The Office of the Sec State of California has approved for signature gathering an initiative with this summary: Prohibits genetically engineered plants and animals and over 300 listed substances from being introduced or released into the environment. Creates a new state entity to regulate environmental activities, modify or stop projects having pollution and radiation impacts, and test and approve substances before they are introduced into the environment. Prohibits treatment of water with fluoride or chlorine. Eliminates vaccination as a prerequisite for attendance at schools and daycare facilities. Provides criminal and civil liability for violations, with no statute of limitations.
One of the impacts this would have would be to outlaw “smart meters” – electric meters that record time-based usage for variable-rate schedules – because they use WiFi (“radiation”).
Before you get nightmares thinking about this, the state constitution limits an initiative to one subject (Article II §8 [d]), so the state is not even allowed to put this on the ballot. I am not clear why the Sec State’s office even approved it for the signature phase.
If I had to guess, I’d surmise that it’s to save work, and therefore money. It means that staff time will only be spent on initiatives that have gathered enough signatures and not on the potentially hundreds of initiatives that haven’t and won’t.
As to the initiative in question, it sounds like someone’s having a mystic purity-gasm. I’m sure they’re enjoying themselves.
I just noticed that my link to the initiative in in error: it goes to a nearly identical failed effort from two years ago. The correct one is here, and I note that it prohibits anything related to nuclear power from entering the state (except, I would guess, the electricity from out-of-state nuclear plants).
They don’t even have the signatures yet, so it’s just a few crazies right now. Even if they do get enough signatures, it’s a small percentage of the whole state. I would not hold this up as anything emblematic of our wonderful state. I love it here, kooks and all!
Well, the radiation generated by microwave ovens and x-ray machines is almost always contained to a localized area and does not leak into the environment. OTOH, if I were flying to Eureka, being constrained to VFR would be problematic. Also, cellphones.
Look, this is a stupid initiative- stupid enough to not require completely misrepresenting it to mock it. It’s not making pollution or radiation illegal, it calls for the creation of a state entity to regulate, moddify or stop projects that would cause radiation or pollution.
It also allows lawsuits for “uninvited exposure to radiation,” meaning I could sue anybody with a cell phone within a given distance. And by my reading, it also bans the sale of alcohol.
You could, and likely get laughed out of court. But once the idea is formalized into law, and given options that include criminal prosecution for cell phones, it becomes a lot more likely.
Take it from someone who cuts a check every pay period to the Franchise Tax Board (California’s version of the IRS) - that’s nothing compared to some of the things that have made the “petition stage.” For example, at one point, there was a petition for an initiative to ban shellfish; it was in response to an attempted initiative (struck down by the courts before petitions could be circulated) to make sodomy a crime punishable by “death by bullets” (since eating shellfish and homosexual sex are both “banned” in the Book of Leviticus).
