Effects of EMR on the brain, glands, and respiration. The links to obesity.

Posted on December 22, 2015 by admin

From Foods Matter

Two extracts from Dr Andrew Goldsworthy’s much longer paper, The biological effects of weak electromagnetic fields – problems and solutions.

Electromagnetic radiation, obesity and chronic fatigue

Gland cells (thyroid, adrenal etc) may be particularly sensitive to radiation because their secretions are normally produced in internal membrane systems, which can also be damaged. Their secretions are usually released in vesicles (bubbles of membrane) that fuse with the external cell membrane and disgorge their contents to the outside (exocytosis). The vesicle membrane then becomes part of the external membrane. The resulting excess external membrane is counterbalanced by the reverse process (endocytosis) in which the external membrane buds off vesicles to the inside of the cell, which then fuse with the internal membranes.

In this way, an active gland cell may internalise the equivalent of its entire surface membrane about once every half an hour. This means that if the surface membrane is damaged directly by the fields or by electromagnetically conditioned blood, the damaged membrane will rapidly become part of the internal membrane system, upon which its normal glandular activity depends. If the damage is too severe, the cell concerned may lose its normal function. We are now seeing increasing evidence of this.

Electromagnetic effects on the thyroid gland and the endocrine system

Although electromagnetic fields frequently stimulate glandular activity in the short term, long term exposure is often harmful in that the gland ceases to work properly. This is particularly serious for the glands of the endocrine system (those that coordinate our bodily functions) since it can affect many aspects of metabolism and throw the whole body out of kilter.

An example of this is the thyroid gland, which is in an exposed position in the front of the neck. Rajkovic et al. (2003) showed that after three months exposure to power line frequencies, the thyroid glands of rats showed visible signs of deterioration. They also lost their ability to produce the thyroid hormones, which they did not recover even after the fields were switched off.  Esmekaya et al. (2010) found a similar visible deterioration of the thyroid gland in rats exposed to simulated 2G cell phone radiation for 20 minutes a day for three weeks. Eskander et al. (2012) found that people living for six years within 100 metres of a cell phone base station showed a highly significant loss in their ability to produce thyroid hormones. The expected consequence of this is hypothyroidism, the most frequent symptoms of which are fatigue and obesity.

Cell phone-induced obesity can trigger many other illnesses

It may not be a coincidence that about a quarter of a million UK citizens are now suffering from what is being diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome, and about eight out of ten are either overweight or clinically obese. The consequences of obesity include diabetes, gangrene, high blood pressure, cardiac problems, renal failure and cancer. Between them, they cause a great deal of human suffering and cost the nation’s economy a great deal of money. If just a fraction of this is due to microwave telecommunications, the cell phone companies will have a lot to answer for.

Electromagnetic effects on the adrenal gland

Augner et al. (2010) in a double blind study (where neither the subject nor the person recording the results knows whether the radiation is switched on or off) showed that short-term exposure to the radiation from a 2G (GSM) cell phone base station increased the cortisol level in the saliva of human volunteers. Cortisol is a stress hormone that is normally produced in the cortex of the adrenal glands and is controlled by the calcium level in its cells (Davies et al. 1985) so electromagnetically-induced membrane leakage letting more calcium into the cytosol should also have this effect.

Cortisol is part of a mechanism that puts the body into a “fight or flight” mode, in which more sugar is released into the blood, sensitivity to pain is reduced and the immune system is suppressed. In fact, cortisol and its relatives are used medicinally to relieve pain and also to suppress the immune system after transplant surgery. However, when exposure to base station radiation does it, it is not good news since the suppression of the immune system will also increase the risk of infection and of developing tumours from precancerous cells that might otherwise have been destroyed.

Buchner and Eger (2011) studied the effect of a newly installed 2G cell phone base station on villagers in Bavaria and found that it caused a long-lived increase in the production of adrenalin. This is an important neurotransmitter which acts on adrenergic receptors to increase the calcium concentration in the cytosol. It is also synthesised in the adrenal medulla in response to signals from the sympathetic nervous system. Adrenalin also puts the body into fight or flight mode by diverting resources from the smooth muscles of the gut to the heart muscle and the skeletal muscles needed for flight or combat. It addition, it stimulates the production of cortisol by the adrenal cortex, with all that that implies.

Some people get pleasure from the “adrenalin rush” caused by doing energetic or dangerous things, and this could be a contributory factor to the addictive nature of cell phones. However, on the down side, known effects of excess adrenalin include, headaches, cardiac arrhythmia, high blood pressure, tremors, anxiety and inability to sleep. These results confirm and explain some of the findings of Abdel-Rassoul et al. (2007) who found that people living near cell towers (masts) had significantly increases in headaches, memory loss, dizziness, tremors and poor sleep.

The effect of electromagnetic radiation on the body’s tight brain, respiratory and skin junction barriers

Tight junction barriers are layers of cells where the gaps between them are sealed by tight-junctions to prevent materials leaking around their sides. They protect all of our body surfaces from the entry of unwanted materials and often protect one part of the body from being unduly influenced by the others. For example, the blood-brain barrier prevents toxins entering the brain from the bloodstream.

Normally, these barriers are closed but they are programmed to open if calcium ions enter their cells. This was demonstrated by Kan and Coleman (1988) who showed that the calcium ionophore A23187 (a substance that lets calcium ions leak into cells) opened tight junction barriers in the liver. The electromagnetic opening of the blood-liver barrier could be a contributory factor to the current outbreak of liver disease in the UK in the under forties (the cell phone generation), which is at present being blamed on alcohol abuse.

Since all tight junction barriers have basically the same design, unscheduled calcium entry resulting from electromagnetic exposure is likely to open all of them in much the same way. The opening of our tight junction barriers by electromagnetic fields can account for many modern illnesses, ranging from asthma to multiple allergies and Alzheimer’s disease.

The blood-brain barrier and early dementia

The blood-brain barrier normally prevents possibly toxic large molecules from the bloodstream entering the brain. The radiation from cell phones, even at one hundredth of the permitted SAR value, can open the blood brain barrier in rats so that protein molecules as large as albumin could enter their brains (Persson et al. 1997). Later experiments by Salford et al. (2003) showed that this was associated with the death of neurons.

We would not expect an immediate effect because the brain has spare capacity, but prolonged or repeated exposure to cell phone or similar radiation would be expected to cause a progressive loss of functional neurons and result in early dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in humans.

The extreme sensitivity of the blood-brain barrier to the radiation could mean that even sitting close to someone using a cell phone could affect you too. It may not be too surprising to find that early onset Alzheimer’s disease is now on the increase in modern society.

The respiratory barrier and asthma

Di et al. (2011) showed that exposure to weak ELF electromagnetic fields during pregnancy increased the risk of asthma in the offspring (they did not test microwaves). This can be explained by the radiation removing structural calcium from the cells of the tight junction barrier lining the respiratory tract, which then opens.

This is supported by the findings of Chu et al. (2001) who showed that either low levels of external calcium or the addition of EGTA, both of which would remove structural calcium ions from cell surfaces, caused massive increases in its electrical conductance (a measure of its permeability to ions) and also to its permeability to much larger virus particles. We would therefore expect many allergens to enter by the same route and predispose the child to asthma.

The skin barrier, allergies and multiple chemical sensitivities

The skin tight junction barrier is in the stratum granulosum, which is the outermost layer of living skin cells just underneath the many layers of dead cells (Borgens et al. 1989). Also, Furuse et al. (2002) showed that mutant mice deficient in Claudin-1 (a vital component of the sealing mechanism) died within a day of birth and their skin barriers were permeable to molecules as large as 600D, which is enough to admit many unwanted foreign materials, including potential allergens.

In humans, this could be the basis of multiple chemical sensitivities, where people have become allergic to a wide range of chemicals, although they leave most of us unaffected. People suffering from multiple chemical sensitivities are often also electromagnetically intolerant and many of their symptoms are very similar.

Virtually all of our body surfaces are protected by cells with tight junctions, including the nasal mucosa (Hussar et al. 2002), the lungs (Weiss et al. 2003) and the lining of the gut (Arrieta et al. 2006). An electromagnetically-induced increase in the permeability of any of these would allow the more rapid entry into the body of a whole range of foreign materials, including allergens, toxins and carcinogens.

Loss of barrier tightness can trigger autoimmune diseases              An electromagnetically-induced increase in the permeability of any of the tight- junction barriers has been linked to the occurrence of autoimmune diseases, in which lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) of the immune system attack the body’s own components as if they were foreign materials or pathogens.

The immune system is quite complicated but basically the lymphocytes are trained and selected before they mature to recognise the body’s own cells, normally present in the bloodstream, by virtue of a chemical pattern on their surfaces (the major histocompatibility complex).

B-lymphocytes make specific antibodies that combine with foreign cells and materials that do not have this chemical pattern. This both inactivates them and marks them for ingestion and digestion by phagocytes (another type of white blood cell).

T-lymphocytes, on the other hand, kill the body’s own cells if they are infected with a virus. In both cases, the presence of the foreign material or infected cell triggers the rapid multiplication of lymphocytes that have been selected to recognise them. They can then attack it in force.

However, if the substance concerned belongs to the body itself but is normally prevented from entering the bloodstream by a tight-junction barrier such as the blood- brain barrier, when that barrier opens, it increases the likelihood of its leaking unfamiliar materials into the bloodstream and triggering an autoimmune response.

For example, Grigoriev et al (2010) showed that 30 days exposure to unmodulated 2450MHz microwave radiation triggered a small but significant increase in anti-brain antibodies in the blood of rats.  In other words, the radiation had sensitised the body’s immune system to one or more components of its own brain, which could then result in an autoimmune attack on the brain and/or nervous system. An example of an autoimmune disease of the brain is Graves disease in which the pituitary gland (at the base of the brain) is affected.

In addition, an increase in the permeability of the gut barrier has been linked to several other autoimmune diseases, including type-1 diabetes, Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis and irritable bowel syndrome (Arrieta et al. 2006).

 

For references see Dr Goldsworthy’s main paper here.

Main paper first published in March 2012; extracts in May 2012

Click here for more articles on the health risks of ES

http://www.foodsmatter.com/es/health_risks/articles/goldsworthy-obesity-05-12.html

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Wireless radiation turns our protons into radio transmitters

Posted on December 16, 2015 by admin

From Refugium

By Kim Goldberg
May 21, 2014

RadiofrequencyToolkit_v4_06132013In 2013, the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control issued a 377-page report titled “Radiofrequency Toolkit for Environmental Health Practitioners.”

The entire document can be viewed and downloaded here.

The weighty tome appears to be primarily a government whitewash of the wireless industry, in an effort to allay legitimate public concern about the biotoxic nature of RF radiation from cell phones, cordless phones, wi-fi, and (most significantly to the BC government) smart meters.

The report drowns us in “science” designed to make any reader feel that if she can’t wade through dozens of mathematical equations using long strings of Greek letters, then she isn’t qualified to speak out about RF hazards.

The report trots out all the predictable faulty logic and false analogies such as telling us on page 25 that our own bodies are constantly emitting EMF in the 31,000 GHz range (i.e., our infra-red heat signature). So why worry about the lower frequencies of our wireless devices, seems to be the implied question/statement.

“MRI Scanner” courtesy of onlinedocturs, Flickr (CC BY)

“MRI Scanner” courtesy of onlinedocturs, Flickr (CC BY)

But then on page 31, something interesting pops up. While describing the purportedly benign Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines used in hospital radiology, the report tells us that “RF fields of 10-400 MHz [are used] to excite the protons in the body and cause them to emit radio waves for the acquisition of anatomical images.”

(For a more detailed description of this phenomenon of proton excitation by radio frequencies, see the British Medical Journal article on Magnetic Resonance Imaging.)

Thanks so much for making my case for me.

Yes, it can certainly be medically useful (at times) to have those MRI images. But the relevant take-away here is that our protons are perpetually being turned into RF transmitters by our daily exposure to wireless RF radiation from smart meters, cell phones, wi-fi, and more.

And that particular transformation of our bodies at a sub-atomic level is one that nobody signed on for and most people would reject if they knew it was happening to them.

Article © Kim Goldberg, 2014

Wireless Radiation Turns Our Protons into Radio Transmitters

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Arizona: Enormous costs for customers as APS replaces all its Smart Meters

Posted on November 28, 2015 by admin

Arizona Public Service Company is the major electric service provider in the state.

From the Sedona Times
Epic Fail! – APS Is Replacing All Its “Smart” Meters
by Warren Woodward
November 23, 2015

Several points I have made about APS’s toxic “smart” meter boondoggle have been verified once again. Last week I received news from an alert Phoenix couple that APS was already replacing all the “smart” meters it had installed in their neighborhood only seven years previous.

Upon hearing this news I phoned APS and learned that APS has hired subcontractors from a company headquartered in Virginia, called Apex Covantage, to replace all of APS’s Elster brand “smart” meters with Landis & Gyr ones. The explanation I was given for this so-called “upgrade” is that the 2G cellular system that the Elsters use will soon be obsolete. APS informed me that they intend to change out the “smart” meters in their entire service territory by December of next year.

With roughly 1.2 million customers, this so-called “upgrade” will be quite a payday for APS.

The so-called “upgrade” is really an upgrade to APS’s rate base.

The rate base is the sum total of APS’s expenditures on which by law APS gets a guaranteed rate of return. In other words, the more APS spends, the more money they make. The enormous and never ending costs of the “smart” grid are why customers always get a hefty rate increase whenever and wherever the “smart” grid is installed. Count on a sizable rate increase at APS’s next rate case.

I have long made the point to the corrupt and incompetent Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), who are supposed to be regulating APS, that APS has a perverse incentive to spend money, and that this perverse incentive was a motivating factor behind APS’s “smart” grid boondoggle. I proved that the “smart” grid would never pencil out for ratepayers by providing the ACC with the statements of several state attorneys general who had done cost/benefit analyses, a cost/benefit by accounting firm Ernst & Young for Germany, and an evaluation by Massachusetts’ largest utility. I also provided the ACC with plenty of examples of utilities that had received rate increases after installing the “smart” grid. The ACC cared not.

Additionally, I have long made the point that “smart” meter technology, unlike the tried and true analog (electro-mechanical) system, would be the gift that keeps on giving to APS due to the endless costly “upgrades” the “smart” grid would require. For example, last January I wrote the ACC (on page 12, here: http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000159183.pdf ):

Then there’s the shorter lifespan that “smart” meters have. According to electric meter testing equipment and services company, Tesco:

“Electro-Mechanical Meters typically lasted 30 years and more. Electronic AMI meters are typically envisioned to have a life span of fifteen years and given the pace of technology advances in metering are not expected to last much longer than this. This means entire systems are envisioned to be exchanged every fifteen years or so.”

(Meter Operations in a Post AMI World, Slide 5, http://www.slideshare.net/bravenna/meter-operations-in-a-post-ami-world-36336258?related=1 )

There’s a big financial difference between meters that last “30 years and more” and meters – plus “entire systems” – that “are envisioned to be exchanged every fifteen years or so,” especially when the meters that last half as long cost about 10 times more!

Even a 15 year lifespan is probably wishful thinking. APS has admitted to replacing 32,000 faulty “smart” meters from January 1st through August 31st in 2014 alone (see p. 4 here: http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000156835.pdf ).

The ACC has lost sight of the fact that APS has an incentive to spend money since they get a guaranteed return on their rate base. All of the above should have been considered before the first “smart” meter was installed.

As it turns out, APS’s Elster “smart” meters did not even last 15 years. The ones just replaced in Phoenix lasted 7 years. APS’s Elster “smart” meters installed in Sedona and the Verde Valley in 2014 will end up being replaced in 2016, a two year life. Be sure to thank the corrupt and incompetent ACC when your electric bill increases to pay for this foolish, colossal waste, waste that the ACC was warned about repeatedly but, negligently, only encouraged.

The ridiculously short life of “smart” meters is not a fluke unique to APS’s Elsters. Testifying just last month before a joint hearing of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and the U.S. House Subcommittee on Research and Technology, Bennett Gaines, Senior Vice President, Corporate Services and Chief Information Officer of FirstEnergy (the nation’s largest investor owned utility with 6 million customers) said this about “smart” meters: “These devices have a life of between 5 to 7 years.” (See him say it at 1:40:56 in the hearing’s video minutes, here: https://science.house.gov/legislation/hearings/subcommittee-energy-and-subcommittee-research-and-technology-hearing .)

By the way, Gaines is not a “smart” meter critic. His company uses “smart” meters (not the Elster brand), and his company got a federal “stimulus” grant for them.

There’s more.

Continue reading →

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How hot are your meters?

Posted on November 13, 2015 by admin

AEP — American Electric Power — uses GE Smart Meters for at least some of its service territory, which includes parts of Texas, Ohio, Indiana, and Oklahoma.

From Intelligent Utility
by Katherine Wolf Davis
October 29, 2015

Today’s meters are light. The old ones were heavy and dissipated heat a lot better, actually,” said Ken Dimpfl, manager of meter engineering with American Electric Power (AEP), while discussing the deep details of temperature data analytics at Utility Analytics Week in New Orleans.

AEP, which stretches across 11 states with seven operating companies, started with the analysis of AMI meter events, alarms and alerts through lab testing to understand the parameters and variables that need to be considered. They’re using advanced statistical analysis techniques to evaluate populations of meters to determine maintenance and customer needs, such as knowing just when a truck roll is needed. (And when it’s not.)

In 2008, AEP began installing AMI meters like many utilities that applied for DOE grants. Then, in 2010, they started seeing meter failures due to high temps or thermal overload.

[What agencies did AEP inform? Did AEP inform the public? Why weren’t Smart Meter installations halted pending a review?]

“This began our journey of looking at ‘hot sockets,’” Dimpfl said.  “Over the course of a two-year period, AEP analyzed roughly 25 meters that failed. Post event analysis concluded that the root cause was a poor connection at the meter.”

Dimpfl brought a meter and an adapter for a little show-and-tell of the connections during the session. Dimpfl noted that his team was happy that the meter wasn’t really the problem once they took a serious look. Instead, it was micro arcing between the meter blade and the meter socket jaw. (That’s the basic definition of a hot socket, by the way.)

When they looked at the details of what was going on, Dimpfl and his team noticed that the meter high temp alarm was factory set to 95 degrees, which meant that, unfortunately, there would be damaged equipment by the time they were notified. But now came the hard task of figuring out what temperature to reset that alarm to.

[Electric meters have the current for a building flowing through them. It is very dangerous to have damage to an electricity meter. How many Smart Meters are reaching 95 degrees or the damage threshold?]

They began to work with the meter manufacturer to look at other ways to predict issues beyond the simple alarm. Turns out that meters have internal tables that track temps.  Once AEP discovered that temp table tracker, they wanted to start reading them on a daily basis and use that information. They threw the data into an Excel spreadsheet and picked meters that were over 130 degrees (or the ones in the group with the highest temps) and, using a field order, they’d find out that nearly one out of four meters checked had a hot socket issue.

[What about the other 75% of very high temp Smart Meters?]

So they asked more questions. Dimpfl supervises a meter lab and started to play bit, running more tests. They discovered that the temp inside the meter bumped up 16 degrees with just being energized. Typical customer load, however, had a negligible impact on internal temps. They tested how sunlight works on the meter’s temp, looked at how thermocouples impact the temp accuracy, discussed the meter’s placement (in Texas or even inside a closet) and it’s impact on temps, and, eventually, developed a temperature algorithm.

“The feedback loop from the field also exposed a lot of different things and a lot of lessons learned for us,” Dimpfl added.  They moved from spreadsheets to a database to SAS for a monitoring evolution over the last four years.

The result of all this meter temp attention: These days, hot socket analysis is performed daily on roughly 700,000 AMI meters (and running), giving them tons of data to help AEP make their meters work more efficiently for both them and their customers across those 11 states of theirs.

“We had a business need. We worked with our internal folks and vendors to figure things out,” Dimpfl summarized. So if you want to know how hot your meters are, contact Dimpfl and his temp for ideas on just how to check and analyze that data to meet those business needs.

Dimpfl spoke at Utility Analytics Week 2015 in New Orleans. Utility Analytics Week is sponsored by the Utility Analytics Institute. For more information, visit www.utilityanalytics.com. 

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http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/15/10/how-hot-are-your-meters

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California ballot initiative would eliminate investor-owned utilities, establish statewide public utility

Posted on November 6, 2015 by admin

From Utility Dive
Herman K. Trabish
November 3, 2015

Dive Brief:

  • The California Secretary of State last week approved a ballot proposal for signature gathering that would replace the state’s three investor-owned utilities with a single, statewide public power district, City News Service reports.
  • The proposed measure to establish the California Electrical Utility District (CEUD) was approved by the Secretary of State on Friday, allowing backers to begin gathering the 365,880 signatures needed by April 26, 2016 to qualify the measure for the November ballot.
  • The CEUD would replace Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, and the state’s other investor owned electric utilities (IOUs). It would replace the IOUs’ corporate structures with an elected Board of Directors from 11 wards made up of the current IOU service territories.

​Dive Insight:

Californians fed up with scandals involving the utility sector and its regulators have another option, as of Friday — eliminate the IOUs altogether. 

On Friday, the California Secretary of State approved a ballot petition to establish a statewide public utility to begin gathering signatures. Organizers will have until April 26 to collect 365,880 signatures — 5% of the number who voted in the last gubernatorial election — to get the initiative on the ballot.

Directors of the new statewide public utility would be elected from their wards for four year terms. The public power district would be authorized to “acquire property, construct facilities necessary to supply electricity, set electricity rates, impose taxes and issue bonds,” according to petition language.

Municipal utilities like the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) could join the CEUD or work collaboratively with it.

A public power district would substantially change state and local finances, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, but officials did not offer a more detailed assessment, as the initiative has not qualified for the ballot yet.

The initiative is led by Ben Davis, an anti-nuclear activist and former SMUD Rate Advisory Board member. He got an identical ballot proposal cleared for signature gathering in March, but did not get enough people to sign on before that proposal’s deadline was reached on Sep. 23.

This spring, Davis told Utility Dive the new entity would lower costs to electricity consumers and create other economic benefits by removing regulatory complexities and eliminating shareholder profit considerations.

Davis said public utilities have 15% lower rates on average nationally than privately owned utilities. SMUD’s rates, he added, average 25% lower than California’s IOU rates.

By law, Davis explained, the new public utility would have the right to acquire, through eminent domain, whatever electric infrastructure it would need to serve the public.

The effort to create a statewide public utility came from Davis’s push for a ballot initiative to close California’s nuclear facilities after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, he said in March. Efforts to obtain information from the California Public Utilities Commission left him suspicious of the state’s energy establishment, including the California Energy Commission and the California Independent System Operator.

Along with the public utility proposal, Davis also got his initiative to close California’s existing nuclear plants approved for signature gathering on Friday. The proposal, which would extend regulations that apply to new nuclear plants in the state to existing ones like Diablo Canyon, needs 365,880 signatures by April 26.

Recommended Reading

City News Service: Lights out for SoCal Edison under plan sought for Nov. 2016 vote

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/california-ballot-initiative-would-eliminate-ious-establish-statewide-publ/408452/

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Utility exec tells U.S. Congress: Smart Meters have 5-7 year lifespan

Posted on October 30, 2015 by admin

From Smart Grid Awareness
October 29, 2015

Testimony was provided last week at a Congressional hearing regarding “cybersecurity for power systems.”  …

Mr. Bennett Gaines testified on behalf of FirstEnergy Service Company.  He is a Senior Vice President and the Corporate Services and Chief Information Officer.

Although acknowledging some increased cybersecurity risks due to ‘smart’ meters, Mr. Gaines stated, “But I don’t see it as a huge threat.”

Then, however, Mr. Gaines made a surprising statement regarding the life expectancy of ‘smart’ meters as compared to existing traditional meters:

“These devices are now computers, and so they have to be maintained.  They don’t have the life of an existing meter which is 20 to 30 years.  These devices have a life of between 5 to 7 years.  And so the challenge that the industry has is making sure they maintain their smart grid environment, not neglect it.”

More at:  http://smartgridawareness.org/2015/10/29/smart-meters-have-life-of-5-to-7-years/

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Maine Supreme Court will hear Smart Meter health and safety appeal

Posted on October 30, 2015 by admin

Press Release
From Maine Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
P.O. Box 43
Richmond, ME 04357 USA
www.mainecoalitiontostopsmartmeters.org
October 30, 2015

 


For Immediate Release

 Smart Meter Appeal Oral Arguments To Be Heard By Law Court November 3rd

Oral arguments in the ongoing smart meter case will be heard before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court November 3rd. In January, smart meter opponents filed an appeal of the Maine PUC decision that smart meters were safe enough. Three years ago the Maine Law Court, ruling for complainants, ordered the Public Utilities Commission to reach a determination on the health and safety of smart meters. Complainants found multiple faults with the final report issued last December and appealed the decision.

“A PUC opinion can be vacated when it is unreasonable, unjust or unlawful in light of the record” said Ed Friedman, lead complainant. “In this case the Commissioner’s decision is not supported by the evidence record, CMP has not met their burden of proof and neither CMP nor the PUC has successfully ensured safety for all ratepayers as is their statutory mandate.”

In every state and country where smart meters have been or may be installed, there is continued opposition from citizen groups concerned with 24/7 radiation emissions deemed by the World Health Organization to be a possible human carcinogen, invasion of privacy for the electronic records the meters record, theft of personal data, infringement of several constitutional rights and compromising of personal and grid cybersecurity.

Kathleen McGee, one of the complainants, noted the joint opinion conflicts with a separate set of findings by each Commissioner. “The joint decision is illogical based on the record. Neither smart meters nor most opt outs are protective of ratepayers and are in conflict with Maine’s judicial maxim salus populi suprema lex esto – the health of the people is the supreme law.”

Attorneys General in IL and CT have testified against smart meter installations because they don’t believe the meters will save money. The Michigan Attorney General has issued an opinion that utilities lack the authority to charge opt-out fees. Northeastern Utilities in MA, New England’s largest utility said “there is no rational basis for mandating smart meters.” Meanwhile recent CMP rate increases of 4% were tied in part to smart meters, and the PUC opened a new docket to determine how personal data collected by meters should be disseminated.

On October 28 a consortium of advocacy groups filed complaints with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey regarding the Worcester smart meter pilot and Department of Public Utilities smart meter order.

The groups are calling for the Baker administration to investigate the $48M National Grid pilot, financed by ratepayers, as “outcome-oriented research” that manufactured consent, concealed unfavorable data, and manipulated public perception concerning credible science, including claims that smart meters have been “proven safe.”

HaltMAsmartmeters spokesperson Patricia Burke stated, “Industry safety claims are sourced from testimony of one mercenary tobacco scientist from the Gradient Corporation who has contributed to the suffering of millions of people. Electricity is an essential service, not a consumer choice like cigarettes or a particular car model. 

In Maine, CMP also depended on industry testimony, this from Exponent, a product defense firm well-known for their defense of tobacco, asbestos, GMO’s, run-away Toyotas, smart meters and most recently, the NFL in “Deflategate.” A number of books have been written about these firms and one by David Michaels describes their tactics well: Doubt is their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health.

Dianne Wilkins another Maine complainant noted “published peer-reviewed independent studies find biological effects from radiofrequency microwave exposure like that from smart meter emissions, 70% of the time. When industry funded studies are analyzed, this number drops to 30%. Even if you accept only 30%, we have a huge public health problem on our hands.”

Not only might we have a health problem, most Americans understand we have a regulatory problem with many agencies influenced by those they regulate. In a new publication released from the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, author Norm Alster examines how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is dominated by the industries it presumably regulates: “Let’s be clear. … The problem is not technology, which unarguably brings countless benefits to modern life. The problem is with the over-extension of claims for technology’s usefulness and the worshipful adulation of technology even where it has fearful consequences. Most fundamentally, the problem is the willingness in Washington — for reasons of both venality and naïveté — to give technology a free pass.” Captured Agency, How the Federal Communications Commission Is Dominated by the Industries It Presumably Regulates

“The Emperor has no clothes” said Friedman. “Wireless technology is patently unsafe. It’s time we acknowledge a public health and security emergency the likes of which we have never seen. In Maine the PUC has had seven chances to acknowledge the independent science of microwave radiation effects and has failed miserably. It’s time for the Court to decide this issue. Under no obligation to do so, we have established far more than just doubt as to the CMP and PUC claims of smart meter safety.” 

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2015 has yielded many reports and much research showing concern for radiofrequency radiation exposure. Six of our top picks follow as references:

  1. Nearly 200 Expert EMF Scientists Appeal to UN and WHONew York, NY, May 11, 2015. Today 190 scientists from 39 nations submitted an appeal (click here to read document) to the United Nations, UN member states and the World Health Organization (WHO) requesting they adopt more protective exposure guidelines for electromagnetic fields (EMF)and wireless technology in the face of increasing evidence of risk. These exposures are a rapidly growing form of environmental pollution worldwide. (Read More)
  2. Department of the Interior calls FCC RF exposure guidelines obsolete and inapplicable.24 August 2015
  3. India issues comprehensive report on wildlife effects from communication tower microwaves.24 August 2015
  4. Oxidative Mechanisms of Biological Activity of Low-intensity Radiofrequency Radiation-A Review Paper15 July 2015
  5. A Canadian Parliamentary Committee today issued a report with 12 recommendations for increased caution, investigations, reporting and data gathering with regard to RF/EMF and wireless devices. See recommendations below and link to report. Canada’s Safety Code 6 providing guidelines for RF exposure is virtually identical to the 1996 FCC guidelines in the US. 17 June 2015 http://www.mainecoalitiontostopsmartmeters.org/2015/06/canadian-parliamentary-health-committee-calls-for-review-of-guidelines-related-to-wireless-technologies/
  6. Captured Agency: In a new publication just released from the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, Norm Alster examines how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is dominated by the industries it presumably regulates.  Linked below are selected quotations which are organized in a way to effectively create a synopsis version of the original 59-page document linked above. [1] Selected quotes as posted June 27, 2015 by SkyVision Solutions

http://www.mainecoalitiontostopsmartmeters.org/2015/10/1401/

 

 

 

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Michigan Attorney General Schuette: People should have choice about Smart Meters. Legislators agree

Posted on October 23, 2015 by admin

From Midland Daily News
October 22, 2015

Glenn bill backs Schuette action on ‘smart meters’

Utility customers in Michigan would have the option of choosing between a new advanced meter and existing traditional equipment to measure their home energy usage under legislation introduced recently by Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, and Rep. Rose Mary Robinson, D-Detroit.

The bill would put into force an opinion by Attorney General Bill Schuette that the utility companies lack the authority to charge fees to customers that opt out of an advanced metering program, which was dismissed by the Michigan Public Service Commission.

“Attorney General Schuette is rightly concerned for Michigan residents’ privacy and security on the smart meter issue and I appreciate his leadership to protect the people of our state,” Glenn said. “I am happy to sponsor House Bill 4916 to overturn the Public Service Commission’s rejection of his position so that electric customers can choose a metering option that they are comfortable with and want.”

Electric companies are transitioning to the advanced or “smart” meters to capture and transmit usage information in real-time so the utility can manage the power grid needs and delivery. The smart meter initiative has raised cyber-security concerns, as well as issues about customers’ private information, prompting Glenn’s bill to provide a choice.

“Smart meter data provides a remarkably intimate picture of a home’s electrical usage, and we’ve seen examples of this data shared, sold and mishandled,” said Glenn, who is vice chair of the House Committee on Energy Policy. “There is already plenty of data sharing going on in our wired-in world, but we can decide to limit those intrusions by not participating in those services or companies. Moreover, it is a legitimate cyber-security concern that machines that can shut off electricity in our homes are computerized and connected to the Internet. For a basic life necessity such as electricity, where participation is not a choice, consumers still must have the freedom to choose.”

http://www.ourmidland.com/news/glenn-bill-backs-schuette-action-on-smart-meters/article_07 5f46c3-104b-5509-bcd2-5a1e5262064f.html

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Gov. Jerry Brown vetoes 50 CPUC reforms approved by the California legislature

Posted on October 20, 2015 by admin

“Californians pay for the broken culture of the CPUC every day – from higher utility bills to the devastation of safety failures,” said Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, who authored three of the bills. “My proposals, along with those of my Senate colleagues, represent a step toward restoring public confidence in the commission.”

Over 50 reforms were authorized in six bills. Reforms included creating an inspector general in the state auditor’s office that would oversee the Commission.

One bill also would have banned so-called ex parte or private communications between regulators and utility executives in rate-setting cases, which are supposed to be public proceedings.

..the legislation would have allowed groups and individuals to sue the commission for failing to provide records requested under the California Public Records Act.

The commission has been sharply criticized for its response to records requests and subpoenas, spending more than $5 million of ratepayer funds on criminal defense lawyers who have reviewed documents and found grounds to withhold them.

 Brown called the reforms, “unworkable”,
and vetoed all six bills.

San Diego lawyer Mike Aguirre said

“Jerry Brown’s vetoes show he is helping — not stopping — the dishonest practices known to the people of California.”

Jerry Brown’s top aides are PG&E execs. Brown enables the problem. It is unrealistic to think that he would change that.

Sources:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/sep/11/cpuc-reform-bills-sent-to-governor/
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/oct/09/cpuc-reform-bill-vetoes/

 

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British Columbia: Smart Meter misses $5000 water leak

Posted on October 19, 2015 by admin

From Abbotsford News
by  Laura Rodgers – Abbotsford News
Oct 18, 2015

Despite a high-tech water meter with real-time monitoring, one Abbotsford property owner didn’t know his pipes were leaking until he racked up more than $5,000 in water fees — and sent over half a million litres of water down the drain.

Darshan Sharma, who rents out a commercial property owned by his wife Nirmla on Montrose Avenue, was surprised to get a water bill over $500 two weeks ago. His building, currently rented to an antique furniture seller, has two toilets and three sinks, and water usage for the property has seldom exceeded $20 per month. When he called the city, they told him his next water bill was already over $5,000.

He hired a contractor as soon as he could to replace the leaking water pipe, which cost close to $3,000.

The city has a program to forgive large water bills for one-time leaks, and Sharma said they’ve told him his bill will likely be adjusted.

The high bill was doubly surprising for him, because he thought his Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) water meter, which checks water usage every hour, would’ve caught the major leak before so much water was wasted.

“How come nobody even bothered to call, when I’m losing so much water?” Sharma said.

Abbotsford’s smart water meters were introduced in 2010, with the goal of reducing water usage through early leak detection and real-time monitoring. They use a radio frequency transmitter at each meter, from a company called Itron, which regularly sends information about each customer’s water usage to the city’s utility department.

In a press release sent to water-industry news sources in 2011, then-mayor George W. Peary wrote, “With this new technology, leaks will be detected almost as soon as they start … residents will be notified almost right away which will save not only the costs associated with leaks, but assist with conserving the city’s water supply.”

According to Paul Doucet, the Canadian account executive for Itron, their transmitters sent information directly from customers to a city’s utility department. On a central computer, software analyzes this information to figure out if there are any leaks.

City spokesperson Katherine Treloar said Abbotsford’s software shows a leak alert for residential customers if they have no periods of zero water usage over three days. For commercial customers, the system is more complicated — many businesses use water continuously — and staff compare recent and past usage to see if leaks are present.

Leak alerts are then used by the city to send leak notifications to customers. Some cities have online systems or automated postcards; Abbotsford uses letters.

But Sharma is unhappy with how long it took for him to know about the leak — because of how much water was wasted.

“I don’t want to lose any water, because we’re short water already,” Sharma said. “If nobody [can] check the meter, what’s the benefit of the smart meter, then?”

http://www.abbynews.com/news/333358101.html

Posted under Fair Use rules.

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