Smart meters? – dumb idea!

Please pass this on widely.  Transmitting smart meters are being installed in most developed nations.  It is key that our governmental agencies start hearing about the health problems caused by these meters and transmitters in general.

Transmitting Smart Meters Pose A Serious Threat To Public Health

Transmitting smart meters are being installed nationwide on gas, water, and electrical services, driven in part by funding for the Smart Grid Program approved as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

This is of great concern because the exposure to microwave and radiowave radiation from these meters is involuntary and continuous. The transmitting meters do comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “safety” standards. However, those standards were initially designed to protect an average male from tissue heating (cooking) during a brief exposure. These standards were not designed to protect a diverse population from the non-thermal effects of continuous exposure to microwave and radiowave radiation. Therefore, these “safety” standards were not designed to protect the public from health problems under the circumstances which the meters are being used. The transmitting meters most often being used transmit continuously, every few seconds. This is picked up by a receiver and logged by the utility. You are exposed to the transmissions from all the meters within transmitting range. The meters often have a range of over 2 miles. Thus, the exposure is continuous and the “safety” standards the meters comply with are irrelevant to the situation. Please read this letter from the Radiation Protection Division of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the limitations of the FCC standards.

The transmitting meters can also put high frequencies directly on home and building wiring. This can happen deliberately through signaling to electrical loads or inadvertently through poor engineering. Poorly engineered meters can cause electrical pollution by putting the transmitted signal directly on home wiring or by the way they draw power to operate. Whether deliberate or inadvertent, studies are finding high frequencies on building wiring is related to a host of health problems. Milham and Morgan found a dose-response relationship between high frequencies present on building wiring and cancer. Removing high frequencies on building wiring has improved MS symptoms, blood sugar levels, asthma, sleep quality, teacher health, headaches, ADD, and numerous other health problems. (Visit Research page to see papers.) Technical papers provide a solid electrical and biomolecular basis for these effects. A recent paper by Ozen , showed that transients induce much stronger current density levels in the human body than does the powerline 60Hz signal. A technical paper by Vignati and Giuliani discusses the authors’ findings that high frequency communication signals on power lines also induce much stronger electrical currents in the human body than a low frequency signal of the same strength. The induced currents disturb normal intercellular communications. This causes harmful short-term and long-term effects. Please see the Technical pagefor information about properly measuring the high frequencies on building wiring that are causing health problems. There is also a simple meter that lay people can use to easily measure most high frequencies on building wiring.

Transmitted microwave and radiowave radiation also have the potential for causing serious long-term health consequences, even for those who do not notice overt symptoms. The majority of independent studies report similar results: impairment of cellular communication, DNA breakages, increased stress proteins, etc. Studies targeting cellphone and cordless phone usage are finding increased risk of brain tumors. Children seem to be particularly vulnerable. A review of studies performed prior to 2007 is available at http://www.bioinitiave.org. A recent public health study provides particularly strong evidence that we should be concerned about continuous exposure to transmitted microwave radiation. It can be found in a paper published in Pathophysiology (Volume 16, Issue 1, June 2009, Pages 43-46) Apparent decreases in Swedish public health indicators after 1997-Are they due to improved diagnostics or to environmental factors?. The authors looked at trend lines in data collected by the Swedish government and found that the introduction of cellphone technology nationwide in 1997 coincided with the beginning of an accelerating deterioration of several health indicators. Specifically, the rates of prostate cancer, brain tumors, melanomas and lung cancers in the elderly all increased dramatically. So did deaths from Alzheimer’s disease, traffic accident injuries, sick leave rates, and percentage of infants born with heart problems. This paper is short and well worth reading. We should resolve the public health questions before introducing further public exposure to microwave radiation, particularly involuntary continuous exposure.

Radiowave and microwave radiation are not just a problem for people, they are causing serious problems for animals of all types. Please visit http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/issues/emr.php?id=bees and http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/issues/ for more information.

I will be sending updates regarding the issue of transmitting smart meters out to my email list. You may join the list by typing “join email list” in the subject heading when you email the Webmaster at webmaster@electricalpollution.com . I will also be updating the website.

        •       Write George Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability. He has the power to set policy on meter qualifications for the Smart Grid Program. The program could, for instance, require non-transmitting and non-electrically polluting meters. However, he will have to be convinced of the public health threat they pose in order to do so.

If you already have a transmitting meter and it is causing you health problems, please file a complaint with both the agencies listed below and then send a copy of those complaints to the EMR Policy Institute at info@emrpolicy.org with “Transmitting Smart Meter Complaint in the subject heading so that they can independently compile the complaints. (Please be prepared to give product information, including manufacturer and model number, and health symptoms.)

        •       Food and Drug Administration – The FDA regulates electronic consumer products that emit radiation (such as microwave ovens and video monitors and cellphones). You can file a complaint through the Medwatch Program on their website at https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/medwatch-online.htm or by calling 1-800-FDA-1088. The same program that regulates medical devices, regulates consumer products that emit radiation.

        •       Consumer Product Safety Commission – The Consumer Product Safety Commission is responsible for taking dangerous products off the market. You can file a complaint with the Consumer Product Safety Commission at 1-800-638-2772 or https://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/incident.aspx .

        •       EMR Policy Institute – Please send a copy of the complaints filed with the FDA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to the EMR Policy Institute at info@emrpolicy.org with “Transmitting Smart Meter Complaint” in the subject heading so that they can independently compile the complaints. This is not a substitute for filing complaints with the FDA or the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

You may join the list by typing “join email list” in the subject heading when you email the Webmaster at webmaster@electricalpollution.com .

Please see the Solutions page for a list of steps you can take to reduce your exposure to high frequencies in your home and the Take Action page for other ways you can help restore a safe EMF environment to the world.