Category: smart grid

Smart meter documentary wins Viewers Choice Award for Top Transformational Film of 2013

promo-tbyp-ver11“Take Back Your Power” a documentary film on smart meters has won an AwareGuide Viewers Choice Award for top transformational film of 2013.

“A Transformational film” according to AwareGuide founder and CEO, Gary Tomchuk, “seeks to inspire the movement of society towards ideals, values and practices that create a better world for everyone. They focus on solutions for subjects such as: Consciousness, Environment, Health, and Social Issues.”

The Viewer’s Choice Award winners were selected by over 15,000 people from more than 50 countries that voted. The voting was very competitive with the top films changing the lead several times. With the close voting and some technical challenges both Take Back Your Power and The Ghosts in Our Machine have been awarded the Viewer’s Choice Award.  Congratulations Josh Del Sol, film maker!

WHO KNEW? The Wireless Smart Meter Meltdown

Cindy SagePerspective by Cindy Sage:  The misguided program of mandatory ‘smart wireless meters’ has done more to undercut the gains in public support for energy conservation in this country than any other single factor. The national shift to embrace energy conservation in the face of climate change has been derailed by mandatory ‘wireless smart meter’ programs. And judging by the public outrage against the National Security Agency (NSA) spying program revealed by Edward Snowden last summer, Americans have come to understand that government mandates for smart meters is likely one more ‘deep drilling project’ on their personal habits, preferences, life styles and medical conditions.

The smart meter program is widely seen as a spying, snooping, expensive, potentially hazardous, involuntary and entirely unnecessary burden for which energy conservation is a mirage. It is unlikely that Americans will stand for public utilities spying on their homes using energy use and conservation as the ruse, and make money on these data by selling their personal information to third party information brokers for profit.

How could one bad idea so completely galvanize such enormous and widespread public resistance? And lead to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) review of radiofrequency radiation (RFR) wireless safety standards and general distrust for government ideas about energy conservation? And undercut public support for some national environmental groups? It is really quite stunning how a single failed corporate/governmental strategy could backfire so rapidly and so completely.

Some national environmental groups bought into the technology, mistakenly gave it a ‘green’ endorsement, and actively partnered with ‘smart’ technology corporations like the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Some have publicly promoted the ‘smart meter’ as a good way to achieve energy conservation. Other environmental groups have been silent. They have turned a blind eye and refuse to take a position.

Environmental group leadership and independence of scientific assessment has taken a huge blow and will take decades to recover. Donors will think twice about where they send their donations to protect the environment. They believed in false promises but didn’t look deep enough. The national priority to convince families to conserve energy for the good of the planet has taken a direct blow. Who can believe in them now?

It shows how little anyone really knew what these meters entailed in ‘unintended consequences’. And how immediate the adverse effects would become visible.

READ MORE…

Physicians group says smart meters effect health: “The evidence is irrefutable.”

aaemAn international organization of physicians and scientists recognize smart meters are harming people’s health.  They say, “The evidence is irrefutable.” and call for further research, accommodations and avoidance of smart meters.  This new statement is based on a review of cases by Dr. Lamech in Australia. Here’s their recently adopted statement: Smart Meter Case Series

“Founded in 1965 as a non-profit medical association, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) is an international organization of physicians and scientists interested in the complex relationship between the environment and health.

AAEM physicians and physicians world wide are treating patients who report adverse, debilitating health effects following the installation of smart meters, which emit electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) and radiofrequencies (RF).

The peer reviewed, scientific literature demonstrates the correlation between EMF/RF exposure and neurological, cardiac, and pulmonary disease as well as reproductive disorders, immune dysfunction, cancer and other health conditions. The evidence is irrefutable. Despite this research, claims have been made that studies correlating smart meter emissions with adverse health effects do not exist.

The AAEM has received a case series submitted by Dr. Federica Lamech, MBBS, Self- Reporting of Symptom Development from Exposure to Wireless Smart Meters’ Radiofrequency Fields in Victoria.  AAEM supports this research. It is a well documented 92 case series that is scientifically valid. It clearly demonstrates adverse health effects in the human population from smart meter emissions.

The symptoms reported in this case series closely correlate not only with the clinical findings of environmental physicians, but also with the scientific literature. Many of the symptoms reported including fatigue, headaches, heart palpitations, dizziness and other symptoms have been shown to be triggered by electromagnetic field exposure under double blind, placebo controlled conditions.  Symptoms in this case series also correlate with the Austrian Medical Association’s Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of EMF Related Health Problems.

It is critically important to note that the data in this case series indicates that the “vast majority of cases” were not electromagnetically hypersensitive until after installation of smart meters. Dr. Lamech concludes that smart meters “may have unique characteristics that lower people’s threshold for symptom development”.

This research is the first of its kind, clearly demonstrating the correlation between smart meters and adverse health effects.

Based on the findings of this case series, AAEM calls for:

  • Further research regarding smart meter health effects
  • Accommodation for health considerations regarding smart meters.
  • Avoidance of smart meter EMF/RF emissions based on health considerations, including the option to maintain analog meters.
  • A moratorium on smart meters and implementation of safer technology
  • Physicians and health care providers to consider the role of EMF and RF in the disease process, diagnosis and treatment of patients.

Passed by the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine October 23, 2013

Update:

Self-reporting of symptom development from exposure to radiofrequency fields of wireless smart meters in Victoria, Australia: a case series: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25478801

See also: Dr. Ron Powell’s “Symptoms after Exposure to Smart Meter Radiation”: http://emfsafetynetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Symptoms-after-Exposure-to-Smart-Meter-Radiation.pdf

Project Censored 2013: #14 Wireless Technology a Looming Health Crisis

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Project Censored educates about the importance of truly free press for democratic self-government.  They expose and oppose news censorship and promote independent investigative journalism, media literacy, and critical thinking.

Founded in 1976 at Sonoma State University in California, they annually publish 25 top independent news stories that have been either ignored, misrepresented, or censored by corporate media; and they investigate hot topics in journalism and politics.

Story #14 for 2013 is ““Looming Health Crisis: Wireless Technology and the Toxification of America”.

Project Censored introduction to the article: “As a multitude of hazardous wireless technologies are deployed in homes, schools, and workplaces, government officials and industry representatives continue to insist on their safety despite growing evidence to the contrary. Extensive deployment of “smart grid” technology hastens this looming health crisis.

By now many residents in the United States and Canada have smart meters—which transfer detailed information on residents’ electrical usage back to the utility every few minutes—installed on their dwellings. Each meter has an electronic cellular transmitter that uses powerful bursts of electromagnetic radio frequency (RF) radiation to communicate with nearby meters, which together form an interlocking network. Such information can easily be used to determine individual patterns of behavior based on power consumption.

Utilities sell smart grid technology to the public as a way to “empower” individual energy consumers, allowing them to access information on their energy usage so that they may eventually save money by programming “smart” (i.e., wireless-enabled) home appliances and equipment to run when electrical rates are lowest. In other words, a broader plan behind smart grid technology involves a tiered rate system for electricity consumption that will be set by the utility, to which customers will have no choice but to conform.”

Read the story: James F. Tracy, “Looming Health Crisis: Wireless Technology and the Toxification of America,” Global Research, July 8, 2012.  

Smart Meter Film- Take Back Your Power- Watch NOW!

Take Back Your Power, Josh Del Sol’s full length documentary film on Smart Meters is now available to watch online (72 hr. rental) or purchase.

Take Back Your Power

Utility companies are replacing electricity, gas and water meters worldwide with new generation “smart” meters at an unprecedented rate. Take Back Your Power investigates the benefits and risks of this ubiquitous “smart” grid program, with insight from insiders, expert researchers, politicians, doctors, and concerned communities. Transparency advocate Josh del Sol takes us on a journey of revelation and discovery, as he questions corporations’ right to tap our private information and erode our rights in the name of “green”. What you discover will surprise you, unsettle you, and inspire you to challenge the status quo.

Dr. Ronald Powell: “Smart Meters are a community concern”

Dr. Ronald M Powell, PhD in applied physics from Harvard wrote:  Biological Effects from RF Radiation at Low-Intensity Exposure, based on the BioInitiative 2012 Report, and the Implications for Smart Meters and Smart Appliances

This is an important document to read and to bring to policy makers.

Dr. Powell’s Biological Effects Chart was produced from a review of the medical research literature on the biological effects of electromagnetic fields (BioInitiative.org). He concludes the following five points:

  1.  The current FCC Maximum Permitted Exposure (MPE) limits are so high that they provide no protection for the public from the biological effects found in any of the 67 studies.
  2. New biologically based RF exposure limits proposed in the BioInitiative 2012 Report are 1 million times lower than current FCC limits and would protect against the biological effects found in nearly all of the 67 studies.
  3. A single Smart Meter on a home can produce RF exposure levels that caused the biological effects found in either most or many of the 67 studies, depending on the distance from the Smart Meter.
  4. A single Smart Appliance in the home can produce RF exposure levels that caused the biological effects found in nearly half or fewer of the 67 studies, depending on the distance from the Smart Appliance. Multiple Smart Appliances in a home multiply the total exposure.
  5. A single Smart Meter on a nearest neighbor’s home can produce RF exposure levels that caused the biological effects found in many of the 67 studies. A given home may have one to eight nearest neighbors, each with a Smart Meter, multiplying the total exposure in the given home.

“Smart Meters are a community concern, not just an individual concern.”-Ronald Powell, PhD Applied Physics

The section on neighbors meters, and how smart meters are a community concern is especially relevant as policy makers decide how to proceed with solutions.  Here’s an excerpt of his paper:

“A Single Smart Meter on a Neighbor’s Home Can Produce RF Power Density Levels Shown to Cause Biological Effects

For some locations in a given home, the distance to a neighbor’s Smart Meter may be less than the distance to the resident’s own Smart Meter. Thus, a neighbor’s Smart Meter may be the principal source of radiation for some locations in the given home. The Biological Effects Chart shows that a single Smart Meter can produce RF power densities found to cause biological effects even at distances greater than 20 meters, and certainly up to 100 meters. And the number of neighbors within that range can be large. A given single-­‐family home in a residential community may have one to eight nearest neighbors, and even more next nearest neighbors, all within 100 meters (328 feet) of a given home, and each with a Smart Meter.

The problem of exposure from the neighbors’ Smart Meters becomes more serious as the distances between adjacent homes, and thus the distances between adjacent Smart Meters, get smaller. So, generally speaking, residents of townhouses will receive more radiation from their neighbors’ Smart Meters than residents of single-­‐family homes. And residents of apartments will receive even more radiation from their neighbors’ Smart Meters, depending on the location of the Smart Meters in the apartment buildings.

So Smart Meters are a community concern, not just an individual concern. To resolve the problems of RF exposure for a given home, it will be necessary to address all of the Smart Meters near that home. Smart Appliances, too, contribute to this concern. While, individually, they have a lower RF power output than a Smart Meter, the Smart Appliances of neighbors can also increase the RF exposure in the given home.

Fortunately, some states have offered an individual OPT OUT from the installation of a Smart Meter. While such an OPT OUT is very helpful, and is definitely the vital first step, the data on biological effects discussed here suggest the limitations of such an OPT OUT in resolving the problem of excess radiation from Smart Meters. There is no substitute for a roll back of all Smart Meters at the community level, or higher.”

“There is no substitute for a roll back of all Smart Meters at the community level, or higher.”-Ronald Powell, PhD Applied Physics