Month: March 2012

Open letter to the Premier from a doctor

The health complaints from wireless radiation utility smart meters are a global problem. Here’s an open letter to the Premier from a doctor in Victoria Australia:

Posted on Stop Smart Meters Australia:

22nd February 2012

To the Premier of Victoria

Mr Baillieu,

Since the completion of the smart meter roll-out in my area, I have been very, very sick.  I have continuous palpitations, chest pain, a weird taste in my mouth, loss of appetite, lethargy, dizziness, faint attacks, inability to concentrate and complete insomnia.

I have the feelings at home, in the street, in all the streets of my area and at the shops. I am not able to function. I can’t work, I can’t look after my family, I need my husband, who is now the only breadwinner, to take care of me.

My symptoms only disappear when I am in an area without smart meters, in a large park or on the beach. When my husband drives me through the Melbourne suburbs, I tell him when I feel my symptoms abate, he stops the car and looks at house fronts and, sure enough, he sees the old-style meters. This can be reproduced very predictably.

We now have to sell our home and find a place to live, where I get few or no symptoms. In the long-term, we have no choice but to leave the state of Victoria, as even if I find a ‘symptom free’ home, my life would still be very limited, as I could not roam most streets, go to most shops, visit friends, work etc.

My family’s life has been completely ruined. We have lost everything we had worked for. My two teenage kids have to cope with the trauma and grief of the overwhelming loss that awaits us on a daily basis. I already can no longer work as a doctor, eventually my kids will have to leave their school, university, grandparents and friends behind.

This is all senseless and monstrous. Even in the big scheme of things, my life matters and so do the lives of those who depend on me, especially my family and friends, for whom I am not replaceable.

What happened to me was avoidable and clearly a breach of human rights – the right to health and the right not to be subjected to experimentation without my consent.

The community has never been consulted on the need for smart meters, or even well-informed.  With the mandatory Victorian smart meter roll-out we will have irreversibly compromised those democratic values that have defined Australia so far.

Dr Federica Lamech

Dear Ms. Burt

Ms. Helen Burt
Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer
Pacific Gas & Electric Company
PO Box 997315
Sacramento, California 95899-9900

Second address: PO Box 770000   Mail Code B27L
San Francisco, California  94177

April 29, 2012

Dear Ms. Burt:

We received your unsigned certified letter about your SmartMeter Program. This letter is to inform you that, despite your coercive attempts to force ratepayers into your program, we refuse to have SmartMeters installed at our house. The so-called “choices” you offer are no choices at all. Since we have never had Smart Meters, we find it outrageous that you should now try to charge us initial plus monthly fees for a service that we have paid for and you have delivered trouble free (and at minimal costs) for decades!

To be clear, we never opted into your SmartMeter Program. One cannot be said to “opt in” where coercion and pressure is used. And because we have never opted into it, we cannot opt out. Therefore, your proposed “choices” and associated fees do not apply to us.

Indeed, the choice whether to enroll in the program is properly left to the customer, per the Energy Policy Act of 2005, under Title Xll, Subtitle E, Section 1252, (a), (14), (C). It states:  “Each electric utility subject to subparagraph (A) shall provide each customer requesting a time-based rate with a time-based meter capable of enabling the utility and customer to offer and receive such rate, respectively.”

We hold our position because, among many other compelling reasons including data corruption, cybernetic insecurity, privacy violations, unreliability, lack of billing transparency and discrepancies, fire danger, and negative health impacts, your rollout of Smart Meters is patently illegal for several reasons:

1. The operative FCC Grant of Equipment authorization for SmartMeter installations OWS-NIC507 expressly stipulates that these meters be professionally installed. The personnel hired by your subcontractors to perform meter installations are temporary workers with minimal training, not California licensed electrical contractors.

2. The same FCC stipulations also require that the antenna(s) used for the transmitter must have a minimum “separation distance of 20 centimeters from all persons and must not be colocated . . .”

3. Moreover, “End-users and installers must be provided with antenna installation and transmitter operating conditions for satisfying RF exposure compliance.” Without barriers or written warnings/notices posted near your SmartMeters, PG&E is out of compliance with these FCC requirements.

Yes, we operate life support and other sensitive medical equipment in our home. The growing consensus supported by truly independent studies as well as World Health Organization findings is that Smart Meters operating in conjunction with a Smart Grid pose a serious and unwarranted public health hazard.

Heretofore there has never been a surcharge for having an analog meter. Our meters are the same reliable ones that have been in service here all along, unchanged. If you now insist on extorting us for our refusal to opt into your program,  you will be in further violation of California Public Utilities Code Section 453(b) which states:  “No public utility shall prejudice, disadvantage, or require different rates or deposit amounts from a person because of ancestry, medical condition, marital status or change in marital status, occupation, or any characteristic listed or defined in Section 11135 of the Government Code. A person who has exhausted all administrative remedies with the commission may institute a suit for injunctive relief and reasonable attorney’s fees in cases of an alleged violation of this subdivision. If successful in litigation, the prevailing party shall be awarded attorney’s fees.”

We do not consent to PG&E usage of existing on-premises gas and electric  meters as the basis for a claim of entitlement to install digital mesh network antennae and transceivers for third-party data at current meter locations. If PG&E wants to build out a digital wireless mesh network infrastructure for for-profit use by third parties, it can do so in the same way that every competing digital wireless data network operator has done:  by purchasing or leasing property for this purpose, and/or by negotiating and obtaining permission to place equipment on non-PG&E property.

To reiterate, we refuse to opt into your Smart Meter Program and we furthermore refuse to pay extortion fees to retain the reliable analog meters. If you ignore our refusal by proceeding with installation of Smart Meters without our consent, we shall initiate litigation  for recovery of damages. Said damages will occur when your company effectively takes valuable radio transceiver and antenna siting rights on our property without compensation, which we would otherwise be entitled to reserve, to exercise for ourselves, or to sell or rent to parties and on terms of our choosing.

Furthermore, we have not seen or received a copy of your mandatory letter to the CPUC’s Executive director requesting authority to install a SmartMeter at the affected customer’s location. Nor have we seen any written authorization from the CPUC Executive Director approving such installation at any affected customer’s location. We have learned not to trust PG&E’s word without proof. We have seen no such proof to date.

A complaint has been filed with the CPUC over this issue and the promised response has not yet been forthcoming. Until the response is made, we do not consider this issue settled.

When we consider that you long ago had rates approved by the CPUC to cover the costs to read and maintain the standard analog meters, we can only conclude that you wish to increase your profit margins with this program. Besides driving up unemployment in a severe recession, we, having no choice regarding what utility provider we wish to use, find it contrary to the concept and intent of a regulated utility to impose health and security risks on us, your clients, without our agreement.

Since you “fully support individual choice when it comes to the meter at your home,” we’re confident that you will wholeheartedly approve of our choice to send you this notice in lieu of your form, and to continue the service agreement we have had for over 30 years with the analog meters.

Notwithstanding your published schedule of meter readings, your company and any of its subcontractors will be held liable as trespassers for any violations of your written promise, “We’ll call you prior to any required work at your home.”

Sincerely,

_________________________________

Account Number
Cc: CPUC

 

Health risks of nuclear and wireless radiation compared

An article recently published in the Environmentalist, by Cindy Sage, compares the biological effects of nuclear radiation to biological effects of common everyday wireless radiation exposures.

Nuclear radiation fallout is expected to recirculate in the environment from the Fukushima Japan disaster for another 40 years.  Meanwhile, we are surrounded with ubiquitous and harder to avoid levels of wireless radiation from cell towers, cell phones, wi-fi, DECT phones, etc.  Sage concludes that both types of  exposures present similar biological effects:

“There is long-standing scientific evidence to suggest that low-dose ionizing radiation (LD-IR) and low-intensity non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation (LI-NIER) in the form of extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields and radiofrequency radiation share similar biological effects.”

“Reducing preventable, adverse health exposures in the newly rebuilt environment to both LD-IR and LI-NIER is an achievable goal for Japan. Recovery and reconstruction efforts in Japan to restore the communications and energy infrastructure, in particular, should pursue strategies for reduction and/or prevention of both kinds of exposures.”

Sage writes, “In both kinds of exposure (chronic, low-level), these effects include genotoxicity and DNA fragmentation with chromosome aberrations; immune and inflammatory reactions (allergic reactions and development of hypersensitivity); reduction or suppression of the immune system or disregulation of the immune system; effects on lymphocytes and increased risk for lymphoproliferative diseases;and increased risk of other cancers in adults and in children.”

Link to the science: The similar effects of low-dose ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation from background environmental levels of exposure

SMUD smart meter shenanigans

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is implementing a smart meter opt-out program that’s intentionally designed to intimidate and discourage customers from opting opt.  The audiotape from SMUD is a unique inside look into industry plotting against their customers.

SMUD is charging $127 upfront and $39.40 per month, and they will cut off customer rights to opt out by Dec. 31, 2012.  They plan to only notify those who’ve already complained, which is 2,500 of their 600,000 customers.   SMUD will not notify the rest of their customers, nor post about the smart meter opt out program on their website, because they don’t want them to know about it.  In addition the ‘radio-off’ smart meter is their only opt out option, and if you move, you lose the right to opt-out.

Even though SMUD is very concerned about their ‘reputational risk’ at [01:51:54] the directors make fun of people who don’t want utility smart meters on their property.

One director says, “The $166 upfront will convince them they can really afford a lot of tin foil hats” [laughter]…Another director says, “But they are already wearing them!”

In closing Director Posner says, The less that’s said about this, the better off we are.”  The last thing they want is a social media campaign that exposes them as unfriendly to their customers.

La Soupe Electro- Serge Andre Jones

Unfortunately, this video by pianist and composer Serge Andre Jones is no longer available. This wonderful song, the original version in French can be listened to here:

The song illustrates the electronic soup we are consuming daily. Here’s the translation in English.

My name is Thérèse Cash.

I prepare and sell delicious homemade dishes.

One of them, my best-seller,

is full of good organic ingredients.

Teens love it!

It’s my Electro Soup.

In it, I put healthy greens … and a cell phone,

Potatoes … and a compact fluorescent light bulb,

A nice big WIFI router, marinated in garlic,

Ham and a telecommunications antenna.

To improve the taste of all that

I add a flat-screen TV and a wireless video game control pad.

That helps to sleep soundly!

I finish the cooking in the microwave oven.

Everything becomes nice and tender.

I serve the soup with white bread

Generously covered in Smart Meter spread.

And Smart Meters, we can put a whole lot!

3,8 million, why not?

Recipe Canada states that the Electro Soup causes no health risk whatsoever.

How delicious!

You’ll see! How delicious!

Delicious for lunch, supper, breakfast and before going to bed.

You can have some all day, it’s easy to sip.

I also sell it in pills and it can even be injected.

How delicious!

You’ll see! How delicious!

Come on! Buy some!

You’ll love it!

It’s even good for kids!

How delicious!

You’ll see! How delicious!

My delicious Electro Soup is even more fun than a party!

How delicious!

My delicious Electro Soup is especially good … for my wallet!

Ha! Ha!

Fundraiser: March 26, 7 pm Sebastopol

On Monday, March 26 we have a fundraiser event planned in Sebastopol CA.  We are raising funds for a lawsuit against Verizon who is trying to add 3G and 4G antennas to an already contentious cell tower in the heart of downtown Sebastopol.  We filed an appeal of the Sebastopol planning commission decision to allow the expansion, and the city council split 2-2 on the appeal which allowed Verizon to move ahead.  The only way to stop them was to file a lawsuit.

Theresa Melia, a Sebastopol Waldorf kindergarten teacher, is spearheading the campaign to raise the funds and she gave $1,000 towards the lawsuit.  She says, ” It is unconstitutional to be subjected against our will to constant radio frequency radiation.  This technology is a convenience that undermines everyone’s health.”

Verizon and other wireless carriers are bullies, who use the inadequate FCC radio frequency (RF) guidelines as proof of safety and intimidate local planners with the unconstitutional section 704 of the Telecommunications Act which prohibits cell tower placement decisions based on health impacts.

We need your help!  You can help us immediately by donating online, and please join us on Monday March 26, at 7 pm at the Sebastopol Vets Hall, in the Fireside Room, 282 High Street.  Documentary film “Public Exposure”, followed by Q and A with Sandi Maurer and Michael Neuert, plus a plant and art sale.  There is no cost to attend, but donations are encouraged to fund the lawsuit.