Smart Meters: Dirty Electricity

A Deadly Business

After spending over an hour reading true personal stories of people whose lives have been ruined by these deadly, not-so-smart meters, it’s difficult to comprehend how utility companys can look the other way, when so many lives are being destroyed. The companies keep claiming that these smart meters are very safe, when massive evidence shows that they aren’t. People have seen them installed, even when they told company representatives that they were not wanted. Many people can’t get them removed, even when major health issues were caused by the electromagnetic radiation being emitted 24/7.

What is wrong in America today? How did these utility companies get the right to force products not adequately tested for safety into American homes? How do companies with products that emit harmful radiation get away with it and remain in business? Don’t Americans have any place they can turn to for help with serious health problems created by deadly products, like this?

After reading so many personal stories of people who had been seriously harmed by these smart meters, it was disturbing that in every case these people had received no resolution. The companies in some cases came to people’s home and removed all their electricity, when they complained. However, when so many surrounding homes have these smart meters, it is impossible to get away from this continual radiation. How can we get the American government to listen to the American people and not cater to industry?

Many people don’t even know what these smart meters are and what they are designed to do. Without people’s knowledge or acceptance, they are being forced into their homes without having been adequately safety tested. The utility companies say these smart meters will save money, because customer’s usuage will be relayed directly to the companies without meter readers needing to go to individual homes. The question is how will it be done? What are the ramifications of using this inadequately tested electronic technology?

Many are just waking up to the fact that electronic devices have a sinister side….it’s called radiation. Among its side effects are serious headaches, heart arrhythmias, memory loss, muscle spasms, insomnia and a multitude of other physical ailments. These health problems started occurring after wireless meters were installed. The following health effects have been documented on EMF (Electro Magnetic Field): DNA breaks, cancer, endocrine disruption, birth defects, sterility, ADD/ADHD, heart arrhythmias, learning impairment, headaches, ringing in ears, fatigue and sleep disturbance. Children, pregnant women, seniors, people with immune deficiencies and those with medical implants are especially at risk.

Without permission wireless smart meters are being installed in homes and businesses. Your health, safety and privacy depend on getting informed about smart meters. One has no control over the wireless computerized Smart Meter (or software updates) attached to your home. The utility company remotely controls all your utilities (electic, gas, water) in the new Smart Grid. Unlike your old analog meter, Smart Meters produce pulsed radio frequency (RF) radiation, but at much higher levels than a cell phone, and on a near constant basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Smart Meters invade your privacy collecting data and this information is permanently recorded.

Utility companies like to compare smart meters to cell phones and microwave ovens, saying smart meters emit less radiation than a cell phone and common household appliances. However, we don’t need scientific studies to conclude that cell phones and microwave ovens are optional. A report by nuclear policy expert Daniel Hirsch shows that a full body exposure of smart meters exceeds that of cell phones. His analysis showed how misleading the report was from the EPRI regarding smart meter radiation. “When you correct two facts, the whole body and cummulative, rather than just stating the cell phone has 100 times more exposure than the smart meter. When the smart meter turns out to roughly have 100 times more exposure than a cell phones.”

13 Fatal Flaws of Smart Meter Technology: 1) World Health Organization (WHO) classifies RF-EMF as a possible carcinogen (May 31, 2011 in Lyon, France). This is the same RF-EMF as smart meters and at equivalent levels to those on which the IARC finding was made. Studies showed an increased risk of glioma (a certain type of brain tumor) associated with wireless phone use. 2) Excessive billing (monthly electric bills doubling or tripling, with no increase in energy usage). 3) Excessive Cost to Ratepayers to install additional power transmitters and home LAN (wireless devices) at a later date. 4) No Evidence of Energy Savings for Ratepayers (not a green, energy-saving program as promoted). 5) Incompatibility with Solar ( at present, wireless smart meters = no solar an energy conservation disincentive). 6) Threat to Privacy of Personal and Financial Information (utilities have no experience and no competence to protect wireless information from hackers) 7) Threat to the National Electric Grid (from hacking or terrorism documented by the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, and the CNN program Cyber Attack (2010) on the risks from electronic hacking of electric, banking and transportation systems at a national level. www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cyber-war-20110328.0.6416856. story + http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/ 8) Threat to Personal Safety (wireless systems including security systems, wireless locks, baby monitors are hackable and may be disabled; and home use patterns, including your vacation schedule may be visualized by wireless hacking from the street).

9) Violation of FCC Public Safety Standards http://sagereports.com 10) Health Effects of Lowintensity Radiofrequency and “Dirty Electicity” Effects on Health and Well-being (on healthy poplations and those with chronic diseases, those being treated for cancer or neurological diseases, those with sleep disorders, and on the developing fetus and on children whose central nervous systems continue to develop into their late teens). 11) Threat to People with Medical Implants (The Department of Justice Americans with Disabilities is taking testimony now). 12) Threat to Use of Electronic and Wireless Devices (already in use in homes and businesses - think wireless security systems). 13) Threat to Electrical Wiring Safeguards (arc-fault disrupters, ground fault disrupters that are mandated under the (NEC) and fires and explosions following installation of wireless smart meters. http://www.click2houston.com/news/28147128/detail.html/ http://wfaa.com/news/fires-spark-during-smart-meter-installation-101115429.html

What are Smart Meters? Smart Meters are expensive devices that allow electric companies to track and control electricity usage in individual households. They do not save electricity, they are just like their older predecessors.

Why are so many customers complaining? TURN (The Utility Reform Network) has received thousands of complaints from customers concerned about smart meters. The CA Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) launched an investigation into PG&E’s Smart Meter, but failed to answer many of the questions customers continue to have about the accuracy, effectiveness and safety of these expensive new meters.

The Environmental Health Trust ehtrust.org/educate-yourself/health-risks.posed by-smartmeter provided the following, in order to find opt-out policies related to your smart meter. http://emfsafetynetwork.org/smart-meters http://www.ncsl.org/research/energy/smart-meter-opt-out-policies.aspx

Another website: amymyersmd.com/article/dangerous-smart-meter Check her article: How dangerous is your smart meter? “We do know that exposure to high levels of RF radiation can cause severe burns. Whether large or small amounts, RF radiation has severe effects.” She also wrote,” The U.S. safety limits for RF radiation is 1,000 micro-watts per meter squared. However, its not uncommon for some smart meters to produce 60 times this amoun- that means the radiation from the smart meter is equivalent to the output of 160 wireless devices, such as, cellphones.

The following statements came from: Engineers’s Report to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: “There is no doubt that smart and digital meters create pulsed RF emisssions. These emissions from the smart meter antennas and the RF created by the smart meters enter the house’s electrical system. The result is that the enire house is transformed into a radiating RF antenna.”

“Any meter with a switch mode power supply will create RF emissions in the kilohertz range that enter the electrical wiring system of the house. Smart meters and digital meters inject significant levels of RF on to the home’s electrical distribution center.”

“Most people are unaware that their meter has been switched from analog to a digital smart meter. If your home or building already had a meter, it was probably an analog (used for decades), but the replacement was most likely a digital meter - a “smart” meter.

“Just Say No to Big Brother’s Smart Meters” Forty Talking Points Against Them by Orlean Koehle, author, November 10, 2011. Ten Points listed (as follows): 1) Numerous Health Issues (as noted previously) 2) Not Scientifically Tested 3) Smart Meters Not UL Certified 4) Risk of Hacking and Thieves being able to Determine, if occupants are at home 5) Risk of Fires (reportedly have occurred already) 6) Risk of Appliance Burnout: Faulty Meters let 300-440 volts into homes with 220 and 110 lines. 7) Mega Meters located on every 500 homes: serve as mini-cell phone towers/emit high radiation. 8) Smart Meters equal Higher Rates: Doubling and Tripling Customer Bills. 9) Problems in Accuracy: thousands of calls in Northern California; didn’t send correct usage information back to PG& E; thousands failed to work at all; and thousands were installed improperly. 10) Smart Meters Heat Up and Create Higher Costs: When Temperatures go over 100 degrees.

Eliminating Smart Meters is necessary. The radiation is many times more powerful; affecting small children immensely. It penetrates deeper into their bodies and brains. It physically and mentally is very harmful to them. (Read 2018 paper - Qureshi2012) It also is affecting bees, birds, insects and plants exposed to higher density of RFR from smart meters; most emit very strong pulses of RFR 24 hours daily. Average 9600 times a day with a peak transmission level 2-1/2 times higher than the stated Safety Signal.

For more information: www.stopsmartmeters.org or www.refusesmartmeters.com It sells labels to put on your meter to STOP Smart Meters for $28 (packs of 25) - free shipping. It also has yard signs and more. What You Can Do: Educate Yourself and Others. Be Proactive. Contact Your Utility Comapany: If you have a Smart Meter, tell them you want it removed and your analog meter replaced at no cost. If you don’t have one already, ask them to put you on their “Delay” installation list.

Everyone needs to be aware, in order to protect those we love and all life on the planet. Smart Meters aren’t smart…it is dumb thinking on the part of utility companies to promote devices with the potential to do very great harm to their customers, other species and the environment…to make a profit!

The government should not consider industries to be more important than the well-being of the American people.

Healthfully Yours,

Barbara Charis