Microwave sickness is becoming more common as wireless radiation exposure increases in our environment. FCC safety guidelines are inadequate & do not protect public health. They do not consider long-term exposure to pulsed modulated non-ionizing wireless radiation at non-thermal levels. Cumulative daily radiation exposure is associated with serious health effects. This I know.
She is 100% correct regarding health effects from smart meters and other transmitting public utility meters. Transmitting natural gas meters nearly killed me, and I was really healthy before they were installed.
Some argue that the "dosage" of RFR is insignificant coming from transmitting and smart meters compared to a cell phone. Though with a cell phone, the exposure to high level pulses is not 24/7. Most people don't talk on their phone 24/7. They take a break to sleep. With transmitting and smart meters, there is no "break".
Follow the money. Data is the new oil (very lucrative), and digital/transmitting/smart meters collect data, which can then be sold to the highest bidder.
Utility companies won't tell you that. They will (sometimes) assure you they are not selling your data. But we can no longer trust utility companies, especially monopoly utility companies. They can be the most nefarious of all. And the agencies that are supposed to regulate them are often as corrupt as the utility companies they are supposed to regulate.
And it's presumptive to say that some "homeowners have switched to smart meters with no problems at all" because cancers can take 10 to 20 years to develop.
On April 28th of this year, I sent the following "open letter - for the record" about a recent very one-sided news article on Analog Utility Meter Choice legislation in Michigan, to Representative Glenn, Chairman of the House Energy Policy Committee, and copied all the members of the committee:
Most customers of DTE Energy and Consumers Energy were not given the option of "opting-IN" to the smart and electronic metering program.
Consumers Energy claimed in their testimony that only a small percentage of customers "opted-OUT", yet they also admitted that a customer would have to go to their website and click on a tab having to do with "questions" in order to find any information about an "opt-out program". It is no wonder so few opted-out.
Some customers have had electricity shut-off for refusing a "smart" meter, and have gone through two or more Michigan winters with no electricity. They would most likely argue that thoughtfulness (per the article) was not, and has not, been used.Regardless of what DTE Energy and Consumers Energy say about privacy and cyber security, "smart" meters remain a "digital back door" to our homes and our personal lives via the wireless connection.
This article also mentioned that analog meters would cost customers more money to keep in place. Neither DTE Energy nor Consumers Energy has offered to "show us the books" to prove this claim. How could a system of metering that has been in place for decades (analog metering), suddenly cost "roughly $9 million more annually for energy"?
With analog choice, we are not asking for anything new or special. We are simply asking for the continuation of a system of utility metering that does not infringe upon our property, and other personal rights.
Thank you for all you do to support this legislation.
This is my rebuttal to DTE Energy Vice Chairman,
Steve Kurmas, who gave his verbal testimony to the Michigan Energy
Policy Committee on February 21, 2017, regarding "smart" AMI meters. His verbal testimony starts at about 1:15:00 in the above video. He also submitted written testimony here.
Mr. Kurmas wrote that over 65 million AMI (smart/electronic) meters have been installed
across the US with no issues of health or security.
Regarding Health...
Of course utility companies are going to tell you that their new equipment is safe. That is what they have been told by the manufacturers. The manufacturers claim the equipment is safe because it falls within certain FCC guidelines. They don't mention that the FCC is not a health regulatory agency, they are not protecting the public's health, and the FCC guidelines have been under attack for a number of years. Mr. Kurmas also did not mention that the United States is one of three countries that allows about 100 times more outdoor pulsed radiofrequency radiation than most the rest of the world, and that never before in recorded history have over 2 million transmitting public utility meters been installed in Michigan. So we, and other states fitted with electronic public utility meters, are literally functioning as test markets on health effects.
Mr. Kurmas also did not mention all the people who testified to ill
health effects after smart or electronic meter installation, at the 2014 Michigan OversightCommittee Hearing. Since then, many more Michigan citizens have come forward, testifying to adverse health effects after electronic meter installation, including myself.
Mr. Kurmas also wrote, "the average cell phone produces as much as 100,000 times more RF than an
AMI meter." What he did not tell
you is: That statement has been challenged by a Professor of Nuclear Policy, Daniel Hirsch. Hirsh states that when corrected for
duty-cycle and whole-body exposure, "the cumulative whole body exposure
from a Smart Meter at 3 feet appears to be approximately two orders of magnitude
higher than that of a cell phone, rather than two orders of magnitude lower." As of February of this year, the World Health Organization updated its "Cancer Fact Sheet" page to include non-ionizing radiation as a risk factor under the category "Reducing the Cancer Burden". Electronic "smart" meters emit pulsed non-ionizing radiation continuously. Traditional analog meters do not expose us to pulsed non-ionizing radiation, a possible human carcinogen.
Regarding Security...
In March of 2016, Computer
Weekly (dot) com posted an article written by Bryan Glick, titled
"Government warned of smart meter security threat back in 2012." The article concludes with a call for the
"smart" meter project to be "'halted, altered or scrapped'
immediately to avert an expensive IT failure."
Another article, from
Security Week (dot) com, written by Eduard Kovacs in January of this year, is titled
"Smart Meters Pose Security Risks to Consumers, Utilities..." and
begins with, "Serious vulnerabilities in smart electricity meters continue
to expose both consumers and electric utilities to cyberattacks."
In his verbal testimony, Mr. Kurmas admitted that the information gathered from a smart meter is akin to the information you would get if you stood in someone's yard right next to their analog gas, electric, and/or water meter. He did not say that by doing so, you would be able to tell if someone got up in the middle of the night, slept-in, or even if someone was home, late getting home, or on vacation.
Traditional analog public
utility meters do not make our homes and our privacy vulnerable.
Regarding Canada...
Mr. Kurmas also stated that
in 2012, Canada attained 100% AMI installation.
What Mr. Kurmas did not tell you was that in 2014, SaskPower of
Canada pulled 105,000 smart meters after "eight unexplained fires associated with the units." And, in 2016, Canada had to "pull the plug" on over 36,000 rural smart meters because of signal issues. At that time, Hydro One of Canada reported that 6% of their one million customers were having billing issues. Canada's auditor-general stated there are "few benefits for the hefty cost" of smart meters. In his 14 years of being with the Fire Department, Fire Chief Duane Roddy of Oscoda Township, had never himself witnessed a traditional analog meter fire. Yet, as he testified in front of you (Michigan's Energy Policy Committee) on February 21st, within 36 hours of installation, the smart meter on his cabin "arced" and almost caught his cabin on fire.
"Thirty-six hours after installation, I had a fire myself," testified Fire Chief Roddy,
"we're seeing... the fire is at the meter."
Was that a blessing of disclosure in disguise?
Availability and maintenance...
Mr. Kurmas also stated that analog
meters were not manufactured any longer.
There are a couple of different websites I know of where anyone can
order an analog electric meter. So they are
available. And if the law of supply and
demand is true, the supply will follow the demand.
Mr. Kurmas also stated that
traditional analog meters needed to be maintained.However, he didn't mention that traditional
analog meters have a life expectancy of double (or more) that of AMI smart
meters.So they will either be checking traditional analog meters, or totally replacing AMI smart meters, every few years. Is that more "green", or less?
Below is a close approximation of what I said at the Michigan Public Service Commission hearing on September 22, 2016, regarding the new rules for Michigan natural gas and electric utility customers.
About 35 people spoke. A lot of those who spoke have been harmed by new public utility meters (digital, "smart", AMI, AMR ERT), and a few severely disabled by them.
Time will tell if our comments will fall on deaf ears. Is corporatocracy alive and well in Michigan? We will see...
This is regarding Case No. U-18120
It is my view that "Full disclosure by public utility companies to customers regarding equipment" must be added to the "Consumer Standards and Billing Practices for Electric and Natural Gas Service" Rules.
If a public utility customer asks any questions about metering technology, the public utility company must be obliged to give all the information possible on the equipment, to the customer.
I argue that public utility customers have a right to know exactly what public utility companies propose to install on homes and businesses.
This is my view because: Instead of telling us that their new AMR ERT natural gas meters transmitted over 450,000 times per month, our natural gas provider told us that they transmit only once per month. That's a huge discrepancy, in my opinion. Had they been obliged to give us full disclosure, we would have refused installation.
I was already avoiding cell phone use because of a sensitivity I had developed to radiofrequency radiation, so had our natural gas provider told us their new AMR ERT meters pulsed radiofrequency radiation over 450,000 times per month, we would have refused installation.
According to the proposed new Rules, our natural gas provider could have then turned our natural gas service off, right then and there, without notice.
It is my opinion that here in Michigan, that rule could prove to be catastrophic for public utility customers. In the winter with below freezing temperatures, if gas or electricity is shut-off, it could be just a matter of hours before pipes begin freezing and bursting, leading to loss of property.
It is my view a minimum of a 21-day notice must be given to public utility customers prior to any shut-off, for any reason.
It is also my view that an "Analog Meter Choice" be added to the new Rules. As evidenced by the Oversight Committee Hearing in December of 2014, and perhaps about half of the people here today, there is a growing number of people in Michigan unable to tolerate new metering technology. I can not tolerate new AMR ERT meters, but our natural gas providers have no analog choice.
I argue that it is our right to choose what radiofrequency radiation and electromagnetic field emitting devices are in, and/or on, our homes.
Thank you.
(End of my comment.)
The Commission will continue to take written and electronic comments through 5:00 p.m., October 13, 2016.
All information submitted to the Commission in this matter will become public information available on the Commission’s website and subject to disclosure. All comments should reference Case No. U-18120. Please do not include information you wish to remain private.
