Troubling News about Smart Meters
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, September 21, 2018 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Beginning in 2007, Georgia Power and other electric companies began replacing analog meters with smart meters that record and remotely transmit power use in real time. As a result, power companies (a) don’t need meter-readers anymore; (b) they can increase prices by time-of-use; and (c) turn off high-use appliances at any time.
By 2011 Georgia Power had installed 1.7 million smart meters and continued until all analog meters were replaced. Since Georgia Power allowed no opt-outs, complaints led to legislative action in 2012, when the Senate passed S.B. 459, but the House didn’t.
On December 17, 2013 the Public Service Commission approved a Smart Meter Opt-Out charge in Georgia Power’s 2013 rate case. Since then, Georgia Power has allowed opt-outs, but charges consumers $19 a month to have their analog meter read.
Now the court’s involved. Last month on August 16th the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that smart meter data collection constitutes a search under the U.S. Constitution Fourth Amendment and the Illinois Constitution. The court, also, decided the search is reasonable, although smart meters indicate when people are home, when the home is vacant, as well as the occupants’ sleeping and eating routines. Also, smart meters monitor and record the power usage of specific appliances, which may be targetted for peak-use cut-off.In 2012, fifty-four international experts collectively documented adverse neurological effects of smart meter radiation. They found that smart meters on homes can cause much higher radio frequency (RF) exposure than cell towers, “if [smart meters] are … on a common wall with a bedroom or kitchen rather than a garage wall. With both cell towers and smart meters, the entire body is immersed by microwaves that go out in all directions,” increasing the risk of overexposure to many sensitive organs including the eyes and testicles.
On July 22nd Harvard Medical School graduate Dr. David Carpenter, who has worked in the area of electromagnetic fields and public health for over 18 years, adamantly warned there’s no evidence that smart meters are in any way safe for human beings.
The World Health Organization classifies wireless radiation as a 2B cause of cancer and lists 24 symptoms consumers have reported. Wireless smart meters average 9,600 radio frequency emissions daily, that may increase to 190,000 daily, which is two and a half times above safe levels. All federal and local laws concerning smart meters should be amended with enforceable action language that requires immediate elimination of consumer health risks. Absent such protection, smart meters should be removed from homes and replaced with non-hazardous power equipment. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.