Category: Take Action!

Mass tort lawsuit filed over smart meter health injuries

gavel-judgementAttorneys David Kyle and Paul Overett have filed a mass tort lawsuit against two California utilities:  Southern California Edison (SCE) and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) for health damages from exposure to smart meters, and or smart grid.  Also named in the lawsuit are smart meter installer companies, Corix and Wellington and smart meter manufacturers, Itron and Landis and Gyr, with possibly more defendants to be added as the lawsuit progresses.

Attorney David Kyle has previously won a small claims lawsuit against SCE over smart meter installation, and  settled with PG&E in a wrongful death suit involving an alleged smart meter fire.

Sixteen plaintiffs, ten SCE customers and six PG&E customers allege they suffered health effects ranging from headaches, insomnia, chronic fatigue, ringing in the ears, dizziness, heart palpitations, to heart attacks and medical implant interference from exposure to smart meters.

The suit alleges the defendants withheld important safety information associated with the use of smart meters as well as multiple violations of CA laws, including California Civil Code section 1710 which defines deceit as an untrue assertion or suppression of a fact so as to mislead.

Plaintiffs allege negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud and deceit, and products liability.

Elizabeth Barris, organizer for the lawsuit invites customers from other California utilities, including municipally run utilities, whose health has been effected by smart meters or smart grid to join the lawsuit. Elizabeth can be contacted at 310-281-9639 or email: contact@thepeoplesinitiative.org

Where the public gets burned and corporations get rate increases

Earlier this month California state legislators grilled the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on it’s lax safety oversight and financial problems. President Michael Peevey was caught by a TV investigative reporter at a winery conference, instead of answering questions at a senate hearing in Sacramento: Peeveys Priority: Senate Hearing or Napa Winery?  Legislators voted to wipe out the CPUC’s $1.4 billion budget to “force the regulatory agency to justify how it spends its money.”

On Thursday May 23, PG&E customers continue to demand safe utility oversight from the CPUC. President Peevey started off the CPUC business meeting by saying since everyone had been there before he’d skip the safety instructions for the building.

Garril Page, of Marin County was one of a group of PG&E customers who spoke at their business meeting during public comments.  She said this:

“Lax oversight and failure to regulate too-cozy utilities… How often does this require restatement before there is corrective action? 

It is not Jack Hagan’s military mind we need, but a surgical strike at the head of the CPUC,  to stop unsafe, unreliable conditions, abuse of funds and fiscal improprieties.  

The public is threatened by deferred maintenance of utility infrastructure,  improperly regulated,  radiation-spewing devices,  overburdened power poles loaded with snooping, profit-producing,  data collectors that topple and burn. 

The CPUC used bureaucratic box-checking to conceal the number of exploding underground vaults. How will the truth about power pole fires be hidden?

The truth about Smart Meters is being revealed despite the CPUC’s apparent indifference to scientific research and aversion to public testimony. 

No amount of a carcinogen is safe, radiation effects are cumulative, the damage is irreversible, and for the privilege of toxic exposure we are charged opt-out  fees.

The California Public Utilities Commission: where the public gets burned and corporations get rate increases.”

Bravo Garril! There were many other terrific speakers too.

Reject the Fox (Wheeler) to guard the hen house (FCC)

https://www.change.org/petitions/reject-president-obama-s-nomination-of-thomas-wheeler-to-head-the-fcc

President Obama could not have picked a worse nominee than Tom Wheeler to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Wheeler has obvious industry ties and conflicts of interest:

  • Wheeler chaired the CTIA, the Wireless Association, which includes Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile;
  • Wheeler chaired the National Cable Television Association, which includes Comcast, Time Warner, and others;
  • Wheeler is the director of Core Capital Partners LP, a venture capital firm that manages $350 million in the high-growth technology sector- they rely on friendly regulation at the FCC;
  • Wheeler raised millions of dollars for Obama’s presidential campaign;
  • Wheeler is listed on Fierce Wireless’ top ten list of people who helped shape the wireless industry.

The FCC regulates the nation’s airwaves and all communications plus its accompanying infrastructure. The FCC sets the “safety” standards for radio frequency radiation (RF) used in all wireless devices. The standards are inadequate and obsolete because they do not address long term health effects, and they were created before cell towers, cell phones, wi-fi and “smart” meters.

Importantly, the FCC is set to update these RF “safety” standards soon. With trillions of wireless products in use today, babies, children, adults, animals, the environment, and future generations are all at risk from chronic exposure to wireless radiation based on inadequate safety standards.

With a wireless industry leader as the head of the FCC there’s little chance for safe oversight. These crucial decisions will threaten us for decades to come.

MORE INFO:

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

Are EMF’s Affecting Your Health?

May is Electromagnetic Field (EMF) and Radio Frequency Radiation (RF) Injury Awareness month!

Do you feel ill, or unwell when you’re near cell phones, fluorescent lights, wi-fi, computers, or Smart Meters?  Are you suffering from symptoms doctors cannot explain or help with? Do you feel more at peace when the electricity goes out?  Some people: 1) are aware that electromagnetic fields and wireless radiation affect their health or make them feel unwell; or 2) have been injured by  electromagnetic fields and wireless radiation; or 3) have electromagnetic radiation sickness.

Reducing exposure to EMF’s and RF, aka wireless is known to help improve health and well being.

Potential health problems

  • Sleep problems (insomnia, difficulty falling asleep, night waking, nightmares)
  • Stress, agitation, anxiety, irritability
  • Headaches, sharp pain or pressure in the head
  • Ringing in the ears, ear pain, high pitched ringing
  • Concentration, memory or learning problems
  • Fatigue, muscle or physical weakness
  • Allergies
  • Disorientation, dizziness, or balance problems
  • Eye problems, including eye pain, pressure in the eyes,
  • Cardiac symptoms, heart palpitations, heart arrhythmias, chest pain
  • Leg cramps, or neuropathy
  • Arthritis, body pain, sharp, stabbing pains
  • Nausea, flu-like symptoms
  • Sinus problems, nose bleeds
  • Respiratory problems, cough, asthma
  • Skin rashes, facial flushing
  • Urinary problems
  • Endocrine disorders, thyroid problems, diabetes
  • High blood pressure
  • Changes in menstrual cycle
  • Hyperactivity or changes in children’s behavior
  • Seizures
  • Recurrence of cancer

Studies

The State of California advises prudent avoidance of EMFs.  A recent study from Finland found that prudent avoidance was the best way to restore health for people with “electrical sensitivity”. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization classifies EMF and RF wireless as 2B (possible) carcinogens, same as DDT and lead!

Simple safety steps you can take

  • Use a corded landline for phone calls, remove cordless DECT phones.
  • Use cell phones for emergencies. Do not carry a cell phone “on” your body, use a speakerphone.
  • Use a wired internet connection. Remove wi-fi. Ensure the router and computer wi-fi is turned off.
  • Remove Smart Meters and restore the true analog meter, not a radio off smart meter, not a digital analog.
  • Remove CFL’s and fluorescent lighting.
  • Sleep in an electricity free bedroom. Turn the power off at the breaker box.
  • Click here for more suggestions.
  • Read about how utility Smart Meters are making people sick. Click here.

BC HYDRO Cuts Power for Refusing a Smart Meter: CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT ANNOUNCED

Press release from our Canadian friends at CST:

BC Hydro has taken the draconian step of cutting off power to a customer who refused to accept a wireless smart meter.

Last May, a Hydro customer had a wireless smart meter installed on her home despite her refusal. This person suffers from electro-sensitivity and, as a consequence of the radiofrequency radiation emitted by the wireless smart meter, her health began to deteriorate.

Despite pleading for months with Hydro to remove the wireless meter and to re-install the analog meter; they refused. Finally, with her health in jeopardy, she ordered a non- radiating analog meter from a company in the US that provides calibrated, tested meters to utility companies. With the supervision of a certified electrician the analog was installed, and the wireless smart meter was returned to Hydro.

When Hydro advised that the analog was not approved by Canadian agencies, the customer located a Canadian analog meter that met all the requirements and then asked Hydro to install it. Hydro refused, ignored her health condition and insisted that she must accept a wireless smart meter or they would cut her power.

On April 17, 2013, Hydro followed through with its threats and cut off its supply of power to her home.

Hydro’s conduct constitutes a violation of our autonomy and our right to determine what potentially harmful emissions do or do not occur from within our own domestic environment; our right to be free from physical intrusion by the state.

Due to Hydro’s actions over the last 2 years, culminating with its cessation of service to a customer for refusing to allow the installation of a wireless smart meter, the Citizens for Safe Technology Society and the Coalition to Stop Smart Meters are filing a class action lawsuit.

San Diego Earth Day Fair

2013-04-21 23.59.09On Sunday April 21, Center for Electrosmog Prevention, Stop OC Smart Meters and the EMF Safety Network gathered at the San Diego Earth Day Fair to educate the public about health and environmental risks of EMF and smart meter exposure.

2013-04-22 00.00.10The booth next door to ours was a 350 campaign raising awareness about the oil pipeline and they had a cut out of Obama on their booth which stood right next to the smart meter opt-out sign. It was a nice match.

2013-04-22 00.10.23Only one person came to the booth to argue about safety of smart meters, and the risks of radiation.

Every other person was very interested in having their cell phone measured.  This gave people the opportunity to “hear” the sound of the radiation their cell phone emitted, even when they were not using it.  Android and Iphones seemed to be the worst emitters, with many emitting “pings” and some emitting a wi-fi signal.

And finally here was one fairgoer who was willing to pose for the camera. 2013-04-21 21.59.39