Category: smart meters

CA utilities to microwave 5000 homes

On July 28, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) ordered utilities to install Home Area Network (HAN) devices and activate the second 2.4 ghz microwave antennae in the electric Smart Meter in 5000 CA homes.  (P. 4 ” The decision orders PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E to each file a Tier 3 advice letter advice letter within four months to develop Smart Meter Home Area Network implementation plans specific to each. The plans must include an initial rollout of service to up to 5000 Home Area Network (HAN) devices that would allow HAN activation for early adopters upon request. … The full rollout shall require smart meters to transmit energy usage data to the home so that it can be received by a HAN device…”)

The industry/government partnered concept is that all new appliances will contain microwave antennas to operate in conjunction with the HAN, alerting consumers about their power consumption. What they don’t tell you is this HAN device will give utilities direct access into your home to turn on, or off your appliances, to control your electric use. What is not advertised is how the utilities will market data they collect from you to interested third parties, nor how microwave radiation was known to make people sick,  is known to make people sick,  is making people sick, and is now classified as a class 2B carcinogen by the WHO.

Will the utilities warn these 5000 homeowners of the health and safety risks of microwave radiation? NO they won’t. Will they investigate to see how near to the HAN or wireless meter people in the home sleep? NO they won’t. Will they inquire about age or immune sensitivity prior to installation of the HAN? No they won’t. Will they inquire about the use of other wireless medical devices? No they won’t. Will they disclose how often these microwaves will be transmitted, to and from the meter, HAN and appliances? No, they won’t. Will they prove that constant exposure to microwave radiation throughout your home is safe? No, they won’t. Meanwhile appliance manufacturers are gearing up to sell all new appliances with microwave transmitters to work with the HAN.

This directive to microwave 5000 homes was announced at the CPUC meeting, shortly after dozens of California ratepayers passionately implored the Commission to halt the radiation rollout.  Speaker after speaker shared how the wireless meters were making them sick and even homeless. The first speaker stated that since the new meter was installed he was having headaches and President Peevey told him to talk to PG&E who were in the room and that they would help him. (really?) The last speaker stated he would help anyone who wanted to remove the meter and send it back to PG&E in pieces and he did not care if it was against the law, that he would do time for it.

Following pubic comments, Commissioner Simon expressed his disappointment  in the industry and called on those who economically benefit from the technology to show up at public comments to educate the public domain (see 1:34:00 on the above referenced webcast) He said, “the public comment is very one sided…it puts me in a somewhat precarious position.”

President Peevey also stated his frustration over those opposing the meters and said, ” I think it’s kind of sad, that we had so many people here this morning talking to us about how this technology will allow people to know when they are doing their wash, and all that kind of stuff and they all walk out and have no interest in hearing us adopt something [privacy and security rules] that is fundamentally what they seek. It’s extremely frustrating, but I guess that goes with life in the fast lane and public service…” Then he laughs.  President Peevey is ignoring the main reason people are speaking at public comments and asking for immediate relief, to have meters removed because they are making people sick.

The next opportunity to speak to the Commissioners is on August 18 at 9 am at the CPUC in SF. (505 Van Ness Ave.) Prepare a one minute statement. Bring a few friends- It’s going to take hundreds of people showing up and demanding a halt to this program.

People vs. PG$E

Today a Wellington installers truck was effectively blocked and rendered incapable of deploying PG&E Smart Meters for several hours by a local Anchor Bay woman, Annie M.

Annie has been instrumental in educating her area about the hazards of the new PG&E wireless utility meters.  She is in recovery from severe EMF sensitivity, and moved to Mendocino County this year to take refuge in a lower EMF environment.  Talking about the incident she said,  “I don’t want anyone else to feel like I did. While I am still feeling good, I want to do what I can to help people. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Mendocino County has banned Smart Meters by ordinance, however PG&E is disrespecting the law and deploying meters throughout the county.

The homeowner, who’s driveway the truck was blocked into called on the Sheriff to report the illegal meter installations and they were told to file a written complaint online. However, later the Sheriff warned Annie M. that blocking the truck was considered entrapment, although PG$E and Wellington declined to press charges.

The CPUC could prevent these confrontations by ordering a moratorium on the installation of the unpopular meters.  45 cities and counties in California have called for a moratorium and a dozen have banned them.  At what point will the CPUC honor their mission to ensure safe utility service and regulate the utilities?  For now, it’s the people vs. PG$E.  This is a shameful situation.

Oh, say can you see

By Howard Glasser

I grew up in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The America we grew up in doesn’t exist anymore except in our hopes and prayers. We watched it vanish before our eyes and we’re responsible for that. America is as good as we make it. If America isn’t functioning, we’re not functioning in it.

Apathy is the single greatest killer of democracy. When people stop caring, stop writing, stop holding their government responsible and accountable, democracy is stolen by the power brokers that would have our representative system of government replaced by lobbyists and private interests who finance political campaigns and work for global corporations that couldn’t care less about what happens to America.

Big business is in bed with government and this infidelity is being committed on mattresses we bought and pillows stuffed with our hopes and dreams and hard earned money that thanks to them, isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

That brings me to the preposterous sale made by multi-national companies purporting to be “green” called the Smart Grid. This is the greatest heist of the 21st century. It’s what happens when monopolistic corporations take control of basic needs such as gas and electricity and turn the delivery of power to the consumer into the world’s biggest casino. It’s what we’re left with when the people who work for an industry are appointed by government to regulate it. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know what SmartMeters are about and you don’t need a CPA to follow the money. It’s pretty simple.  They got the P.O.

This is high treason and every American within the reach of my words should feel called upon to oppose it. Through manipulation of our Constitutional rights and the judicial process, corporations managed to seize control of our nation’s natural resources and hold us hostage. Local government was forced to surrender its power to higher business controlled authority and the average citizen was left with no one to protect or defend them. This was a takeover of unprecedented magnitude.

What PG&E is doing is monstrous and the fact that the California Public Utilities Commission is allowing it to get away with it is criminal. SmartMeter installations in California resulted in thousands of customer complaints statewide ranging from exorbitant billing to onsets of cancer and other life threatening disorders linked to the EMF radiation emitted by wireless meters to wide-scale environmental health impact to safety issues like residential and business fires and explosions to Big Brother violations of privacy to breaches in security.

While we sit and wait, SmartMeters are being installed in our neighborhoods, cities and towns and we’ve been told that there is nothing we can do about it. How did this happen? Organized crime took over and for a price, they got everything they wanted. From that moment on when democracy became a commodity like any other that could be sold to the highest bidder, those that could profit took the money and turned the other way. They turned their back on the America we grew up in; the America we knew; the America we believed in and fought for.

The few idealists who remained in office after the takeover were silenced. The rest were scared. The nation of nations was brought to its knees and the global, military-industrial banking republic was sworn in. At last, the corporation was a person and that individual stood hundreds of feet above everyone and walked around like Godzilla in Legoland.

As we speak, our fearless leaders are preparing for civil disobedience with strangely enough, weapons developed by the military to be deployed for crowd control using microwave beams that heat the skin.

The program is known as ADS, the Active Denial System. Tests run on U.S. soldiers resulted in them being hospitalized with severe burns. It is believed that the U.S. military intention is to develop the technology so that it can be used on crowds from aircraft above as well as on the ground. With political and economic unrest in many countries, the development of novel weapons against crowds is being heavily funded to deter potential activist demonstrations. A weapon of this nature could be employed against protestors or picket lines or anyone else who the established order might consider non-compliant.

“Brave New World?” “1984?” How about “2011?” That’s even scarier.

Original published in the Lake County Record Bee on July 15, 2011

Save the Humans

Save the Humans

Standing up against Smart Meters

By Sonoma County Citizens Against Wireless Radiation

What an interesting idea! We have “Save the Dolphins, Whales, Planet, Ecosystem, Animals,” and many other such groups. How is it possible that we are willing to care for salamanders but not for our fellow human beings, whose health is being compromised by society’s obsession with the personal conveniences of wireless, radiation-emitting technology?

Smart meters and other wireless, radiation-emitting technologies are causing many of us, at least 3 to 15 percent of the population, according to California Department of Health’s statistics, to develop electromagnetic hypersensitivity—or worse. Why are people being marginalized, made sick and forced to become environmental refugees? Many have had to leave their homes in search of a new place to live without wireless radiation. This has become almost impossible with the advent of smart meters.

There is mounting evidence from the US Army, scientists and physicians going back to the 1950s showing the effects of wireless electromagnetic radiation on the human body at a cellular level. In May, the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified radio frequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans based on an increased risk for gliomas, which are malignant types of brain cancer associated with wireless phone use. Mobile phone use is listed in the same “carcinogenic hazard” category as DDT, lead, engine exhaust and chloroform. Cell towers, wi-fi, smart meters, DECT phones, cordless phones and other wireless devices emit the same non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation emitted by cell phones.

Some of the other adverse health effects include depression, cardiovascular disorders, sterility, autism, neurodegenerative diseases, leukemia, strokes, breast cancer, brain cancer, acoustical neuromas, breathing dysfunctions, confusion, ear pain, tinnitus, headaches and many other symptoms.

We are calling on you, “the People,” to help protect the health of all members of our communities from the exponentially increasing danger of electromagnetic radiation. Write to your state and federal legislators, the California Public Utilities Commission and the governor, asking them to stop the smart meter program and adopt the precautionary principle toward all forms of wireless radiation.

Sonoma County Citizens Against Wireless Radiation is a group of retired teachers, parents, grandparents and concerned citizens.

This article was published in the Open Mic feature of the Bohemian- a Sonoma County CA publication on July 13, 2011

Dumb! Meter Song

Click to hear: Dumb! Meter Song

 

 


 

 

When I heard the news, I didn’t listen at all,

Until one day they installed it on my wall,

Well, I was mad, so I called on the phone

I said come on over, take it off of my home

It was a vibratin, pulsatin, radiatin smart meter,

A vibratin, pulsatin, radiatin smart meter

Vibratin, pulsatin, radiatin smart meter

Sure seems dumb to me.

They refused to listen to my pleading voice,

They said I had to have one, that I had no choice.

When my bill arrived it was ten times more!

I yelled and screamed and stomped on the floor!

It was a vibratin, pulsatin, radiatin smart meter,

A vibratin, pulsatin, radiatin smart meter

I don’t want one, radiatin smart meter

Sure seems dumb to me. (dumb meter)

My head was hurting, couldn’t sleep a wink

My ears were ringing, I could barely think,

Then my lights went out, my computer fried

That meter exploded and I almost died!

It was a vibratin, pulsatin, radiatin smart meter,

A vibratin, pulsatin, radiatin smart meter

We don’t want one, radiatin smart meter

Sure seems dumb to me. (stupid meter)

These meters aren’t safe, tell your PUC

Protect your health, money, and your privacy

Protect your family, your cats and dogs

Call the PUC, bring back the analogs!

It was a vibratin, pulsatin, radiatin smart meter,

A vibratin, pulsatin, radiatin smart meter

Bring back the analogs, safer than the dumb meters

Sure seems smarter to me.

(Lyrics by Sandi and Chris Maurer, Chris Maurer: guitar and vocals, Sandi and Anna Maurer: vocals. Sung to the tune of Purple People Eater)

NEW! Wireless Utility Meter Safety Impacts Survey

The EMF Safety Network launches a new survey on “Wireless Utility Meter Safety Impacts”.  There are a total of 25 questions and it takes just a few minutes to complete. You can take the survey whether or not you have a new meter on your home, or in your neighborhood, or area.  Please take this new survey! Thank you!

This survey is now closed. Results from the survey do not include open responses at this time.  See results here.  Wireless Utility Meter Safety Impacts Survey

 

Arcing Meter Hazards

The following letter and photo were sent to the EMF Safety Network from a California fire department captain (Ross) who saved his home from a potential Smart Meter fire in 2009.  PG&E has admitted that Smart Meters have interfered with GFI’s and AFCI’s, but they have not admitted to any connection with a Smart Meter fire.

Friday August 21st 2009 approx 7pm PST

I was at home doing yard work in the late afternoon when my wife came outside and told me that “half the power was off again”. This had been happening on and off for about two weeks and it kept happening when I was at work. This was the first time I got a look at what was happening. It was a hot day and the AC was on. The power went off when my wife turned on the stove.

I then went into my garage and check my fuses. As I opened the door from the house to my garage I could smell burnt electrical smoke. I then rushed over to the fuse box but immediately determined that it was not the source.

I then went out side to where my meter was and I could instantly smell the burnt electrical smoke. As I was looking at the meter I inadvertently placed my hand on the meter itself and almost burned my hand. The meter was so hot you could not touch it. I then went back into my garage and felt the wall area where the meter comes in contact with my home. The wall was also very warm. Being the firefighter I am, I began to remove the sheetrock from the wall to check if I had a wall fire. There was no wall fire but the metal box into which all the homes wiring from the meter is stored was also too hot to touch with a bare hand.

At this point I called my father-in-law who is an electrician to come over and have a look. When he showed up, I told him what was going on and when he touched the meter a look of amazement came over his face and he stated ” This isn’t supposed to be this hot, we need to kill the power”.

At that point we shut the power off to my house and called the PG&E emergency line due to the fact it was a Friday evening.

PG&E sent out a service truck. When they arrived the gentleman walked up we explained what was going on and he asked “When was your Smartmeter installed” I told him ” About two weeks ago”. That when a light went off in my head.

When he went to pull the meter, it was still to hot to touch and the PG&E service worker had to put gloves on, even though the power had been off for approx one hour.

As son as he pulled the meter we could see what had happened. The receiving clips for the meter were burnt.  He then asked ” Did your power go off when the AC kicked on?” I said ” No my power went off when my wife turned on the stove to cook dinner”

He then said ” That makes sense, the burnt area is where your 220v goes into your house, you’re lucky it didn’t start a fire”

I then asked ” How did this happen?’

He then proceeded to tell me that they were having nothing but problems with the contractor who was installing the meters and that it was costing PG&E more money to follow the contractors through each neighborhood and fix the problems they were causing and that the reason they did this is that PG&E didn’t want to pay its own workers wages and wanted a cheaper price.

As you could imagine I was shocked at this admission.

He then went on, telling me that the burnt area was more than likely due to the contractors not being able to fit the new Smartmeter into place, so the widened the receiving clip and shoved it into place. By them widening the clips, the caused an area of no contact which then caused arcing every time we used and appliance with 220v.

What he said next then floored me.

He said ” Well you need a whole new box and there is no way we can repair it tonight. Technically you own the box and we would tell you to hire an electrician to fix it. PG&E own thee lines underground and everything up to the meter. Because this is behind the meter, technically its all on you”

At that point I almost blew my lid but then he said ” I am writing this up as a bad install by the contractor. I am tired of following those guys around and fixing their problems because it’s not right. I’m going to make them pay for it and hire an outside electrician to do it.” I was relieved at that point.

He then kept telling us more and more about all the problems and how this company only gave these people installing the meters two days of training and were hiring people who were not electricians. He also told us about injuries to contact employees were receiving due to lack of training.

At that point he said ” here is what I’m going to do for you. We are not going to be able to rebuild this until Monday, but I will bypass the 220v so you can use your basics, you just wont be able to do laundry or have no AC.”

He then alluded to the fact he wasn’t supposed to bypass the220v but he did it for us anyways.

Come Monday, the third party electrician showed up at my home to repair my box. He asked what happened and I told him, he then says ” This isn’t the first box I have had to fix because of those guys” meaning the contractors.

The pic you see [is] of the burnt area where the 220v went into the house.  Also you see the strips of metal in the other clips, this is where the PG & E service worker bypassed the 220v so I could at least have 110v for the weekend.