In a veiled warning sent out with Pacific Gas and Electric utility bills, PG&E warns “studies have reported a weak association between estimates of residential magnetic field exposure and certain types of childhood cancer.”
Scratching your head? Turns out the leaflets were sent out- and PG&E knew of the dangers of EMF’s- nearly two decades ago:
A California Public Utilities Commission public panel- the EMF consensus group- that included representatives from the utilities, labor, and the general public was set up in the early nineties in response to growing outrage over childhood leukemia clusters around high tension power lines. “The Great Power Line Cover Up” by Paul Brodeur describes how PG&E tried to cover up a powerline cancer cluster at a Fresno elementary school and SCE did the same in Montecito. The parallels with the smart meter health cover-up are eerie.
The EMF consensus group recommended that “low cost and no cost measures” be taken to reduce public exposure to electromagnetic fields, a policy that the CPUC adopted. Only 15 years later, the Commission approved the smart meter mesh network- a extraordinarily high cost measure that has monumentally increased the public’s exposure to EMF.
Setting aside obvious questions for the moment here (isn’t preventing your child from getting leukemia worth more than a “low cost?” and “why are they trying to kill us?”) it seems that the folks asleep at the regulatory wheel have swerved off the road and are heading for the cliff at high speed.
To justify taking these horrific risks, extraordinary linguistic gymnastics are exercised by the CPUC to avoid saying the obvious- that EMF’s cause cancer. Bear witness.
Twenty years later- with the science more certain than ever, and sources of the radiation multiplying, the utility and regulatory industries have retreated further in their shell and still insist ‘the jury’s out’ -even as the toll mounts.
The person who brought this flyer to our attention told SSM!:
“I had been impressed to read of possible health dangers from EMF exposure, and started to keep a file on the topic, as this brochure indicated to me that PG&E was expecting to see further health studies regarding EMF exposure and human proximity guidelines. Based on having received this brochure, I moved the alarm clock away from my bed, asked my daughters to sit farther away from the TV set, minimized hair dryer usage, and so forth.
What makes this PG&E brochure so fascinating to me is the nature of the information then provided to PG&E customers, with informative charts on types of fields and measurements of various household appliances at various distances with associated magnetic fields). It shows that PG&E knew many years ago the dangers of EMF fields… some 18 years ago. “
Don’t we need an “EMF Consensus Group” in California way more in 2012 than we did in 1991? If the unimaginable occurred and the public could sit down in a room with the utilities and regulators and came to some “consensus”, would the CPUC respect the outcome and follow sensible EMF policies favored by the public- more than they did the first time around? Or would it all be thrown under the bus in the pursuit of profit and control?
The answer might go some way toward explaining why these things end up in court, or in the streets.
Full text of PG&E’s mid 1990’s EMF Flyer here: UNDERSTANDING EMF
Compare with 2012: UNDERSTANDING RF
The utility industry and regulators KNOW the negatives about transmitting RF meters for sure. Connecting the dots like you have done brings it out. They also KNOW about other risks to consumers besides health.
“Regulatory Aspects of Smart Metering: United States Experience” published for Utility Regulators on February 14, 2011 lists the risks they KNOW about but refuse to let that stop them, nor do they disclose these to consumers:
II. Consumer Protection Issues: While smart meters can provide
a variety of cost-saving, operational and technological benefits
for utilities, consumers may not experience the same level of
benefits.
• Consumers may be reluctant to adopt the new, smart meterrelated technologies such as the home area networks (HAN), necessary in order for consumers to take advantage of the functionalities of smart grid, but they are expensive and require
an education to use.
• Low income, elderly and disabled consumers may not have the means or ability to purchase the related home area network technology to enable them access to their usage data, and to use time of day rates.
• Mandatory dynamic rate designs may be disadvantageous to those consumers who cannot shift usage to off-peak times, particularly the elderly and disabled, because they may experience higher energy bills.
• Remote disconnection functionalities of smart meters may allow utilities to more quickly shut off power to consumers with small unpaid bills than would otherwise occur with traditional meters.
AND
VI. Consumer Privacy, Safety and Security: Certain risks exist for consumers who
have smart meters and home area networks at their homes.
• Smart meters can allow persons outside a home to determine if it is occupied, creating security risks.
• Smart meters and HAN can allow persons outside a home to acquire personal information, such as what appliances and medications are inside the home.
• Data about personal energy usage can be sold to third parties to create detailed portraits of the habits, lifestyle, and purchases of the consumer.
Look up the document for even more problems (such as cost recovery issues).
Jill,
That is some far out stuff you are writing, especially about people being able to find out what appliances and medications are inside the house.
The DHS and millions of scientists and engineers would like to learn how this could ever be possible, so could you please explain how you do it ?
I recently saw a documentary or news show (within the last year) on a mainstream cable channel) that showed EXACTLY how the medications were tracked. Simple. RF chips are inserted in most over-the-counter medications. Buy the medicine. Drive it home. The RF info can be easily picked up by satellite.
In the meth business? All those boxes of Sudafed in your possession light up like a Christmas tree from the RF chips contained inside.
The show mapped out a typical neighborhood with a graphic map as seen from on high. Medications could be tracked to exact addresses.
The only problem with your thinking is, RFID chips only transmit a very short distance to s scanner, and RFID chips inserted in medicines ? Come on.
And how about finding out about what appliances are inside a house ? I’d like to see your answer to that.
And also, what does any of that have to do with SmartMeters ?
Your writings are amusing , so keep going with it, but don’t expect anybody with half a brain to actually believe you. Of course, there are many people on this propaganda site with less than half a brain.
I can see that you enjoy science fiction writing, and also are gullible to fall for these whacky videos . To each their own.
Here is the link to quick view (sorry it’s long):
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:UUvj5VraNC4J:www.erranet.org/index.php?name%3DOE-eLibrary%26file%3Ddownload%26id%3D7377%26keret%3DN%26showheader%3DN+Regulatory+Aspects+of+Smart+Metering:+United+States+Experience,+Joint+Licensing/Competition&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjvEK0WpKr5nA5Ii5uRV-QnIIvT11LfV1CCL4b5oRbhMpoWDRF47klQrCCT7WFKmm6dAvhInsQJQ-Kf5mz6zU7Mi5gapNEnAdSprFN7JyMWsDfHz8P2OhaSYKNbdhbM-nPnzZKn&sig=AHIEtbQVajHgfr4K7dJl6TUjJvoiKfwnSQ
Redi, give SJ some respect. There are corporate types who are waiting for RFID to come down in price so they can use them in all sorts of ways to generate marketable data. Stuff that sounds like semiparanoid sci-fi is just shy of what business can actually imagine, in their ethics-free think-tanks, for exploiting the ever-cheaper world of wireless. Newer RFID can be read at 40 feet under non-optimal circumstances. That’s a truck outside your house, not a satellite, admittedly, but I don’t think SJ is way off base.
Redi,
I did not write it. Ms. Diane Ranthum of the PSC of Wisconsin wrote it for the document I cite for a regulatory meeting in 2011.
Jill,
I am not going to waste my time with that link since you described some of the content, but I am curious what the “PSC” stands for, might it be the Pseudo Science Corporation ?
Yes, this is old news. We have been getting those warnings for decades.
In Mill Valley, PG&E did a project about 5 years ago to underground all the secondary electrical lines on E. Blithedale Ave. It was to supposedly help protect the students at Park School.
EMF and RF have been a concern for decades, and blood cancers like leukemia have plagued us for many decades.
I am surprised that the SSM site just found out about it.
Now, if they found out about all the radio frequency radiation and electro magnetic radiation going on, they would really freak out.
There is radio frequency radiation and electromagnetic radiation coming from outer space, as well as other kinds of radiation. Yes, the galaxy is bombarding us with radiation, and even if we gave up using electricity, we would still be getting it from outer space, the Earth itself and even from inside our own bodies. All living things are electric . Your brain is a very complex computer that runs on electric pulses.
But, that does not mean that the SmartMeters and their radio SmartGrid are a good thing, they just compound the problems.
Actually, there are other problems with the SmartMeter/SmartGrid that are much worse, like how we have been ripped off to fund this garbage program, and all the corporate horsepucky about how the program saves energy. It’s all pure bunk.
According to Dr George Carlo, research scientist that was paid $28.5 million to do the research for the cell phone companies, the information riding on the carrier wave is what our cells recognize as a threat. Here is a video of him explaining the process.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6197753408372505873
“World-renowned Epidemiologist Dr. George Carlo provided a high impact presentation that exposed the dangers of living in the wireless age in a way that everyone could understand. As the chief scientist of the world’s largest research effort into wireless safety, the Safe Wireless Initiative (SWI), he discussed the effects of electromagnetic radiation, specifically Information Carrying Radio Waves (IRCWs) and how they negatively affect the body’s ability to function and repair damage affecting our cells.”
While I’m very concerned about privacy and all that, this is some wild-eyed fanciful stuff with little evidence or logical thinking provided here. I’ve looked all around the web site and I see lots of claims of EMF going way up but no explanation for how it would happen. The current passes through the meter and enters your house whether it is smart or analog. Nothing changes about your actual electric current. The device measures your usage, not pumps additional power into your house.
The wireless feature of this device briefly sends out an update every hour or whatever… to the cell networks I presume. Well so does my cell phone, and all the time, sometimes while right next to my head. The meter is mounted on the side of my house… I do not keep my head next to it. No cell networks have signals in this area, so this wouldn’t happen for me anyway… the meter on my house is read wirelessly by a vehicle that drives down the street once a month, the reasoning being it is faster than parking and walking up to each meter one by one.
Seriously you’re claiming that it’ll monitor, turn off or control devices all throughout the house? Unless a device is specifically designed to interface with the meter, I’d really like to know how that would happen. And, if such a device is ever put out there for purchase, no way am I buying it. The thermostat for my furnace is a simple mechanical dial with no electronics that simply closes a low-voltage circuit when the furnace needs to come on. Or, I can just use the pellet stove… good luck controlling dumping bags of pellets into my stove. I could go on and on, but no way am I getting any device that communicates with a smart meter.
The main problem I see here is additional info out there about my overall usage patterns (they’d have no per-device knowledge), which I’d prefer they not know about. Plus I suspect they could remotely shut down my usage if they think it is “too high”. If they do that, so be it… I want to be off grid anyway.
Its realy gotten where do you trust big corparate to do the right thing .NO thier about the Money.Why arent they scrutinized by the government with Weights and Measures like gas stations . U mean to tell me that every metter is acurate and were not being over billed??? 3 pennies here and thier in millions of customers. Whats wrong with this pic?? If they stupe so low to cut out meter readers to save money and Jobs ,then spend 800 MILLION dollars in FL alone and got 200 MILLION from BIG BROTHER who we all love and trust. What the real problem is that our politicians Sold thier souls to Corparate America . You got to VOTE them out Come on Americans dont be Bulldozed and let us be bullied.Just read the Constitution soon they tell you when and where you Eat???
Redi Kilowatt if you say that these waves only travel a short distance then sir tell me why the equipment to read these meters is a 1/4 mile plus threw out our neighborhoods and most of these meters are with in feet of where we sleep in some instances their on the other side of a wall where you place your head and sleep.It sounds to me that your pro something you realy dont know about?? Ive optited out along with a few friends and now we are being harassed. you do now this works both ways. Im Just Saying??? So tell us Redi who pays your salary. and why are you so pro for this , what are you getting out of this??? You cant garauntee us that that were actualy getting what where paying for ?? Most electronic chips have a short dutie cycle in heat anyway?? I like to see the wheel turn in my meter threw little gears and when I see it going to fast I usually turn a few things off. U realy think Redi that these meters cant be manipulated by the electric companies??? In the past 1oo years Ive never sean an instance where the power company sent any one a refund for Over Billing lolol your a joke and an insult to so many inteligant people Redi Kilowatt. you should be named Get Redi for your F—–.
@Redi —“All living things are electric . Your brain is a very complex computer that runs on electric pulses.”
Yes I read The Body Electric
But, that does not mean that the SmartMeters and their radio SmartGrid are a good thing, they just compound the problems.
Yes, you said it yourself……
Actually, there are other problems with the SmartMeter/SmartGrid that are much worse, like how we have been ripped off to fund this garbage program, and all the corporate horsepucky about how the program saves energy. It’s all pure bunk.
…..Thank you Redi Whip for saying what needs to be said about a whole lot of programs—-Tech Boondoggles are all the rage this century and lots of them have made our lives measurably worse, for example, the migration of customer service to telephone trees.
Course it helps make life better for the people who make money by cutting services, or selling something that will sound fancy on the quarterly press release, or what have you.
But this smart grid thing which was sold to our decision makers without our even knowing about it is a real gnarly one because it proposes to connect all these other tech toys. All without a single safety study or public hearing!
I think “Freedom” in this country mostly means we have Freedom from Information.
Surely we should get information about things we have our children use. But we are not getting it. Everyone should read about George Carlo’s studies and ponder why we never heard about them in the 90’s or up til recently.
at least we’ve got the net and each other. cheers!
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