50 million homes in the US had smart meters installed by the year 2014. Since then there have been many reported cases of health concerns surrounding these new devices. While the utility companies claim they are totally safe the truth of the matter is that there haven’t been any studies conducted by these companies to determine that for sure.

What is a Smart Meter?

“Since the inception of electricity deregulation and market-driven pricing throughout the world, utilities have been looking for a means to match consumption with generation. Traditional electrical and gas meters only measure total consumption, and so provide no information of when the energy was consumed at each metered site.

Smart meters provide a way of measuring this site-specific information, allowing utility companies to introduce different prices for consumption based on the time of day and the season.”[3]

In other words, it’s a way for electric companies to more accurately track our energy consumption in order to work on efficiency.

So with utility companies claiming that the smart meter is perfectly safe why wouldn’t people be signing up for this new money saving program? 43% of people in the US have done just that. 

What they forgot to take into account is that the two-way electric transmission going between your smart meter and the electric company can actually mess with your health.  These health issues range from insomnia, stress, and headaches, all the way to seizures, hearing disturbances, and sinus infections.

Check out some of the reported issues in this report from Australia below:

Experts Say that Smart Meters Aren’t Safe

While utility companies continue to insist that the RF signals being sent from their Smart Meters are safer than cell phones or microwaves, experts such as retired U.S. Gov scientist Dr. Ronald Powell, Ph.D. who earned his Applied Physics degree Harvard disagree.

“The RF/Microwave radiation from Wireless Smart Meters is particularly threatening to health because that radiation is so persistent and so powerful. [Com Ed and other] power companies like to fool the public by saying, ‘Look these Smart Meters just transmit 6 times a day.’ Well, that is just misleading. That may be how many times they transmit your data, but they are a relay station for all the other Smart Meters in the neighborhood. And they all interact with each other and send each other timing signals and all kinds of stuff…

Dr. Ronald Powell Ph.D. [1]

“Furthermore, the power level of each pulse is about 1,000 milliwatts, placing Wireless Smart Meters among the most powerful RF radiators likely to be present in a residential environment.”- Dr. Powell

So when the news started to circulate about the harm of microwaves and then the tumor causing cell phone risks those were actually not the biggest problem in the home. While you can put your cell phone down or stop using a microwave many of the cities using Smart Meters don’t present many options to their residents.

Why doesn’t the Government regulate RF waves?

The FCC or Federal Communications Commission is the organization within the government which is in charge of setting the rules when it comes to Maximum Permitted Exposure (MPE) for different types of radiation such as EF waves. According to Dr. Powell, the rules and regulations are completely based on outdated thinking from the 1980s. When you think about the difference in technology between then and now, this is a huge concern.

When you think about the difference in technology and biomedical understanding since the 1980’s this is a huge concern.

In the 1980’s the idea of being sensitive the electromagnetic waves was laughable and the idea that you could have legitimate health concerns was more likely to have you sent to a psychologist than a medical doctor.

With advances in technology and medicine, we are starting to understand that these issues cannot be ignored if we want to keep people healthy both physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Dr. Powell Suggests Allowing Residents of Opt Out

While the best solution would be to immediately remove these meters until safer technology can be developed, Dr. Powell suggested to the state of Maryland to allow it’s residents to opt out of the program so that people could choose whether or not they wanted to put themselves and their family at risk for this type of exposure.

I don’t know about you but I don’t think that having one of these ‘Smart’ Meters in my home is worth the risk. Check out this video below where Dr. Carpenter goes over his concerns.

Looks like we need to opt out of using the smart meters in our home and ask our local cities some real questions about this information. Maybe even send them this PDF of information from Ed Halteman, Ph.D. 

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Sources-
[1]Full PDF Document on the Health Concerns

[2]wikipedia.org