The Lawson family attended yesterday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting to describe their challenges with LADWP, and the utility’s failure to address the family’s urgent health issues that came about after a “smart” meter was installed on their home. In tears, the family talked about what happened to them after the new meter was installed, and the difficulties that living seven weeks without electricity has caused them.
The Lawson’s new meter (photo courtesy EON)
The LA City Council seemed to be shocked (maybe uncomfortable is a better word) and instructed LADWP to give the family an analog meter. Late today we received word that the utility had re-installed what appears to be an analog meter on the Lawson’s home. However, as we ahve seen before, appearances can be deceiving. Whether this meter is a true analog, or a “trojan horse” analog with wireless-ready components remains to be seen.
Sometimes the utilities just can’t seem to take no for an answer. Stay tuned….
LOS ANGELES- Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has terminated electricity to the family of a middle school teacher, her husband, and their six children for refusing to have a smart meter on their home, which they say caused their family serious health problems. The family has been living without power for six weeks now, in the heart of LA.
In July 2012, LADWP installed a smart meter on Derek and Anura Lawson’s home without notice or consent, part of a smart meter pilot program. Other houses in the neighborhood still have their analog meters.
That same month their four youngest children started to have serious health problems. The mother, Anura Lawson writes they had fevers “out of nowhere”, “as high as 105”, and they “began to have problems controlling their bodily fluids, our five year old began peeing and pooping herself, our four year began to display the same problems…” Anura also struggled with migraines, insomnia, concentration problems and other health symptoms.
The family requested LADWP restore the analog meter. LADWP then gave them what they said was an analog meter, but the health symptoms persisted. The family objected. According to Anura, LADWP ridiculed them. She says, “When I called customer service, “Jennifer” laughed at me, telling me they would not remove the meter.”
When an agent of LADWP met with the family he said, “This isn’t one of those ‘SmartMeters’ that have been making all those people sick. These are RF meters. Totally different.” He talked about how safe radio was and that it had been used for years. Meanwhile the children’s health problems persisted.
Clearly something had to be done.
In January 2013, after repeated, unfulfilled requests to LADWP for help, the family restored a true analog meter obtained from Jerry Day. The mother wrote that after the analog meter was restored the children’s symptoms “diminished greatly, they no longer get high fevers, or suffer from loss of their bodily function.”
Two weeks later, LADWP disconnected their electricity. Anura saw the workers scale a neighbor’s wall, climb the power pole in their backyard and literally cut the wire to their home. Since February 11th the Lawsons have been living without electricity, without heat, without use of their appliances and without lights.
Joshua Hart, director of Stop Smart Meters! says, “Pilot programs are supposed to be a test to see how a new system operates. When problems crop up, you don’t punish customers for reporting them- you fix the problem.”
The family has been using candles and battery powered lanterns to see at night. They are cooking on a camping stove outdoors, and keeping their food cold in ice chests. The family says the incident has been extremely stressful.
This incident echoes other bullying incidents around the country, where people have been cut off after having had their smart meters removed due to health issues.
Sandi Maurer, director of the EMF Safety Network states, “Federal law states customers should be offered smart meters, not be forced to have them on their homes. LADWP is exceeding its authority by mandating these devices.”
Jerry Day, a video producer on the forefront of empowering customers to stand up for their constitutional rights states, “This is inexcusable. This is not responsible power company management. This is senseless abuse of utility customers.”
We agree. The Lawsons need their power switched on and an analog utility meter restored on their home. NOW.
In contrast to this situation, Liz Barris of the People’s Initiative Foundation today reports LADWP has removed a smart meter from a property in Hollywood Hills. She says it took two weeks of wrangling with them until a senior manager Vincent Zabukovec agreed to the switch (who can by the way be reached at 213-367-2725 if you are a LADWP customer who wants to “opt out” as well) . Here’s Liz’s video of the meter swap:
Write to the LA City Council about the Lawsons case: mayor@lacity.org, councilmember.reyes@lacity.org, councilmember.Krekorian@lacity.org, councilmember.zine@lacity.org, councilmember.Labonge@lacity.org, paul.koretz@lacity.org, councilmember.alarcon@lacity.org, councilmember.cardenas@lacity.org, councilmember.parks@lacity.org, Jan.Perry@lacity.org, councilmember.wesson@lacity.org, councilman.rosendahl@lacity.org, councilmember.englander@lacity.org, councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org, councilmember.huizar@lacity.org, councilmember.buscaino@lacity.org
Council meets Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday in the John Ferraro Council Chamber, Room 340, City Hall at 10:00am. But check their schedule, because it seems to change.
It appears that shares in Silver Spring Networks are now plunging ever faster downward– a decline that has picked up speed since the large international smart grid firm went public on March 13th. SSNI provides wireless telecommunications systems for most smart meter brands, and is based in Redwood City, CA.
Silver Spring is an unethical, predatory company that knowingly violates FCC rules in the ways that smart meters are deployed- colocated in banks, exposing people at 20cm or less, and installed by temp workers. Maybe the risks they are imposing on the general public are coming back to haunt them as the market sees big red flags and future unforeseen liabilities.
Is this the beginning of the implosion of the stupid grid? Are Silver Spring and Al Gore and all his buddies going to require ever more heaps of public cash and “stimulus” money to bail them out as the stock collapses?
Who exactly is going to be holding the bag when the smart hits the fan? (Hint- you know the answer).
Opportunity to Speak to the California Public Utilities Commission:
Thursday, April 4th 8:45am sign in for a 9am start. California Public Utilities Commission 505 Van Ness Avenue – Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94102
Any member of the public can speak for at least 1 minute if you arrive before the end of public comment. It’s the law! Tell your story. It’s your right and your responsibility. Many people are unable to attend these meetings due to geography and/or wireless pollution in the public hearing room. If you’d like to represent one of these people whose voice is being silenced and read their statement into the record at the meeting, contact info[at]stopsmartmeters[dot]org. Thank you all for continuing to be vocal! Down with “opt outs”– we never opted IN!! Stop Smart Meters! Altogether! Stop the extortion!
<New voices are encouraged to attend and speak out at this meeting>
LOS ANGELES- Anti-smart meter protesters from Occupy LA, the Tea Party, Citizens for a Radiation Free Community, and other EMF health and privacy groups held a protest on Wednesday outside the “Networked Grid” – a smart grid conference in Westlake Village near Los Angeles. Those attending the protest vocally opposed smart meters and ongoing utility violations of privacy and health. Some protesters from Occupy LA infiltrated and peacefully disrupted the conference, and were eventually escorted out.
A heavy police presence greeted the protesters- some of those attending said it was overkill for the peaceful protest and reflected a certain level of paranoia amongst civilian law enforcement surrounding this issue. Police forces in Naperville, Illinois and Santa Cruz County, California among other places have arrested peaceful protesters and homeowners, and assisted utilities in violating local laws and people’s civil and property rights during smart grid installations.
Greentech Media (an online industry news source) wrote an almost sympathetic article about the protests, concluding by saying that:
“It certainly makes for some bad publicity for smart meters…. Whether (that publicity is) deserved or not is another question.”
It seems that even the smart grid’s cheerleaders are starting to doubt the wisdom of their grand scheme as health damage reports have intensified and the Stop Smart Meters movement continues to build momentum.
Response to Greentech Media’s article from smart meter discussion groups has been instructive. One observer said:
“The reporting was very fair. It is almost like some people in the industry are starting to distance themselves from the smart meter debacle.”
Discussion returned to the topic of denial- of psychological mechanisms that prevent people from accepting the obvious- that smart meters have blown the lid off the myth that wireless technology doesn’t come with serious risks:
“The question that I continue to ask all of the people who don’t get this is; why would we make it up?”
Someone who has been injured by “smart” meters replied:
“The truth is – we wouldn’t make it up. I would love to go back to my life where I could live in a city, use the technology I used to enjoy, live in my flat, earn an income without constant headaches and not worry about whether there was a wi-fi router on the other side of the wall or a cell tower next to my current home. I would love to not feel like an EMF refugee.
No one would make this up. One couldn’t write this stuff for a movie, yet it is happening over and over to so many people.”
And:
“It’s hard for people to take in that their work is damaging people’s lives, but the truth will eventually come out.
The truth is just too much for most to contemplate. They will eventually get it though. And, it will not be pretty.”
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LOS ANGELES- Anti-smart meter protesters from Occupy LA, the Tea Party, Citizens for a Radiation Free Community, and other EMF health and privacy groups held a protest on Wednesday outside the “Networked Grid” – a smart grid conference in Westlake Village near Los Angeles. Those attending the protest vocally opposed smart meters and ongoing utility violations of privacy and health. Some protesters from Occupy LA infiltrated and peacefully disrupted the conference, and were eventually escorted out.
