PUC Admits SmartMeter Health Crisis; Opt-Out Plan Falls Short

Angry Residents in SF’s Richmond District Take Action to Block Installations

San Francisco, CA- Facing mounting opposition to wireless ‘smart’ meters being rolled out by California utilities, including 10 local governments who have criminalized installations, and 23 more who have demanded that the CPUC stop the program because of widespread reports of health impacts, the Commission yesterday signalled that it would ask one of California’s utilities- PG&E- to develop a plan to allow customers to opt out of having a wireless meter installed- at customers’ expense.  Meanwhile, as residents in San Francisco and elsewhere learn more about the meters, some are furious and are taking direct action to stop installations.

Kendra Lock, a resident of San Francisco’s Richmond District who had a ‘smart’ meter installed at her house yesterday after being told that “it would be installed whether she allowed it or not,” was angry enough to physically block the Wellington Energy installer from leaving the scene- insisting that he remove the meter from her home. “I felt that PG&E intimidated me- I now realize they are systematically intimidating everyone.  We need to start asking questions.  Why are they pushing this on us so quickly without consultation or notification?  What’s actually behind this rollout?”

Environmental health advocates and a burgeoning grassroots movement to halt the installations welcomed the CPUC’s admission that there is a health crisis with the smart meter program, but slammed the meager steps proposed to address it.  According to Joshua Hart, Director of Stop Smart Meters!, “Admitting that there is a problem is the first step to fixing  that problem.   However, an individual opt out at customer expense for PG&E customers is a diversion.   What if you are too poor to avoid having a wireless meter- is the state saying you have to pay to avoid having a headache?  That sounds an awful lot like extortion.  What if you live in Southern California, or in an apartment building with dozens of meters on your bedroom wall?  The bottom line is that these meters are hurting people- and no one deserves to be subject to powerful microwave radiation pulses 24 hours a day in their own home.”

The wireless meters have been widely reported to cause headaches, dizziness, ringing in the ears- even memory loss and heart palpitations among susceptible individuals due to bursts of microwave radiation.  The movement against wireless meters is the sharp end of a growing movement demanding health-based standards for wireless technology.  Michael Peevey, who Gov. Brown has allowed to continue chairing the Commission, has continually insulted individuals with electro-sensitivity, inferring that they are ‘just making it up.’  Peevey, the former President and Senior Executive of Southern California Edison (SCE) has ties to the telecommunications industry, and continues to chair the Commission that is meant to oversee the utilities, despite popular outrage about clear conflicts of interest.  SCE plans to have installed 5.3 million meters between 2009 and 2012.

Health advocates say they will continue protests and civil disobedience until a moratorium is imposed on any further installation, independent hearings on health are scheduled at the state level, and the utilities are directed to remove unwanted meters.

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32 Responses to PUC Admits SmartMeter Health Crisis; Opt-Out Plan Falls Short

  1. MrEricSir says:

    How stupid do you have to be to think that these things pose a “health risk”? Just curious.

    • Sandy says:

      Actually, I think your question would be best posed to you. Who wants anything put on your house that you don’t want on it, esp. if it radiates rf and uses your electrical wiring to boost its signal.

    • TROLLSREXPOSED says:

      This is 4 the Trolls This Is NOT the ONLY site against YOU OMG Funded Trolls U r Obvious STFU YOUR IP Will be logged U will be charged (FYI this is SO Typical OF the #NWO DEATH Machines) U r Done Give it UP U will Go TO JAIL and this site IS JUST ONE CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY YOU HAVE SCAMMED http://youtu.be/n-1xge4GH-w http://youtu.be/8iXVLnYBSF4 Stop

    • pauline phillips says:

      first is the ringing in your years,
      unexplained consistent fatigue
      buzzing mouth or coldness to your teeth
      tingle on lips or tip of tongue prgressing to dry mouth
      tingle on feet or hands
      back pain in kidney region
      Its not a joke the frequency of .5 cell emition ossilates the metal in your mouth and releases mercury (burning Mouth) or lead in deep tissue
      three types of metal in your mouth nand nd you have battery syndrome
      dropsy – the droping of keys or small object
      sensitivity to aluminum
      electrictric shock when touching car
      vertigo –may only be one encounter
      onset of severe and cronic indigestion
      bumbing into objects or hitting your elbows–yor body holds the charge is no longer releasing it –thing realy start to change
      stumbling
      Heightened sinsitivity to electric fields from cell phones and wifi
      increased momentary memory loses
      balance problems – third stage
      walking is dificult
      runing in sleep, palpataing heat
      at this point you will be misdianoised- you need to do oral chealation to get rid of lead, mercuy and heavy metal poisoning in deep tissue from polution. the recovery is two yrs but the damage is real and you may still be sensitive to the smart meters cell emition ( it read your energy pattern every hour).not once amonth that would probaby be exceptable. —-
      I have meddical records and recovery and i’m sick again LOST
      I was exposed 2rs ago and and became very ill -bedridden. I moved away and completly recoved and they just put them my new nieghborhood. I refused them enterance but my nieghbor got one and became sick i was in her house for two hours and i became sick again
      i am lost as what to do

  2. Joseph says:

    Really? I mean really?

    Maybe you guys should stay out of the sun while your at it… you know because it’s the biggest source of microwave radiation on the planet.

    Thanks for slowing down the future idiots.

    • Sandy says:

      This comment doesn’t seem to make much sense.

    • Gabrielle says:

      Get over yourself, this is a legit problem

    • Cameron says:

      Wow some people just can help but be stupid. Do you not know the difference in frequencies of radiation? I’ll tell ya what, look up John Canzius, then tell me what rf waves can do if you have metal in your body. Not to mention the FACT that the government will be able, at any time, to inspect those records from your electric company that will provide intimate details of your life without probable cause because the supreme courts in many states have already determined that there is no expectation of privacy with respect to your utilities. You realize that many appliances have rfid chips in them, otherwise these smart-meters would be relatively pointless. They would be able to tell what time you make coffee, what time you eat every day from your microwave or oven, what time you go to bed, when you are home and not home and more. Plus the fact that banks in America are working on switching to rfid credit cards (like they have in many foreign countries, namely those in Europe) that these meters would also be capable of reading. Of course, these electic companies would also be within their rights to sell this information of product usage to other companies. These are all easily verifiable facts if you would simply look them up but no, you would prefer to live under the guise of safety and allow strangers to know FAR more information than they should about you because you simply refuse to inform yourself. Go ahead and make a comment about me and a tin foil hat or call me a teabagger to help you sleep better at night. Its not like anyone ever abused the Patriot Act either…

      • Redi Kilowatt says:

        What time you make coffee ? What time you go to bed ?
        Not true at all, but about RFID chips:
        The California State legislature shot down a proposal from corporations to mandate RFID chips in their employees ! I’m not making this up, look up actions taken about 3 years ago.
        The corporations wanted to have their employees “chipped” so they could be scanned before , during and after work, and tracked after work on their own time.
        Keep track of them and work them like dogs, pets.
        Opposers said that the daily scanning would be harmful to health.
        Also, I read an article in Electrical Contractor magazine about the future of wireless technology.
        They explained many really scary things, it’s been a while since I read it, but the one that I remember the most was that all subjects/citizens will have a chip installed at birth. These will contain all kinds of information under the guise of medical information.
        Do you know that Obama gave $19 billion to the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) project in 2009.
        This was to help the struggling private medical insurance corporations combat fraud by people not reporting existing conditions.
        These corporations will gladly take your money for years for a policy, but as soon as you try and file a claim, it will be denied because they “discovered” that you had a pre-existing condition.
        There are many very real projects going on with the corporations and governments, the DHS, CIA, DEA, NIG, FBI, EMR and Facebook that are a threat to our privacy, freedom and anonyminity. The surveillance cameras everywhere in public and private places is real, your science fiction about SmartMeters is not real, so it is not important to anyone at all, except the people who are oblivious as to what is going on due to the creation of the Patriot Act. TEA party patriots ?

  3. RobertWilliams says:

    To MrEricSir (previous commenter),

    Look at the video below that has an insurance company scientist telling about the DNA chain breaks caused by low levels of Wireless smart meter type radiation and that Insurance Companies will no longer insure Health Damage from Wireless Meters, devices etc due to this and other observed problems and then maybe look in the mirror to find the source of stupidity that you search for.
    http://eon3emfblog.net/?p=382

  4. Joseph says:

    Well thank god fools like you cant stop this… a small misinformed minority can only stop progress for so long.

    You’re going to lose. Luddites always lose.

    • Sandy says:

      Joseph, are you on PG&E’s payroll? Or are you just uninformed, and happy that way?

    • Texas BanSmartMeters.com says:

      Well, it looks like you’re really doing some good, activists. PG&E and their associates are now making efforts to hire people specifically to post their drivel in the comments. And notice how the only thing they can do is call juvenile names? No effort at all to counter our arguments with facts…maybe cuz they can’t!

    • Shucks the Explorer says:

      Hey PG&E, did you not learn from the Bill Deveraux fiasco that it does end well when you send your shills to argue on these blogs and forums?

  5. Sandy says:

    Thanks for making this video! I stopped Wellington from putting a “smart meter” on my electric box, and have asked for an “opt out”, giving them many different options besides a meter with rf technology attatched to my house and my electric wiring. I hope the lady in this video’s rights are respected, and she gets those meters taken off.

    Amazing that this is happening in the U.S., a country that is supposed to honor the rights of individuals.

  6. Aaron Brock, Esq. says:

    PG$E’S DECEPTIVE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY.

    PG$E’s Management Strategy was to get the 10 million Wireless Meters deployed as fast as they could without the people knowing much, if anything, about it.

    Then PG$E will make huge windfall profits (none shared with customers) by firing all the meter readers and collecting huge $ penalties from customers for reconnection service. PG$E will be able to disconnect and reconnect service remotely with the click of a mouse with the WIRELESS meters.

    After installation and problems occur, PG$E will be paid to fix and solve and correct the problems, so the more problems, the more money will flow from to PG$E. And it will all be paid by customers via rate increases and all kinds of other allowances approved by the PUC.

    The Attorney, Lindh, for the PUC was previously the attorney for PG$E.
    The Chairman of the PUC, Peevey, was previously the President of the Utility Company.

    PG$E was caught/busted/revealed prior to completion of deployment of all the 10 million WIRELESS meters.

    So the current PG$E PROPAGANDA THEME is that they did a BAD JOB WITH COMMUNICATIONS.

    But that is NOT true. That propaganda theme continues to cover up and disguise the REAL PROBLEMS FOR CUSTOMERS.

    If PG$E communicated well from the beginning then customers would all know that:
    1. The Wireless smart Meters Deployed (WMD) do NOT reduce energy usage.
    2. The Wireless smart Meters Deployed (WMD) do not reduce utility bills.
    3. The WMD do not facilitate renewable energy integrating into the grid.
    4. The WMD jeopardize the overall effectiveness of a smart grid.
    5. The WMD create security problems that WIRED smart meters do NOT.
    6. The WMD create hacking opportunities for high tech home robbers.
    7. The WMD create interference with other electrical and motion detector devices.
    8. The WMD have started fires at homes and businesses.
    9. The WMD are still suspects in the ignition of the San Bruno Fire & Explosion.
    10. The WMD emit pulsed RF signal radiation 24/7 without a shut off switch. Levels of that radiation, even lower than emitted by WMD, have been observed in laboratory tests (in test tubes and the brains of lab rats) to cause CELL DAMAGE, DNA CHAIN BREAKS, BREACHES IN THE BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER.
    11. The WMD emit pulsed radiation approximately 25,000 times per day, contrary to PG$E’s claims.
    12. The WMD radiation will be absorbed by and pass through our children’s bodies and brains without relief in our homes, even when they are sleeping.
    13. The WMD will collect personal and intimate private information from our homes and PG$E Corporate Management, the same group that killed children in Hinkley California as documented in the Julia Roberts Erin Brockovich Movie, will be the caretaker of that information. PG$E Corporate Management says they won’t “Accidentally” allow our information to be stolen or lost, they won’t sell or sneak it to commercial organizations that desperately want it in order to know more about our intimate use to sell us things.

    PG$E Corporate Management told the families in Hinkley California that the water was safe (EVEN THOUGH THEY KNEW IT WAS NOT SAFE) so the children drank it, swam in it and showered in it and then had to have operations removing organs in their bodies and suffering terrible painful paths to their deaths.

    These are the same PG$E Corporate Management that are attending our city council and board of supervisor meetings and holding “Education” meetings for customers.

    The PUC and the utility company in Maine are already talking about actual options to Wireless meters after only a couple months of complaints from customers while “PG$E is still “Considering it after four years.” And of course PG$E is NOT including a single knowledgeable CUSTOMER in their “Considerations.”

    These PG$E monsters and the Chairman of the PUC, that previously was the President of the Utility Company, should be tried for crimes against nature, children and humanity and then placed in the most secure and hard-time prisons as a token of what they truly deserve.

    Scientific information states that SMART METERS are not SAFE, due to the fact that they emit RF MICROWAVE RADIATION 24 hours a day, in close range, non-thermal, chronic long-term exposure.To harm a customer in their home is a criminal act. TO ignore health and safety complaints from thousands of customers is malicious, reckless endangerment,criminal, and pathological conduct. PLus, ‘Smart’ Meters are not UL Certified,
    Underwriters Laboratory Confirms smartMeters are Not Safety Tested, Raising Fire Safety Fears, in addition to RAdiation poisoning.

    Scientists Urge Halt of Wireless Rollout and Call for New Safety Standards
    2/13/2011: Scientists who study radiofrequency radiation from wireless technologies have issued a scientific statement warning that exposures may be harming the development of children at levels now commonly found in the environment. Pregnant women are cautioned to avoid using wireless devices themselves and distance themselves from other users.
    The Seletun Scientific Statement has now been published in Reviews on Environmental Health (2010; 25: 307-317). The article recommends that lower limits be established for electromagnetic fields and wireless exposures, based on scientific studies reporting health impacts at much lower exposure levels. Many researchers now believe the “so-called” existing safety limits set by the FCC are dangerous, incorrect,are inadequate to protect public health because they do not consider prolonged exposure to lower emission levels that are now widespread, and chronic.
    http://www.sagereports.com/smart-meter-rf/docs/Fragopoulou_et_al_2010b.pdf

    We demand that smart meters be removed immediately, and banned from our homes. Beloved babies, children, seniors, families, and pets are being grossly irradiated, and assualted, against their will 24 hours a day, poisoned, and sickened, with severe, debilitating, and irreversible health effects. We DEMAND an immeduate OPT_OUT PERMANENTLy.Backed by current scientific knowledge, 100’s of scientific reports conclude that the non-thermal effects of microwave radiation, especially close range, constant exposure is extremely dangerous, and no dose is safe. We can refuse to consent to a utility which endangers our health. Second hand cigarette smoke is bad; second hand radiation is worse. The installation of Radaition emitting smart meterss inches from our bodies, 24 hours a day is an egregious criminal act, and is in absolute violation of the Constitiution, the Geneva Convention, and an abomination of our Civil RIghts. PGE’s illicit propaganda is lying to the public, stating that these microwave radiation emitting meters are “safe” is an evil lie. PGE has a long history of poisioning, and killing people in their homes, and lying, and covering up, if you have not seen Erin Brochovic, rent it.PGE has declared war on millions of innocent customers, forcing 24 hour exposure to deadly radiation, against their will, with no choice.Smart meters are simply their newest weapon that they are, in their own devious words are “deploying”, de·ploy verb \di-ˈplȯi\

    Definition of DEPLOY
    transitive verb
    1
    a : to extend (a military unit) especially in width

    b : to place in battle formation or appropriate positions
    2
    : to spread out, utilize, or arrange for a deliberate purpose

    This is a crime against humanity, and will be treated as a war crime.

    Smart meters are not an environmental solution, they offer no benefit to the customer, block the abilit to add solar panels, to return energy reserves, theyraise the already inflated price of energy, create potential severe fire hazards, all while blasting our loved ones full of non-stop radiation, which is and willbreak DNA in our bodies, cause brain tumors, infertility, leukemia, heart irregularities, constnat rinigin in the ears, suppress immune function, interuppt sleep, headaches, infertility, eye problems, nausa, and cause cancers which will lead to death. In spite of thousands of compaints, PGE and CPUC are not protecting the innocent people, they are protecting the these investor=based corporations, that are only interested in one thing…money. If they kill thousands of people is of no concern, if babies die of leukemia, they could careless, there must be justice, in this country, or any country that will protect inncoent people from being blasted with radiation in their homes, against their will, with no choice, and no where to escape. Shame on every person that has refused to help us. THe name for someone that stands idly by while a person is being harmed is called an “accomplice to the crime”. I appeal to your sense of what is decent, and humane, and please move heaven and earth tonremove radiation emitting smart meters from our homes, immediately and ban the use of any and all meters that emit any form of radiation, or harmful emmissions. We must have a choice, and PGE must remove any meter, and meters from any customer that is being affected by it. In these difficult economic times, billions of customers dollars have benn squandered on these dangerous, and useless devices, and the cost and toll on the healthm and safety of millions of innocent people is at severe risk. Immediate removal of smart meters is the only answer. Thank you for your valuable time, and I trust that you will take honorable action and protect innocent people being harmed in theor harmes. PGT states that they are only doing what the cpuc mandated, but the CPUC statef that they mandated a smart grid, but never mandated wireless meters that emit rf microwave radiation. SMart meters pose a fire risk, in he smae way that you should not be on a cell phone at a gas station, one spark, and the gas meter blows. San Bruno, which burned to the ground, causing fatalities, was fully installed with Smart meters. BIlls have skyrocketed since the installation. Privacy and safety are being invaded. Who will stop this reckless endangerment, and health threat!! If a utility wages war on innocent customers, that have paid their bills for decades, who will protect them? Who is the paying the price with their health and their wallets, the innocent customers. We demand immediate removal, and permanent opt out of rf radiation emitting smart meters, and replace the analog meters, until there is a safe, non-radiation emitting, fiber-optic based meter. Until then, PGE and the CPUC stating that Smart meters are safe because the FCC says so, is like saying it is safe to take a shower in lethal gas because Hitler said so. Strong words, are called for when a utility is exposing customers to 24 hour radiation in their home, against their wil, against serious complaints. WE DEMAND immedaite and permanent REMOVALand immediate and permanent OPT OUT OF SMART METERS.

    Painful conditions endured by the families of Garcia and Jasso are identical to those suffered by Japanese victims of gamma wave radiation after nuclear explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Five decades of studies confirm that non-ionizing communications radiation in the RF/microwave spectrum has the same effect on human health as ionizing gamma wave radiation from nuclear reactions. Leading German radiation expert Dr. Heyo Eckel, an official of the German Medical Association, states, “The injuries that result from radioactive radiation are identical with the effects of electromagnetic radiation. The damages are so similar that they are hard to differentiate.”1

    Understanding what happened at Likely Mountain is critical to understanding the public health threat posed by RF/microwave radiation in the United States. The families of Garcia and Jasso, plus previous lookout workers and multitudes of tourists who visited Likely Mountain for camping and sightseeing, were beamed by the same kind of high frequency radiation that blasts from tens of thousands of neighborhood cell towers and rooftop antennas erected across America for wireless communications. The city of San Francisco, with an area of only seven square miles, has over 2,500 licensed cell phone antennas positioned at 530 locations throughout the city. In practical terms, this city, like thousands of others, is being wave-nuked 24 hours a day.

    The identical damage resulting from both radioactive gamma waves and high frequency microwaves involves a pathological condition in which the nuclei of irradiated human cells splinter into fragments called micronuclei. Micronuclei are a definitive pre-cursor of cancer. During the 1986 nuclear reactor disaster at Chernobyl in Russia, the ionizing radiation released was equivalent to 400 atomic bombs, with an estimated ultimate human toll of 10,000 deaths. Exposed Russians quickly developed blood cell micronuclei, leaving them at high risk for cancer.

    What they wouldn’t tell us

    RF/microwaves from cell phones and cell tower transmitters also cause micronuclei damage in blood cells. This was reported a decade ago by Drs. Henry Lai and Narendrah Singh, biomedical researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Singh is famous for refining comet assay techniques used to identify DNA damage. Lai and Singh demonstrated in numerous animal studies that mobile phone radiation quickly causes DNA single and double strand breaks at levels well below the current federal “safe” exposure standards.2

    The telecommunications industry knows this thanks to its own six-year, wireless technology research (WTR) study program mandated by Congress and completed in 1999. Gathering a team of over 200 doctors, scientists and experts in the field, WTR research showed that human blood exposed to cell phone radiation had a 300-percent increase in genetic damage in the form of micronuclei.3 Dr. George Carlo, a public health expert who coordinated the WTR studies, confirms that exposure to communications radiation from wireless technology is “potentially the biggest health insult” this nation has ever seen. Dr. Carlo believes RF/microwave radiation is a greater threat than cigarette smoking and asbestos.

    In 2000, European communications giant T-Mobile commissioned the German ECOLOG Institute to review all available scientific evidence in regard to health risks for wireless telecommunications. ECOLOG found over 220 peer-reviewed, published papers documenting the cancer-initiating and cancer-promoting effects of the high frequency radiation employed by wireless technology.4 Many corroborating studies have been published since.

    By 2004, 12 research groups from seven European countries cooperating in the REFLEX study project confirmed that microwaves from wireless communications devices cause significant single and double strand DNA breaks in both human and animal cells under laboratory conditions.5 In 2005, a Chinese medical study confirmed statistically significant DNA damage from pulsed microwaves at cell phone levels.6 That same year, University of Chicago researchers described how pulsed communications microwaves alter gene expression in human cells at non-thermal exposure levels.7

    Because gamma waves and RF/microwave radiation are identically carcinogenic and genotoxic to the cellular roots of life, the safe dose of either kind of radiation is zero. No study has proven that any level of exposure from cell-damaging radiation is safe for humans. Dr. Carlo confirms that cell damage is not dose dependant because any exposure level, no matter how small, can trigger damage response by cell mechanisms.8

    Officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health closely reviewed the damning results of WTR studies, which also revealed microwave damage to the blood brain barrier. But these officials have chosen to downplay, obfuscate and even deny the irrepressible science of the day. Raking in $billions from selling spectrum licenses, the feds have allowed the telecom industry to unleash demonstrably dangerous technology which induces millions of people to become brain-intimate with improperly tested wireless devices9 and which saturates the nation with carcinogenic waves to service those devices. Dr. Carlo says that even the American Cancer Society is in bed with the communications industry, which infuses the Society with substantial contributions.10

    Two ways to die

    Medical science illustrates that there are two ways to die from radiation poisoning: Fast burn and slow burn. Nuclear flash-burned Japanese had parts of their flesh melt off before they died in agony within hours or days. People have also quickly died after walking through powerful radar beams, which can microwave-cook internal organs within seconds of exposure.

    Slow-burn radiation mechanisms are cumulative, progressive, ongoing and continual. Thousands of Japanese nuke bomb victims died painfully years after exposure. The slow burn process of RF/microwave exposure is manifested by cancer clusters commonly found in communities irradiated by cell tower transmitters. Recent Swedish epidemiological studies confirm that, after 2,000 hours of cellular phone exposure, or a latency period of about 10 years, brain cancer risk rises by 240 percent.11

    Communications antennas now blast the human habitat with many different electromagnetic frequencies simultaneously. Human DNA hears this energetic cacophony loud and clear, reacting like the human ear would to high volume country music, R&B plus rock and roll screaming from the same speaker. Irradiated cells struggle to protect themselves against this destructive dissonance by hardening their membranes. They cease to receive nourishment, stop releasing toxins, die prematurely and spill micronuclei fragments into a sort of “tumor bank account.” This is precisely how microwave radiation prematurely ages living tissues.

    *******

    David O. Carpenter: Report on CCST Review of Health Effects of Smart Meters

    https://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/content/view/2145/65/

    Dr. David O. Carpenter, expert in public health and wireless technologies, reports negatively on the review of the California Council for Science and Technology’s “Health Impacts of Radiofrequency from Smart Meters”. Dr. Carpenter provides his expert opinion, “This document is not an accurate description of the state of the science on the issue of radiofrequency fields, and is full of inaccuracies”, further noting it “is obvious that no persons with medical or biological expertise participated in this report.” Dr. Carpenter’s expert comments on the extensive dangers of smart meters are backed up with his specific concerns about the CCST report, with scientific realities and facts apparently not taken into consideration by the CCST. This confirms SMH comments on the CCST report. (SMH)

    Click here to read the original, signed report by Dr. Carpenter as a pdf.
    Institute for Health and the Environment
    and Department of Environmental Health Sciences
    School of Public Health
    University at Albany, State University of New York

    This is a report on the review of the California Council on Science and Technology document, “Health Impacts of Radiofrequency from Smart Meters”. I am a public health physician and former Dean of the School of Public Health at the University at Albany. I have been involved in review and analysis of studies on electromagnetic fields, including radiofrequency fields, for many years. I served as the Executive Secretary to the New York State Powerlines Project in the 1980s, and have published several reviews on the subject and have edited two books. In addition I was invited to present to the recent President’s Cancer Panel on the subject of powerline and radiofrequency fields and cancer.

    This document is not an accurate description of the state of the science on the issue of radiofrequency fields, and is full of inaccuracies. My specific concerns are as follows:

    1. The benefit of the smart meters is entirely to the utilities, and is economic in nature. If they install smart meters they can fire those individuals who at present are employed to go around reading meters. Thus this is a job-killing proposal, and will increase unemployment in a state that already has too much.
    2. When a smart meter is installed residents have no choice in the matter nor ability to avoid exposure. But every individual has the option to use or not use other personal wireless devices, until more is know about health consequences of chronic RF exposure. There is a major different between an exposure which an individual chooses to accept and one that is forces on individuals who can do nothing about it.
    3. The statement “The potential for behavioral disruption from increase body tissue temperatures is the only biological health impact that has been consistently demonstrated and scientifically proven to result from absorbing RF within the band of the electromagnetic spectrum that smart meters use” is totally wrong. In the first place there are many adverse health effects other than “behavioral disruption” demonstrated as a result of tissue heating. The evidence for increased risk of brain tumors, acoustic neuromas and parotid gland tumors in individuals who have used a cell phone for 10 years or more is consistent, and the tumors occur only on the side of the head where the phone is used. There is also strong and consistent evidence for increased risk of leukemia in individuals who live near to high power AM radio transmission towers, even though this report characterizes such exposures as being “quite low” and show in Figure 7 that they are lower than the RF fields from smart meters.
    4. The statement “The scientific consensus is that body temperatures must increase at least 1oC to lead to potential biological impacts from the heat” is totally wrong, and makes it obvious that no persons with medical or biological expertise participated in this report. Every enzyme system in the body is exquisitely sensitive to temperature, and increases activity by even a fraction of a degree increase in temperature. In fact all RF generates heat, and what is defined as “nonthermal” is only a function of our ability to measure the temperature increase.
    5. The statement “While concerns of brain cancer associated with mobile phone usage persist, there is currently no definitive evidence linking cell phone usage with increased incidence of cancer” is incorrect. The evidence is strong and consistent among studies looking at long-term and intensive use of cell phones. The AM radio studies mentioned above are also relevant, particularly because like smart phones radio transmission towers give whole body radiation, not just to the head.
    6. The statement “There currently is no conclusive scientific evidence pointing to a non-thermal cause-and-effect between human exposure to RF emissions and negative health impacts is inaccurate, and depends totally on what one defines as “conclusive”. In biology and medicine there is nothing that is 100% proven. We rely on statistical significance and weight of evidence when drawing conclusions about health effects. When one uses these definitions there is conclusive scientific evidence for adverse health effects in humans.
    7. The evidence for adverse effects of radiofrequency radiation is currently strong and grows stronger with each new study.

  7. Josh Finley says:

    Keep it up, Josh. When you get that banal B.S. about synthetic EM radiation being OK because “the sun emits EM radiation too,” it might help to remind people that the fact that life is made up of chemical building blocks doesn’t mean that there’s no such thing as toxic chemicals.

  8. Katherine Roberts says:

    Can any of these experts help us keep these things out of our neighborhoods?

  9. Don Perata says:

    This is outrageous! We need to stop PG and E from emitting radiation. In that same breath, we need to get all these WiFi devices out of people’s homes as well as their cell phones. This stuff is dangerous. Probably 100 times more than the smart meters. I propose that in the mean time we cover our windows with tinfoil.

    • KH says:

      I would not want my baby’s crib on the other side of the wall where a Smart Meter is – It creates an EMF that can not be turned off or moved away from – I shouldn’t have to worry about how many times it’s transmitting in the middle of the night. No studies were done on children. EMF’s do break down the Blood Brain Barrier and DNA. Smart Meters have malfunctioned. This violates the 14th Amendment and Smart Meters run over WI-FI and vulnerable to hacking.

  10. Priest says:

    Hard facts for the misinformed and for the PG&E shills commenting on this site:

    *) Connected an oscilloscope to my house electrical system: A and B phases with neutral
    *) Conducted time-series analysis both with and without the GE Smart Meter installed
    *) Lo and Behold: Smart Meter generates >400% increase in noise on the electrical lines when installed (resulting in >93% of total noise) AND produces “phantom” pulses on one of the electrical phases.
    *) We also discovered that Smart Meters, when installed on houses with older wiring (like mine), which were built pre-70s with 2-wire electrical installations (that is, missing the third wire–a dedicated ground wire), generate significant increases in electromagnetic field radiation. This is due to the dated 2-wire shielding standard and lack of a dedicated ground wire–a common installation found in older dwellings.

    Conclusion: The utility companies are negligent here because they failed to inform and seek home-owners’ confirmation for electrical wiring and grounding compliance *before* installing their meters, thus subjecting customers–particularly those living in older dwellings–to increased EMF radiation and electrical noise that has been found to cause headaches, nausea, tinnitus, fatigue, irregular heartbeats, and host of other health-related concerns. For the wrap-up, just put a couple of well-educated electrical engineers together with a few MDs specializing in EMF and noise effects on the body (I suggest focusing on the 16KHz harmonic, as this was a noise harmonic induced in my electrical lines), and you’ll come up with the basis for a very compelling class-action lawsuit.

    Chew on those facts MrEricSir and Joseph !!!

  11. janie says:

    One of my good friends had a smart meter put in his house and a week later his meter caught on fire. It burned the whole side of his house. Luckily he was home and called 911, the fire department was able to put the fire out before it engulfed his entire house. It caused over 10000 dollars worth of damage. Thankfully it didnt happen while he was sleeping or I might have one less friend.

  12. Redi Kilowatt says:

    An AMR is an Automated Meter Reader, they have been around for a long time, but the new meters are AMI, Automated Meter Infrastructure, they are the ones that are being “deployed” now, and are capable of much more than just an AMR.
    I don’t know where you live, but here in PG&E territory, what was approved originally in 2002 was an AMR system. They were going to leave the analog electric meters in place and install an ancillary device that would send the meter reads over a powerline carrier system (PLC), using the existing powerlines and transmitting billing data on radio frequency on top of the existing lines.
    But that failed, because the aging power grid that we have in the U.S, with the old ferrite core step down transformers would not pass the data. They found out that they would have to actually upgrade the power grid before they could use a powerline carrier.
    Now, they did not have permission from the PUC’s to start upgrading the power grid on the ratepayers dime, that would be a capital outlay project that should be funded by the private profiteering business and their investors.
    So the brilliant corporate heads cooked up a grand scam to trick the public into thinking that by replacing the electric meters would be upgrading the grid. It’s not.
    And they paid the government to go along with them, and got federal stimulus money to do so. The sole purpose of using federal stimulus money in this case, was to eliminate meter reading jobs. Funny how this works.
    Here is a link to the Home Area Networks (HAN) planned for the distant future. There are several options, using powerline carriers like HomePlug, and ZigBee, a radio frequency system.
    http://www.homeplug.org/tech//ZBHP_SE_MRD_09024.pdf

    • Amy O'Hair says:

      @redi kilowatt
      The link doesn’t seem to be right.

      What is the story on all new appliances having RF transmitters already installed and working? Is it really the distant future, or all the appliance co.s ready to go on this? Is this a CPUC thing or a federal program? Thx.

      Can I email you off-site about another question? amyohair AT gmail

  13. Pingback: “Smart” Meters | wirelesswatchblog

  14. Pingback: CPUC: PG&E Customers Can Refuse Smart Meters... What About GWP, Other California Utilities?

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