of the subjects. However, the heart rate monitoring equipment used in this study is extremely sensitive to electrical interference. In fact, it comes with a user guide that cautions users to avoid nearby electromagnetic noise sources (such as cordless phones, cell phones, etc).

In conclusion, in a free and open society, false or misleading information should not be passively accepted. As the local governing body for public education in the district, the school board has an opportunity to stand up for quality, peer reviewed science by reaffirming its commitment to Wi-Fi.