Letter to the Editor – Smart Meters
I have followed the material on the Itron Centron electric meters to be installed in Ava. It’s good that they won’t be continuously spewing microwaves 24/7 (at least, not right away), however, even when used with a mobile collection device in “wake up mode”, the meters still pose serious problems.
In addition to an RF transmitter, each digital meter also has a switching-mode power supply (SMPS) that converts the alternating current from the utility pole power lines to the direct current needed to run the meter’s digital electronics which record electricity usage data. The SMPS emits sharp spikes in millisecond bursts, continuously.
These spikes reach up to 50,000 Hz and higher.
Constant pulsing of high frequencies causes interference with other electronic equipment and wreaks havoc with any living systems — human, animal, plant — nearby. It is well known that SMPSs can generate spikes of electromagnetic interference (EMI), or high-frequency transients, which travel along wiring in the walls.
This function is in ALL electronic meters.
Such spikes are known as “dirty electricity” and are a major contributor to symptoms being reported by growing numbers of people in connection with electronic meters. Having the RF transmitter turned off does NOT eliminate spikes going into the wiring. Epidemiologist Sam Milham’s “Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization” fully explains the problem. See SamMilham.com. For a graphic demonstration of what dirty power does to the human body, go online and watch “EMF Radiation, The Silent Killer In Your Home” by New Zealand building biologist Paul Waddell.
Engineer Rob States lays out the risks posed by electronic meters in an outstanding 30-minute presentation, “Expert Debunks Corporate ‘Smart’ Meter Craze” (search youtube.com for that title). States is one of two engineers in California who have been diligently investigating EMI and RF issues. The combined team has two MS degrees from MIT, a California Professional Engineer license and a PhD from Stanford in Electrical Engineering. They concluded that since people with no history of EMI sensitivity experience symptoms before the RF function is turned on, it can be assumed that RF emissions are not the only problem.
Although 15% of the population shows early and obvious symptoms, many related health problems take more time to show up. The potential effects span a wide variety of lethal and debilitating conditions including cancers, auto-immune diseases, suicide, depression, tinnitus, leakage in the blood-brain barrier and a host of others. As science advances, there will be ever-increasing liability for the institutions causing these illnesses. Preventing dirty power disease in utility customers is expensive — merely fixing the 15% of households where obvious and immediate symptoms show up will cost more than the entire program roll-out.
Electronic meters are also gaining quite a reputation as a cause of fires, regardless whether RF is turned on or not. (Look up “Smart Meter Fires Explained” on YouTube.) There have been tens of thousands of such fires already. This alone is good reason to declare a moratorium on them and schedule fully transparent public hearings on all aspects of their operation.
The cell phone industry has bought immunity from liability through extensive lobbying efforts, but experience has shown that corporate protection fades as public priorities alter the political process.
Liability will explode in future. Once the real estate business community learns that a large segment of the population will no longer be able to live, work, or shop in their properties, the potential liability could rise to a huge level. Even before that happens, the city will be forced to raise utility rates significantly.
Since the analog technology being dismantled has shown none of the risks of electronic meters, an aggressive plan to offer an analog meter opt-out would be a judicious step. A more prudent course may be to treat electronic meters as a major risk and reconsider their deployment.
Pat Davis
Ava, Missouri