Health

Fight Against ‘Wireless Smart Meter Assault’ Spreads Over Health Concerns

Groups Continue Crusade Against Smart Meters Over Alleged Health Risks

Smart meter protest in California. (Photo: StopSmartMeters.org)

Citizens campaigns against the use of smart meters by electric companies is growing. Some of the most recent anti-smart meter news comes from Georgia where legislation is moving forward that would give customers the option to opt out programs with these devices, which have been said to cause health problems. While other areas are looking into opting out of the programs as well, some citizens are taking action to “protect themselves” in the mean time.

But first, here’s a recap on smart meters and the controversy surrounding their installation. About a year ago, we reported that some people who had smart meters installed in place of analog devices to measure electrical use were experiencing symptoms like headaches, insomnia, tinnitus and DNA breakdown. What’s the alleged association between these devices and negative health impacts? Electromagnetic fields associated with the wireless transmitters. Transmitters such as these, which are similar to those used in cellphones and other wireless electronic devices, have been reported as effecting those who are “electrically hypersensitive” before.

(Related: Feeling Queazy? Wi-Fi sickness allegedly affects 5 percent of the population)

When the Blaze wrote about smart meters in March 2011, a group in California appeared to be leading the charge against the devices that not only seemed to cause health complications but were also invading privacy when it came to monitoring electrical use habits. StopSmartMeters.org was founded in 2010 as an advocacy group but now also provides ”consultation and advice to dozens of local groups sprouting up who are fighting the wireless ‘smart’ meter assault.”

There are now 26 states that have groups or advocates associated with stopping smart meters. One of these is Stop Smart Meters Georgia, which started up this year and has been chronicling activities in the state regarding citizen defense against the devices and proposed legislation. To the group’s relief, legislation that would allow Georgia Power customers to opt out of having the smart meters installed was passed in the state Senate earlier this month. Some cities and states have opt out programs but it can be associated with an additional tax. Georgia’s S.B. 459 opt out would be free of additional charge. Georgia Power opposes the legislation, which is now in the House for review:

Groups Continue Crusade Against Smart Meters Over Alleged Health Risks“Instead, an opt-out will increase electricity rates, diminish customer services, slow our response to outages, increase air pollution in Georgia’s neighborhoods, and diminish the safety of providing electrical service,” said spokeswoman Konswello Monroe.

Nor does Georgia Power think it’s being treated fairly by the bill, which applies only to investor-owned power companies, not the 42 electric membership corporations (EMCs) or 52 municipally owned electric systems in the state.

“S.B. 459 requires certain electric utilities to allow an ‘opt-out’ for Smart Meters — the bill does not include all utility companies,” Monroe said.

Georgia Power has already installed smart meters at the homes and businesses of more than 90 percent of its 2.4 million customers around the state.

With the opt out not yet a done deal, Georgia residents are taking action themselves. CBS Atlanta reports one woman even put a lock on her analog meter to ensure it wasn’t taken by the power company. Watch the report:

This video shows an anti-smart meter crusader documenting a power company employee removing an analog meter from an 87-year-old woman’s home. According to the clip, the woman does not want a smart meter so she will be left without power all together:

According to Georgia Power, since its smart meter program began in 2007, more than 12 million meters have been installed. Installation for remaining customers is expected to be complete later this year. All smart meters installed on homes adhere to maximum permissible exposure limits for radio transmitters set by the Federal Communications Commission. As for Georgia Powers’ meters, it states they “operate at only a fraction of the safe power limits identified by the FCC guidelines.”

Groups Continue Crusade Against Smart Meters Over Alleged Health Risks

Analog meter on lockdown. (Photo: CBS Atlanta)

Georgia Power, like other electricity providers instituting smart meter programs, states that while it won’t automatically decrease your energy consumption, it will provide you with “detailed energy usage information,” which could adjust your energy habits to consume less. When the Blaze reported on smart meters last year, it included a study from Reuters that refuted the claim of reduced energy consumption:

“Participants who kept the monitor (…) did not manage to sustain their electricity savings any better than those without a monitor.”

“A second finding is that certain groups of people seem more receptive to energy-saving interventions than others. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for home energy monitors cannot be justified.”

While there are groups cropping to fight against installation of smart meters, there are also those, including power companies, trying to call attention to scientific research that states radio-frequency levels associated with the devices is safe. Last year, the California Council on Science and Technology released a report that found “when installed and properly maintained, [the devices] result in much smaller levels of radio frequency (RF) exposure than many existing common household electronic devices, particularly cell phones and microwave ovens.”

The World Health Organization has also said, “there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF (radio frequency) signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects.”

But the jury on the meters even among scientific groups appears to be out. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine issued a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission earlier this year stating that its own review of existing medical literature found the devices are not safe. It wrote, “Chronic exposure to wireless radiofrequency radiation is a preventable environmental hazard that is sufficiently well documented to warrant immediate preventative public health action.”

Comments (47)

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  • vonnise
    Posted on March 23, 2012 at 10:44am

    Quoting reports from the likes of the “World Health Organization” and the “California Council on Science and Technology” really carries no weight with me.

    Report Post »  
  • piper60
    Posted on March 23, 2012 at 8:47am

    These smart meters are just another way of eliminating jobs. Kind of like the self checkout counters at grocery stores. The more you use them, the more you encourage the company to replace people with a machine. In this case, a machine that can if you’re sensitive to electricity, make you sick. DNA breakdown? That sounds darn serious.

    Report Post » piper60  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on March 23, 2012 at 12:09pm

      I have yet to see a self-checkout line that didn’t employ one person to help customers and keep an eye on things. In fact, at our local market they opened 3 self-check stations where there were NONE, and they have a checker staffing the area full time, so you’re quite wrong. Automation in this case added a body.

      You sound like the President. “ATMs have eliminated tellers.” They haven’t.

      In fact, my company provides automation equipment for manufacturing. We also provide software that monitors productivity and we find that usually it’s more efficient to add a couple bodies to most manufacturing processes than to eliminate them. Instead of paying one person to load raw material, run the machine, and unload finished parts, it increases capacity and productivity to pay material handles to load and unload, and just keep the machine operator busy running production.

      Your view is extremely flawed, but it’s not surprising. A lot of people make the same wrong assumptions.

      Report Post » Jaycen  
  • Kerstile
    Posted on March 23, 2012 at 8:05am

    These are being pushed by the ‘bots to deliberately anger people to the point that more people will install the darn solar panels. This is just the ‘bots trying to create a market. They will fail.

    Darn, my smart meter keeps being vandalized. How ’bout the rest of you? Hint, hint. Work together people. The ‘bots do. We need to do the same.

    Report Post » Kerstile  
  • wntsmallgov
    Posted on March 23, 2012 at 12:24am

    if I opted out it would have cost me fees to keep it. I need to fee money to help pay other things.

    Report Post » wntsmallgov  
  • momof5children
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 11:16pm

    we live in ok. i wish there would have been an opt out for us. my bills have doubled!! we only have one lamp on at night with a 60 watt bulb. this is the way we have always lived. one light on. but the bill has doubled. you people who have smart meters and don’t see a problem, just wait ! pretty soon they will be turning your air off on the summer. just like wal-mart has control of all their stores from bentonville, ar, so will the electric co. you will no longer be able to set your thermostat will you want it. maybe not this yr. but it’s coming to a state near you!! count on it!!!

    Report Post »  
  • 1casawizard
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 9:35pm

    I used to read my own meter from 1992 to 2003. I have gates on my driveways. By their protocol, they cannot jump fences to read. They put in smartmeter that they can read from the road. It saves the readers gas and time. I’m in N. GA. and that is all I see now. The readers don’t have to deal with dogs, fences or any of the others hassles. I bettcha they read a lot more meters now in a lot less time. I’ve got no problem with it.

    Report Post » 1casawizard  
  • LameLiberals
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:43pm

    It was my misfortune to get a smart meter before anyone else in my neighborhood because my idiot neighbots tree fell against my house and broke the meter box and the ONLY ONE I COULD PUT IN was the SMART METER – BY LAW.

    My electric bill has been averaging $20 more a month. I wish our city would get rid of them.

    Report Post »  
  • lambchop60
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:38pm

    for one thing with a cell phone you are not getting bombarded with emf-s 24-7 like you are with smartmeters. also there is the 4th amendment , there is no privacy they can tell everything you do including whay time you go to bed , and when you get up . and there is no security on these things. on top of that these smartmeters were funded through the DOD . i tried to stop them from putting them on our house and shop. (we have got 2) they threatened us with calling the police or cutting our electricity off. we have cut back on electricty useage but still our bill has skyrocketed. as far as the EMF-s we have put ferrites on all out power cords and we have bought emf/emi filters

    Report Post »  
  • bjw1blaze
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:13pm

    Can I assume that none of the people that are anti smart meter would ever use a cell phone?

    Report Post »  
    • LameLiberals
      Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:54pm

      I only care that they electric company CHEATS with those meters (like a butcher having their thumb on the scale) and they charge you more for electricity than you use.

      Report Post »  
  • Moonrunner69
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:11pm

    Power of emission, ,duration, distance, weather conditions all have an impact on RF energy based on my experience in the military. You don’t stand in front of an F-15 when its transmitting rader (rf energy) unless you want to get radiation poisioning. We tweaked remote radar sites transmitters to obtain max output and verified this by finding the closest rabbit to fry. Keep this in mind when you expose yourself to low levels of radiation no matter what the source. :-)

    Report Post »  
  • Winedude
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 6:58pm

    This has been as issue in California (which y’all HATE) for better than a year now. The Public Utilities Commission just decided to let PG&E charge customers $75 to get an old analog meter placed back into service, with a $10/month fee to have it read by a human. Such a deal…
    What took this rag so long to catch up with the story? Probably some sensationalist Glenn Beck crap was more likely to draw readers!?!

    Report Post »  
    • LameLiberals
      Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:51pm

      Better yet, give people a CHOICE on what electric company to use.

      Also, regardless of who is proving the electricity – homeowners should be able to choose from a list of a 100 or more companies to READ THEIR METERS. That would drive the cost down.

      Report Post »  
  • Bibsy
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 6:08pm

    The other negative aspect of the Smart Meters is that they interfere with X10 security systems and other controls as well as some touch sensitive lamp controls. They add excitement by randomly turn things on and off in your house. I had mine disconnected.

    Report Post »  
  • desert buckeye
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 6:01pm

    I seem to recall Obumma stating, implicitly, that energy rationing would have to be done. So, you’ll get a certain amount of energy per month…

    Report Post »  
  • lukerw
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 5:08pm

    Smat Devices… will Monitor your Activity… and allow Remote Control (Limit) & Shut Down!

    Report Post » lukerw  
    • 1casawizard
      Posted on March 22, 2012 at 9:48pm

      This smart meter allows reader to pick up info from the inside of their truck that tells their handheld what your meter reading is. That’s all. The box at the A/C if you elect to participate, shuts down your A/C during peak loads during the summer to make sure everyone gets power to keep from having brownout. You don’t have to participate, but if you are not home much it wouldn’t matter. It just shuts your A/C off during those times which are usually no more than 45 mins.

      Report Post » 1casawizard  
  • Daveed
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 5:06pm

    Wa. Oregon and Id. are on the list by their electric company Avista in cooperation with Battelle (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory aka PNNL, located I think in Richland, Wa. in conjunction with the Department of Energy. Which liberal heads DOE? (They hid the Kennewick man also.)
    We were told trans fat was the next best thing to white bread too! Not to eat at Mickey D’s and the government is shipping pink slime to grade school cafeterias. Do we wonder why increase in horrible diseases. Does poplulation control come to mind? Tell me it isn’t so!

    Report Post »  
  • soybomb315
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:55pm

    we have a facist corptocracy government

    Report Post » soybomb315  
  • uisignorant
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:41pm

    As an Electrical Engineer, I can tell you people are nuts…. These things produce a few milliwatts. Your desktop PC produces more radiated power. Don’t even think about the TV. If you are feeling ill, I am guessing it is psychosomatic. Just think of all the the TV and radio waves cooking you now….

    Report Post »  
    • Av8tor056
      Posted on March 22, 2012 at 10:21pm

      As a Wireless Communications Technician I can say that you should think before you speak! It’s only partly about the RF power output. What frequency are they running at? What is the intermediate frequency? What gain antenna is used? What is the actual duration of the transmission? What is the bleed over into the AC power? AC and RF really like to interfere with each other. Are they transmitting down the power lines or into the open air. All of these are factors. If they‘re using the unlicensed bands then they’re transmitting on 900 MHZ, 2.4 GHZ or 5.7 GHZ. All of those frequencies are harmful in long duration exposures with the higher frequencies being worse than the lower ones. While you can’t “flash cook” a turkey at 5.7 gig, if it is bleeding over into your household circuit then people with the meters do face long term constant RF exposure that could cause health problems.

      Report Post » Av8tor056  
  • FlatFoot
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:20pm

    I live in San Diego. They‘ve ’smart metered’ every utility meter in my neighborhood and the surrounding areas. The Gas meter, Electric meter, and Water meter are all wireless now. The utility companies have saved truckloads of money from not having to pay actual persons to read the meters. Have they passed on the savings to the consumers? NOPE!

    Utility rates for all three public utilities have constantly risen and they continue to rise despite the public utilities having reduced their workforce of meter readers to nearly ZERO. There are also many reports of the wireless meters transmitting incorrect information resulting in customer utility bills being incorrect. The kicker is, they‘re ALWAYS incorrect in the utility companies favor and NEVER in the customer’s favor.

    One elderly neighbor lady I personally know went from an average of $250 a month for electricity and gas to $400 per month — and absolutely nothing had changed — except that the meters went wireless. It took her almost 6 months to get it all ironed out. When it was all finally said and done, did she get a refund? NOPE! They credited her account a fraction of the overcharges. Did they actually fix the problem? NOPE! She still gets over-billed and has to dispute her bill every single month. Now she’s caught in an infinite loop of disputing her bill each and every month, getting her account credited just a fraction of what she was actually overcharged, and they still won’t fix the problem.

    Report Post » FlatFoot  
    • LameLiberals
      Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:46pm

      Agreed!! It is a RIP OFF. They charge whatever they want and it has nothing to do with your usage.

      Report Post »  
  • we.r.done
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:16pm

    Good RF jam-er for about 200 bucks would take of the issue for you and the ones around u….

    Report Post » we.r.done  
  • amerbur
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:15pm

    In my state they give a discount for those that agree to the service – In otherwords. I have refused, so I guess I pay for those getting the service in the form of increased cost.

    Report Post »  
  • imissbreitbart
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:14pm

    Here in California the only health hazard involving wireless smart meters is the loss of high paying union jobs. Meter Readers used to get union wages, union pensions and union health insurance for doing nothing more than walking from house to house. Based on the data there is no health hazard. The so-called health scare is an imagined result of the labor leaders realizing that they were about to lose a lot of jobs to technology.

    Report Post »  
  • SychinLegacy
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:14pm

    DO people study science any more? Radio waves CANNOT harm humans. They do not have enough energy to penetrate human skin and bounce right off. In fact, visible light has if I remember correctly about a thousand times more energy than a microwave and we don’t worry about being bathed in light too much do we? The only kinds of waves that have enough energy to actually harm humans are UV rays, X-Rays, and Gamma rays. So unless these radio devices are actually shooting out UV rays, which they are not, we do not have to worry.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

    Read and learn people.

    Report Post » SychinLegacy  
    • ThePostman
      Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:40pm

      Microwaves (the kind used in microwave ovens AND these meters CAN hurt humans – just put your cat in the MW and wait a few seconds. That said, these meters are not hurting anyone. People just hate being monitored.

      Report Post »  
  • CatB
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:13pm

    Did you know that these are NOT UL approved … now what other electrical item have you seen in or on your home that is NOT UL approved? Safe .. I don’t think so .. just more BIG BROTHER tactics for “your own good” that can cause you harm.

    Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:26pm

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8JNFr_j6kdI

      Interesting

      Report Post »  
    • 1casawizard
      Posted on March 23, 2012 at 12:46am

      @CATB. The smart meter takes the place of the analog meter and uses no electricity from the downside. This might not be UL approved because the consumer does not touch/use this item. This works for me as I’m over a mile from my mailbox, 2/10ths of mile off a private road, with only two neighbors. Two sides of property border around 5 thousand Ac. of paper company forest. This is improved by Georgia Power and ATT line only. When you leave my mailbox, you are going up a crusher run coated road at a 30-45 degree angle for over 1/2 mile. My few 17 Ac. is gateted and since I’ve owned it ,I have read my own meter and send the card in with pmnt. With the new meter, they just keep riding up the road to next neighbor then turn around. It saves them alot of time. When I was checking my own meter they would still have to come by once a year to verify it. I got no problem with it.

      Report Post » 1casawizard  
  • searching for the Truth
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:11pm

    Can a Class Action lawsuit be filed? If so, where can it be located?

    Report Post »  
    • LameLiberals
      Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:48pm

      Google it.

      Texas and California already sued over these meters. I think they lost. It is the local governments that are letting the electric companies install these things. In my area – we only have ONE ELECTRIC COMPANY – no competition – and they are awful. In some states I lived in you had a choice of electric companies. I hate TECO. I am seriously thinking of moving – in part because I don’t like the area – too much traffic – and I despise TECO.

      Report Post »  
  • LOJ
    Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:03pm

    From what people have been saying, there can be health hazards, and also a very undesireable feature is that they are surveillance devices too, which is illegal!

    Report Post »  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on March 22, 2012 at 4:10pm

      Indeed, this is one more massive Big Brother/Sister moment that is hopefully being brought to a quick ending for all people here in the nation. Of course expect Obama and friends to intervein and make this mandatory across the nation.

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
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