Smart Meters And Public Safety

Central Maine Power and its Spanish parent company, Iberdrola, are facing a grassroots swell of opposition to its “smart” meters being introduced in New York State and elsewhere.

The new meters emit radio frequencies to transmit home usage data to other meters and to repeater devices, funneling the data until it reaches a collector unit, which bundles the data to relay to CMP. The end result of this technology is that the use area is saturated with RF emissions.

CMP is now facing growing resistance to the use of the smart meters after a myriad of suspicious health problems, appliance and computer malfunctions, and worries about being hacked. There is also a mounting realization that the states of Maine and New York were duped by powerful utility companies hungry for federal stimulus money to pay for the meters.

Resistance to CMP’s meters began with a handful of Mainers who questioned if smart meters were endangering their health. Since then, the Maine Supreme Court ruled that the Maine Public Utilities Commission hadn’t addressed the human safety issue of the new meters. The more CMP accounts in a neighborhood, the more exposed everyone is to RF pollution, and the more exposed is household data.

CMP allows customers to keep their traditional electromechanical meters but charges $40 plus $12 a month to keep existing meters. But opting out doesn’t protect residents from the RF emissions coming from those who have not opted out.

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CMP equates emissions from smart meters with those from cell phones, cordless phones, and Wi-Fi. That argument is misleading on two points. People choose whether to have a cell phone or Wi-Fi in their house and can decide when to turn it on and off. Smart meters are never off.

The second problem with CMP’s argument is that there is increasing alarm in scientific, medical, and public policy communities about the health dangers to a society saturated by emissions from cell phones, Wi-Fi, and cordless phones. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine and the Council of Europe are among those now issuing strong advice to get Wi-Fi out of schools.

We would all be wise to educate ourselves on the proliferation of RF in every part of our lives. A recent press release from the American Academy of Environmental Medicine calls for “Immediate caution regarding ‘Smart Meter’ installation due to potentially harmful RF exposure.” Emerging studies on the detrimental health impacts of long-term exposure to an environment saturated by manmade RF and EMF should be taken seriously.

More words of the dangers of RF:

“…the inauguration of smart meters with grudging and involuntary exposure of millions to billions of human beings to pulsed microwave radiation should immediately be prohibited…” Olle Johansson, PhD, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute (Sweden)

“…we are creating a potential time bomb. If smart meters are placed on every home, they will contribute significantly to our exposure and this is both unwise and unsafe.” Magda Havas, PhD, Professor of Environmental & Resource Studies, Trent University (Canada)

“The SmartGrid concept could require every home to have a wireless electric and gas meter in place of their existing meters. If implemented, it will greatly increase the intensity of new wireless emissions in homes, schools and every other building that uses electricity and gas… 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.” (Seletun Scientific Statement PRESS RELEASE)