Category: Hall of Shame

Protect Monarch Butterflies from radiation

 

On August 21, 2013 the city of Pacific Grove will hear an appeal on the placement of an AT&T 4G cell tower next to the Monarch Butterfly sanctuary.

Pacific Grove is an overwintering area for the monarch butterfly. Each year, these butterflies migrate thousands of miles from Canada to Pacific Grove and other special places in the Western Hemisphere. They arrive and stay through several reproductive cycles, and then continue their travels.

Pacific Grove has an ordinance specifically protecting monarch butterflies. It has a small area set aside for the butterflies as a sanctuary, but the butterflies roost and feed in trees in the surrounding area. Many travel books feature this sanctuary to attract visitors from all around the world.

AT&T wants to put a permanent set of cellular 4G antennas at Wilkie’s Inn, (1038 Lighthouse Avenue) next to the butterfly sanctuary. This is one of the few monarch habitats the butterflies rely on.

Here’s two studies that indicate insects are harmed by radiation.  Food collection and response to pheromones in an ant species exposed to electromagnetic radiation found exposure to radiation caused colony deterioration and affected social insects’ behavior and physiology. Another study Oxidative and genotoxic effects of 900 MHz electromagnetic fields in the earthworm Eisenia fetida found radiation caused genotoxic effects and DNA damage in earthworms.

Please take action to help stop these antennas in Pacific Grove, California. Sign this petition by Tuesday, August 20, 2013  Read more and sign the petition.

UPDATE: The city Pacific Grove council voted against the butterflies. The petition author writes, “Thank you to the hundreds of supporters on this issue. Sad to say (but not surprised) that all but one of the city council members voted for the cell antennas to be built near one of the rare monarch butterfly overwintering sites in Pacific Grove. AT&T must’ve made the incentive worth while.The city is supposed to protect the butterfly sanctuary and didn’t.”

Smart Meter: heros and bullies in Oklahoma

Joe EspositoJoe Esposito lives in Tulsa County on the fence line next to the City of Owasso, Oklahoma, which was a pilot for the State of Oklahomaʼs Smart Meter program. Joe called the Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) and told them he did not want a Smart Meter. He came home one day from work and discovered that PSO had installed a Smart Meter on his home without his consent.

Joe and his wife watched Dr. Dietrich Klinghardtʼs video “Smart Meter and EMR: The Health Crisis Of Our Time”. After watching the video Joe took Dr. Klinghardtʼs advice and nailed a sheet of lead (30”x30”) between the smart meter and his house and later that night he woke up to discover the two major health problems he had been having were gone. He then built a faraday cage to sleep in which helped him even more.

Joe says, “The important issue to understand is that I did not need any pharmaceuticals, I just needed to get the radiation stopped.”

Joe then worked with Jerry Day, who helped him obtain an analog meter and legal paperwork. Then he talked with a licensed electrician who suggested he apply to the City of Tulsa for a permit to replace his Smart Meter with an analog meter, due to health problems. Joe did just that and the inspector came out said all was fine and he would call PSO to have them put their security lock on the new analog meter.

Within days he received an over-night letter from PSOʼs attorney saying put back the Smart Meter or we will cut your power off.  Joe refused and he and his wife were forced to live without power for over two months.

Joe’s attorney and PSO’s attorney finally worked out an agreement to place a ‘plug’ instead of a meter on his house and gave Joe two months to resolve this issue or PSO will cut his power off again.

While Joe was learning about radiation he purchased a GIGAHERTZ SOLUTIONS Meter HFE 35C, so he could read the amount of radiation from all these electrical devices. He found where his wife would lay her head on their bed his meter would peg.

Once the electrician put the analog meter on Joeʼs home, Joe believed all would be normal inside his home. But the reading at their bed stayed the same. So now they tried no meter on the home, no power to the home, and yet the reading was the same on their bed.

The next day he nailed aluminum window screen wire to the whole south side of his home, which helped lower the readings. What he learned was the hospital approximately 700 ft. to his south was pulsing radiation every 30 seconds, and a cell tower about a half mile to the south was transmitting constantly.

Joe says, “If a person breaks into my home to do harm, I can protect my family. What is the difference if microwave radiation is breaking into my home and doing harm to my family?”

Joe founded the website Stop Smart Meters in Oaklahoma. You can read more about his story in his own words here: Joe Esposito.

Recently Oklahoma TV news station ran a story on the health impacts of smart meters including Joe Esposito and Monique Smith who is suffering from headaches, dizziness and nosebleeds from the smart meter.  She has a note from her doctor saying it’s “medically necessary that the smart meter be removed from the home.”  Still their utility company refuses to remove it, forcing them out of their home.  Here’s the first of three excellent videos. The second and third can be watched here: http://kfor.com/2013/07/23/customers-says-oge-smart-meters-making-them-sick/

PG&E denies smart meter fires

Despite evidence that smart meters cause fires and explosions, in the following Stop Smart Meters video, a PG&E spokesperson says, that of all the nine million smart meters deployed in California PG&E has no reports of smart meters causing fires.

KO says a smart meter exploded-with a pop-pop-pop, flames and a big KABOOM- on her house.  She has pictures showing the fire damage.

BurnedSMIn Bakersfield, media reports “a smart-meter blows up at a business”. The PG&E technician told the employee that he had replaced at least 15 meters around town due to the same problem.

Mr. Patrick Wrigley, a former PG&E meter reader told a Public Utilities Commission judge that he was fired because he was not wiling to be quiet about the smart meter problems he saw.  He said, “These meters catch fire. They know it, and they are covering it up.”

The Berkeley fire department reported finding a smart meter “… hot to touch and smoking, with a orange glow inside the meter housing”.

IMG_2199Ms. Moskow, a PG&E customer stated,  “I had terrible electric problems in my house once the smart meter was installed,  fire coming out one of the outlets, many outlets not working.”

Two California fire department captains contacted the EMF Safety Network to report fire hazards associated with smart meters.  We also know that PG&E settled out of court in a wrongful death suit where Larry Nikkel lost his life in a smart meter fire.

In January of 2010 PG&E admitted smart meters interfered with GFI’s and AFCI’s which are devices designed to protect from shock and fire. More smart meter fire stories here: http://emfsafetynetwork.org/?page_id=1280

Fires related to smart meters are reported in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Pennsylvania, Texas, Australia, and Canada.

Smart Meter Harm in Port St. Lucie Florida

Shari Anker begins her comments to the Port St. Lucie Florida city council by stating,  “In the book, Diary of Anne Frank, is Anne’s famous entry that reads, Despite everything I still believe that people are good in their hearts.”  Not long after that she was killed in a concentration camp.  Anne Frank was right that at least some people have good hearts.  But for her, at that time and in that place there weren’t enough good people in her life.”

Shari states, “The pulsed modulated radiation emissions from the Neptune R900 water meters the city is installing causes injuries to my health. I need a zone of safety around my home where I am free of these emissions.”  Sheri’s letters and requests to the city are ignored. She asks,  “WHY NO RESPONSE?”

Lisa Lacoparra had a seizure 3 weeks after the “smart” water meter was installed by the City of Port St Lucie Utility Dept this year.  She also had a seizure last year one week after Florida Power and Light (FPL) installed smart meters on her neighbors homes.  Although FPL removed the smart meters from Lisa neighbors’ homes the Cities “smart” water meters for neighbors, at the end of her driveway are making her very ill.

Lisa’s doctor is requesting for all transmitting meters to be removed within a 300-600 m radius of her home. The City and the utility dept are refusing — even though it is a life threatening situation.

Call to demand that the city remove the transmitting radiation meters and provide a zone of safety for Lisa, and Sheri and everyone who requests it!

CALL TO ACTION: Reject Obama’s Wheeler to head the FCC

Last week, President Obama nominated Tom Wheeler, the founder of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), the wireless lobbyist group to head the FCC.  Wheeler is also a venture capitalist and a fund-raiser in Obama’s presidential campaign.

Authors of the BioInitiative Report signed a letter to US Senators urging them to reject Wheeler stating,

“Mr. Wheeler should not be in charge of the nation’s safety standards and deployment for a technology he promotes without regard to public health and safety, the integrity of the national electric grid or homeland security.

The FCC has recently announced a review of radiofrequency health and safety limits. This process must not be carried out under a new chairman who has shown antipathy toward public safety, and who puts industry economic considerations ahead of the protection of children and pregnant women.”

Blake Levitt, award-winning medical/science journalist writes in Counterpunch.org, “Why the Senate Should Reject Tom Wheeler- Another Industry Crony at the FCC?

“President Obama’s nomination of Tom Wheeler to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the height of cynical cronyism and industry-pandering. He should not be confirmed. Obama, in fact, could not have found a worse nominee than Tom Wheeler to head this most significant regulatory agency – one with long tentacles into all our lives whether we know it or not. Wheeler is the last person who should have his hands on the levers of the FCC, though he’s been aching to do just that for decades.”

“Wheeler has far too many conflicts of interest and industry biases to head the FCC. The FCC, regulates the nation’s airwaves and all communications plus its accompanying infrastructure, including all broadcasters, cable companies, telephone-service providers both wired and wireless, satellite communications and the Internet. FCC is at a crucial juncture regarding decisions on new airwave auctions, further media consolidation, net neutrality, and most importantly the updating of the nation’s obsolete exposure standards for radiofrequency radiation. The stakes are high. These decisions will affect all U.S. citizens for decades to come in ways great and small….”

Read the full article at Counterpunch.org

Family with young children forced to live in the cold and without power for refusing a LADWP Smart Meter

LOS ANGELES- Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has terminated electricity to the family of a middle school teacher, her husband, and their six children for refusing to have a smart meter on their home, which they say caused their family serious health problems.

In July 2012, LADWP installed a Smart Meter on Derek and Anura Lawson’s home without notice or consent.  Their house was part of a smart meter pilot program. Other houses in the neighborhood still have their analog meters.

That same month their four youngest children started to have serious health problems. The mother, Anura Lawson writes they had fevers “out of nowhere”, “as high as 105”, and they “began to have problems controlling their bodily fluids, our five year old began peeing and pooping herself, our four year began to display the same problems…” The mother also struggled with migraines, insomnia, concentration problems and other health symptoms.

The family requested LADWP restore the analog meter.  LADWP then gave them what they said was an analog meter, but the health symptoms persisted.  The family objected.  According to Anura, LADWP ridiculed them.  She says, “When I called customer service, “Jennifer” laughed at me, telling me they would not remove the meter.”

When an agent of LADWP met with the family he said, “This isn’t one of those ‘SmartMeters’ that have been making all those people sick.  These are RF meters. Totally different.”  He talked about how safe radio was and that it had been used for years.  Meanwhile the children’s health problems persisted.

Clearly something had to be done.

In January 2013, after repeated, unfulfilled requests to LADWP for help, the family restored a true analog meter obtained from Jerry Day.   The mother wrote that after the analog meter was restored the children’s symptoms “diminished greatly, they no longer get high fevers, or suffer from loss of their bodily function.”

Two weeks later, LADWP disconnected their electricity.  Anura saw the workers scale a neighbor’s wall, climb the power pole in their backyard and literally cut the wire to their home.   Since February 11th the Lawsons have been living without electricity, without heat, without use of their appliances and without lights.

Joshua Hart, director of Stop Smart Meters! says, “Pilot programs are supposed to be a test to see how a new system operates.  When problems crop up, you don’t punish customers for reporting them- you fix the problem.”

The family has been using candles and battery powered lanterns to see at night.  They are cooking on a camping stove outdoors, and keeping their food cold in ice chests. The family says the incident has been extremely stressful.

This incident echoes other bullying incidents around the country, where people have been cut off after having had their smart meters removed due to health issues.

Sandi Maurer, director of the EMF Safety Network states, “Federal law states customers should be offered smart meters, not be forced to have them on their homes.  LADWP is exceeding its authority by mandating these devices.”

Jerry Day, a video producer on the forefront of empowering customers to stand up for their constitutional rights states, “This is inexcusable.  This is not responsible power company management. This is senseless abuse of utility customers.”

We agree. The Lawsons need their power switched on and an analog utility meter restored on their home.  NOW.

IMPORTANT FOLLOW UP!  Anura Lawson took this issue to the Los Angeles City Council meeting and their power was restored that same day.

In extreme contrast to this situation, Liz Barris of the People’s Initiative Foundation today reports LADWP has removed a smart meter from a property in Hollywood Hills Ca. She says it took two weeks of wrangling with them until a senior manager Vincent Zabukovec 213-367-2725 agreed to the switch.  Here’s her video of the meter swap.

Article written by Sandi Maurer, EMF Safety Network and Joshua Hart, Stop Smart Meters!

CPUC President Peevey to public: “Shut Up”!

From Stop Smart Meters:

Michael Peevey has done enough damage to California: Now it’s time to go.

Yesterday, dozens of people descended on the California Public Utilities Commission (for the umpteenth time) to speak of health damage, fires, privacy violations, and inaccurate bills brought about by the “smart meter” and to demand major changes in state policy regarding the metering choices Californians have.

The room was shocked when, toward the end of public comment, President Peevey told the public- who in some cases had traveled hundreds of miles to be there- to “shut up.”

The heated exchange came as the last people who had signed up to speak before 9am were wrapping up their comments.  State law allows anyone present at the end of public comment period to speak for 1 minute  to the Commission.

People started raising a protest when it was understood that Peevey would not allow public comment to continue. The Commission under Peevey has made it increasingly difficult for the public to comment, requiring that people not comment on the same subject more than once and unnecessarily limiting speaking time.   Several people who have been made sensitive to EMF’s by the smart meter, and who had taken time off work to speak, were forced to leave before their slot came up as they could not bear the wi-fi and other wireless devices that the PUC encourages in the meeting chamber.

It is widely believed that Mr. Peevey is under increasing pressure to step down- from elected officials and by victims of the San Bruno explosion, smart meters, nuclear power, and various inappropriate infrastructure developments during his tenure.   The man clearly lost his cool.

When the head of the state agency responsible for utility services and safety tells the public- who pay his salary- to “shut up”during a public meeting, it’s time for him to step down.

We will not “shut up” and we will not go away.