In case you missed it, on Monday the Wall St. Journal published a debate between Stop Smart Meters! Director Joshua Hart and Jim Marston of the Environmental ‘Defense’ Fund. The topic of course was ‘smart’ meters, and whether consumers should accept or reject the technology.
You can sign up to comment on the debate for free here.
Thanks, Josh, for getting the word out at such a high-visibility publication as the Wall Street Journal. Here’s my comment:
I’ll ask Mr. Marston what a power official asked me when we were discussing the safety of having a “smart” meter on the wall outside a bedroom: “Well, you’re not sleeping in that room, are you?”
We’ve known for years about the dangers of radiofrequency radiation (RFR). Overexposure can cause cancer, which is why the World Health Organization has declared RFR a Class 2B carcinogen. And that radiation is shot through your home & family hundreds to thousands of times a day when you have a “smart” meter. One company brags that their “smart” meter can shoot a signal through a manhole cover, & please remember that it can travel up to forty miles back to the home office!
“Dirty electricity” is also a problem with “smart” meters. The switching mode power supply, which creates transients in the wiring around your home, can raise your chances of getting cancer from 60% up to 13 times.
So, other than “smart” meters being cancer machines, what else do they do? They share a rather detailed picture of your power usage. The head of the CIA said your appliances will now be able to send information to the power company, which can be accessed by other individuals, too. That will be done through the “Spy & Fry” meter! They will provide, via a chip installed in the machine, a variety of information that can be used by companies for marketing, & by others for their own purposes.
It is very easy for someone with a laptop and the knowhow, as a professor from the University of South Carolina found out, to drive by your house & ascertain whether or not anyone is home, based on electricity use. CIA director James Woolsey called the grid that these meters are a part of a “stupid grid,” because a terrorist could knock the power out with an ordinary cell phone from the other side of the world.
The “smart” meter, during one recent large storm, was not found to notify the electric company of power outages any more quickly than normal.
Many malfunctioning “smart” meters are still being read by a meter reader. Speaking of which, no one is financing those who still have analogs to have their meters read. They were already paying for this service!
I appreciate Mr. Marston saying that those with concerns should refuse a “smart” meter. Unfortunately, a lot of power companies are lying to customers and telling them they have to have wireless meters, which is not true (the Federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 says only that you can have one if you want one).
Who should refuse a “smart” meter? Anyone who values their family’s health, for one. Children are much more susceptible to getting cancer from radiofrequency radiation than adults, due to their thinner skulls, & the fact that they are at a developmental stage. Those who are elderly, infirm, using devices such as pacemakers definitely should not be around “smart” meters for any appreciable length of time. Anyone who does not want the many symptoms & maladies & exacerbation that are connected with exposure to excess RFR/EMF such as breathing difficulties, heart problems, insomnia, headaches, ringing in the ears, Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, ALS, tremors, muscle spasms, etc. should avoid them like the plague.
And the savings are a myth. The attorney general of Connecticut calculated that the savings, I believe, to be about eleven dollars per year.
Mr. Marston mentions safety issues. I take it that he hasn’t heard about the many, many fires that “smart” meters have started, & the fried wiring and ruined appliances they have caused.
In conclusion: If you don’t already have a “not-that-smart-after-all” meter, I suggest you put a sign underneath your safe analog meter that says “DO NOT REPLACE METER. We refuse the ‘smart’ meter due to health, safety, & privacy issues.” Place that in a gallon ziplock bag & tape it where the reader can read both the meter & the sign. And please warn your friends and neighbors to do the same. Thank you, and thanks to WSJ for airing this issue.
Finally a newspaper that published the important information given! Congrats to you Josh! Usually the mainstream media is biased towards these 24/7 chronic exposure, 3:12am wakeup machines.
After reading some of the comments in the WSJ article, I was prompted to review the Energy Policy Act (2005) document. That document states:
“…each electric utility shall offer each of its customer classes, and provide individual customers upon customer request, a time-based rate schedule…”
This is pretty clear. It’s about the option to choose a *rate schedule* for your electricity, according to your use — it’s not about choosing how the utility company measures your electricity use.
So, statements such as this (from WSJ): “…a lot of power companies are lying to customers and telling them they have to have wireless meters, which is not true (the Federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 says only that you can have one if you want one).” and this (from SSM): “The Energy Policy Act of 2005, section 1252, allows opting-IN to a “smart” system by customer request.” are simply untrue.
Are the utilities overstepping their boundaries by providing *all* users with the type of meter that would *allow* them to choose a time-based rate schedule? Well, that’s a different issue…
At the very least, federal policy is agnostic about whether smart meters can be forced on people. And with that lack of legal authority, private property rights and constitutional right to safety dictate that people have the right to choose.
The question continues to be does that federal act rule above state laws that allow the utilities to select their own equipment? This question has not yet been answered. State PSC code in WI allows utilities to select and install their own equipment. This code was made before the new TYPE of meters that transmit radiation existed. It is hard to know how to attack this in a legal manner. Any ideas?
I basically commented that smart meters are not a free market situation. Maybe that should reach some WSJ readers, who knows?
Since the Wall Street Journal won’t post my reply to Ross Heib’s comment I will post it here.
I guess nobody has ever heard of “Gulf War Syndrome”? The symptoms are identical to those victims complaining of health affects from the smart meter. It’s very common to hear of Navy personal retiring due to cancer. Check out the V.A. hospitals.
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/medically-unexplained-illness.asp
http://emfsafetynetwork.org/?page_id=2292
People are complaining of waking up at 3am all over the country. Could it be the identical time that the smart meter is turned uo to 4 watts for 90 seconds?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKDX_UGaZaU
Electromagnetic waves are identical to light waves. The pineal gland is stimulted by darkness and inhibited by light. It produces melatonin which is four times more powerful than vitamin c. Does anyone recognize a probem here?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland
Micowaves (300MHz-300GHz) are absorbed by water. We are what percent water? Note that a microwave oven and wifi share the same 2.4GHz frequency.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven
Paracelus founded the discipline of toxicology in the 15th century. He wrote “All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.”
The late Dr. Ted Litovitz researched electromagnetic fields for 15 years and explains exposure to them. He presented to US Congressional members his findings of the biological effects of EMF.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lAFbQqyVio
No one should be surprised when a wireless industry funded study claims there are no effects.
I would like to introduce you to a documentary titled “Resonance-Beings of Frequency”
http://vimeo.com/54189727
@Paul – “Could it be the identical time that the smart meter is turned uo to 4 watts for 90 seconds?”
Your video reference is meaningless, and your claim of any link between sleep and SmartMeters is pure speculation. So, here we go again… (this is getting to be tiresome)
https://stopsmartmeters.org/why-stop-smart-meters/#comment-257181
Read the entire sting, folks. What do *you* think of PaulH’s claim(s)?
Maybe I have done my research for over the past 2 years and maybe I haven’t. Was I lazy and just relied on what I was told?Have I asked everyone that I’ve run into, from all over the country, if they’ve been waking up at that time of morning or did I sit at home and just speculate on these things? Have I found that people sleeping in smart meter neighborhoods really do wake up at 3or 4am or am I making it all up? Did I really perform a neighborhood survey or did I just claim to have done so? Have I found the mechanism or have I explained something impossible? Are there inconsistancies in my posts?
Richard, you told us that you wanted to learn more about the symptoms of EHS. All I can remember of your posts is the defense of the smart meters and a smiley face 🙂 Your antagonizing comments have instigated my research and for that I would give yourself 5 smiley faces!…..Especially since that appears to be your modus operandi.
@Paul – I don’t care about IF you have discovered that people wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning…As far as I can tell, you have rediscovered the wheel.
**What is important** for everyone to understand is that you claim to know WHY people are waking up, but your claim has not been substantiated. Not by you, not by anyone else. Just answer the one question, Paul…
https://stopsmartmeters.org/why-stop-smart-meters/#comment-257181
My simple reply is below all by itself. All winter long the quail and roosters have made quite a racket……this happens at a little after 4am. Coincidence?
Well, Paul – With regard to your evidence for waking as a result of the increased power of SmartMeter transmissions at 3 to 4 AM, I might speak for the entire scientific community (and beyond) by saying: cock-a-doodle-doo! 🙂
Smart Meters – something to be afraid of? http://www.squidoo.com/beware-of-smart-meters
disruption of normal sleep patterns are very evident since
they were installed in our community. first hand experience that the induced insomnia also triggers depression, accidents, and down the road health consequences. those meters are health hazard.
not to mention privacy invasive.
Maybe you can get on board with this class action lawsuit?
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=1Vln-uuu_aI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1Vln-uuu_aI
http://emfsafetynetwork.org/?p=9806
What is the mechanism?
The pineal gland produces melatonin (the stuff that makes you sleep) when the eye doesn’t sense light waves.
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/otherendo/pineal.html
Light waves are identical to man made rf waves.
When light waves or rf waves are absorbed by the eye melatonin production is stopped and then serotonin is produced. Hence the instant “feel like you drank a pot of coffee feeling”. I’ve noticed that dogs and rooster are being affected.
Smart meters turn the power up to 4 watts for 90 seconds once a day. Sometimes it’s the 3am hour and also have noticed the 4am time period too (I have both a bulky spectrum analyzer and portable density analyzer) . The type of communication used by the smart meter penetrates most everything in your home and is amplified by up to 20db, when absorbed by metal. Every home is composed of different metals It would be difficult to find identical situations.
Water absorbs energy emitting from the smart meter. This might be why only one person in the bed wakes up. That person may have absorbed the energy that was directed towards the head.
Did ya get it?