Is CPUC Insensitive to Electro-Sensitives?

http://eon3emfblog.net/?p=1795

From: eon3emfblog

Technological Totalitarianism--Susan's Story

Design Michael Rynne 

My name is Susan (           ), I reside at (          ), CA. I have had an smart meter on my home, on the bedroom wall, right near my headboard and my side of the bed, since May, 2011, placed there by San Diego Gas and Electric, for the purpose of reading my electrical usage. I am 59 years old and a recently retired teacher and volunteer director of a national nonprofit, the Center for (         ). I am 100% disabled, with an immune system and lung disorder. My home had previously been the safest place for me to rest and repair my immune system, per my physician orders.

I can only describe the experience of living with this smart meter on my home (and the ones in the neighborhood and beyond) as a living nightmare that never ends. My health has deteriorated significantly, in ways that are consistent with rf radiation illness, none of which I have had before the smart meter, including: ringing ears that almost never quit, sometimes to the point of severe pain; headaches on a continuous basis, sometimes sinus pain and inflammation to the point of crying most of the day from the pain; heart palpitations; dizziness, mental confusion and memory problems; a strong feeling of pressure in the head, followed by pain, when in the room where the smart meter is located. I have also, very disturbingly, developed electromagnetic sensitivities, which I did not have before either. This means that I cannot use a cell phone, computer, DECT phone set, and WIFI or be in the presence of these without shielding. The master bedroom can no longer be used by me. Even though I am disabled and do not have a lot of money, I have had to spend at least $2000 to try to shield myself and change out items in my home to follow physician advice. The shielding is not working well enough and my daily life and that of my family is severely disrupted.

I have lost the health I was regaining by being in my home and recuperating, and we have lost the use of the master bedroom and a portion of our yard, as we do not dare go near the smart meter. On two occasions, outside, I did, and suffered a severe sinus headache that lasted for days. I have asked San Diego Gas and Electric to remove the smart meter and they refuse. CPUC has denied that it could be a health problem. I am frightened and angry that the CPUC has authorized the installment of these dangerous devices. I know that these devices have ruined my health and all quality of life. I know that smart meters are ruining California. I recommend that all businesses and travelers avoid California until these meters are removed. My physician is very alarmed and even his requests have been ignored by SDGE and CPUC.

I feel like I am living in Nazi Germany or in Russia, during the Stalin era, being tortured daily by government action. I know of many others with these complaints now, and am very, very frightened for myself, for Californians, and for my country. I have nowhere to go to escape these meters and am very fearful that the signals may be turned up, per the SDGE plan I read about. I fear for all the living beings in this mesh network, including humans - especially the most susceptible, children, the elderly, the disabled; animals, and our plant life. We could disrupt life so excessively that we cease to exist on the planet, with this horrific, poorly conceived plan that has ignored current science. Examination of the smart meters in CA shows that there is severe danger, including DNA breaks and inability to repair DNA, cancer development, neurological problems, and leakage from the blood-brain barrier.

STOP THE DEPLOYMENTS. ALLOW OPTING OUT IMMEDIATELY FOR THOSE WITH HEALTH COMPLAINTS OR CONCERNS. REVOKE AUTHORIZATION FOR WIRELESS METERS AND ISSUE AN ORDER TO REMOVE ALL THOSE INSTALLED, IMMEDIATELY. EXPLORE THE OPTION, CAREFULLY, OF FIBEROPTIC OPTIONS.     

I ASK GOVERNOR BROWN TO HELP WITH AN IMMEDIATE EXECUTIVE ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH ALL OF THE ABOVE.

Susan

Smart Meters more powerful than thought-Study

A new study could show that the radiofrequency radiation levels of some PG&E SmartMeters is significantly higher than previously thought, a spokesman for an environmental health coalition said.

Sage Associates, environmental consultants, published the results of their study online on Friday.

The study found FCC public safety limit violations could be possible within six inches of the meter, said Barry Smith, a spokesman for Environmental Health Coalition of West Marin.

"PG&E is misleading the public with false assurances of safety.

SmartMeter radiation will be a permanent part of the home, and people have no idea how high their chronic RF exposure might be," Smith said in a statement.

 From North Bay News

Protest-Thutsday Feb 24th-505 Van Ness,SF-12pm-1.30

Are “Smart” Meters Really Smart?

PG&E would certainly like you to think so.   If you haven’t heard, the company plans to install 625,000 wireless ‘smart’ meters in San Francisco over the course of the next year.   To date, 27 local governments throughout California have demanded a halt to the rollout, citing concern over health impacts from the powerful microwave signals, a pattern of inaccuracies and overcharging, and privacy violations.  Marin, Santa Cruz, and Mendocino Counties, and the cities of Fairfax, Watsonville, Rio Dell, and Capitola have gone so far as to actually criminalize installation of the meters.

Concern about significantly increasing levels of wireless in our environment has been driving the controversy.   Just as we are learning more about the link between cell phones and brain tumors, does it really make sense to roll out the same technology to every home in California with no right to opt out?  A recent independent study shows that ‘smart’ meters actually violate FCC limits on safe human exposure to microwave radiation.   Our organization continues to receive dozens of reports of headaches, sleeplessness, tinnitus, and other symptoms from places where the meters have been installed.

Remember this is the PG&E and the CA Public Utilities Commission that brought us the San Bruno disaster.  We recommend you contact the board of supervisors, the governor and refuse installation.

Joshua Hart is the Director of Stop Smart Meters! For more information, go to http://stopsmartmeters.org

Examiner Editorial: Pull the plug on Smart Meters. 08/30/08

By: Staff Report 08/30/08 11:00 PM

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has begun installing so-called SmartMeters in the Bay Area, with promises that the $2.3 billion program will conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions at its 5.4 million customer locations.

SmartMeters are supposed to reduce unnecessary power purchases for the grid and save PG&E ratepayers money by letting them choose to take advantage of upcoming off-peak variable-pricing rates.

The system would also improve PG&E services by automatically reporting which households are experiencing blackouts and enabling utilities to be remotely connected and disconnected when customers move.

The energy giant estimates as much as 90 percent of its SmartMeter costs could be reimbursed by operational savings — including by laying off an army of meter readers. However, PG&E seems to have run into some glitches and is presently asking the California Public Utilities Commission to approve another $572 million expenditure that would ultimately be passed along to the customers.

Many of the approximately 900,000 Smart Meters installed in Northern California since 2006 were designed to transmit billing data via the PG&E power lines, but this apparently did not work well enough. Now PG&E wants to replace those meters and upgrade the entire system to a wireless network that can handle all the latest automation features — which household customers could only access by buying new appliances.

In a rare barrage of criticism, the San Francisco Department of the Environment and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission jointly issued a report charging that savings from the digital-metering system simply would not cover its increased costs to the public. The California PUC Division of Ratepayer Advocates and The Utility Reform Network watchdog group chimed in with objections that PG&E’s energy conservation claims were overstated.

Bakersfield residents have complained widely that they experienced sharp increases in their power bills after being issued SmartMeters. The San Francisco report for the Board of Supervisors quoted negative tests from across the United States and Canada, while warning that a large-scale system attempting all the advanced features pledged by PG&E has never been tested anywhere.

The City critique strongly recommended that PG&E be required to conduct a 500,000-unit pilot program before rolling out SmartMeters to all its customers. The CPUC was urged to reject any additional smart-meter costs “until the proposed upgrades can be proven to be cost effective and deliver on the promised benefits.”

To The Examiner, it seems self-evident that a true, city-sized test should have always been a necessary element of the SmartMeter introduction. It would be the worst kind of folly to allow full expansion of a system labeled by The City as “risky and unreliable” without proving it actually delivers as promised.

Thanks Leslie

Protesters at Obama's Silicon Valley Visit.

link below

http://www.ktvu.com/video/26909764/index.html

City Council Discovers ‘Smart’ Meters are not UL Certified.

Posted on February 15, 2011 by onthelevelblog

Underwriters Laboratory Confirms Meters Not Safety Tested, Raising Fire Safety Fears

Capitola- During a meeting last week in which they joined six other local governments* who have passed laws criminalizing the installation of wireless ‘smart’ meters, the Capitola City Council discovered that the wireless ‘smart’ meters that CA utilities are trying to install are in fact not certified by Underwriters Laboratory, a certification that is required under the state electrical code for all electrical appliances and equipment within the home.

The lack of certification was confirmed by Karl Moeller, a senior engineer with UL earlier today:

Product certifications can be verified by going to www.UL.com then scroll down to the bottom and click on “on-line certifications directory”. You can search for active certifications at the On-line Certifications Directory.  In this case I did a keyword search for:

- Landis* There were a few matches, but nothing looks like a direct match.

- Silver spring* No matches came back.

In summary, I am unable to confirm these devices as being UL certified.

Best Regards,

Karl E. Moeller

Senior Customer Service Engineer II

——————————————————————-

HVAC, Appliances, and Lighting

Underwriters Laboratories Inc.

1285 Walt Whitman Road

Melville, NY 11747

The revelation came after Councilmember Termini, who is an electrician by trade, asked PG&E about the certification.  After PG&E staff went to their car to fetch a ‘smart’ meter, the council and PG&E spent several minutes unsuccessfully trying to locate the UL symbol on the meter.  This convinced Councilmember Termini that an immediate ordinance was required to protect public safety.

A number of fires that started in the new wireless meters have been reported, and last month a whistleblower from Wellington Energy- PG&E’s installation contractor- alleged serious breaches in safety procedures by installers, who are temp workers- not trained professionals as required by the Federal Communications Commission.  Reports of fires, shorts, and electrocutions are also being reported in other countries where ‘smart’ meters are being installed, such as Australia.

“Gov. Brown must immediately act to remove President of the CPUC Michael Peevey, a former executive with Southern California Edison, who has been a symbol of the agency’s coziness with utility companies, a coziness that contributed to the San Bruno disaster as well as the current ‘smart’ meter debacle.  The CPUC simply isn’t doing its job and it needs a change of leadership.” said Joshua Hart, Director of Stop Smart Meters!

A Protest is planned tomorrow- Wednesday Feb. 16^th Noon-1:30pm at the CA Public Utilities Commission, corner of McAllister and Van Ness in San Francisco.   Representatives from grassroots organizations fighting the smart meter onslaught will be available for interview.  Visuals include protesters with signs.

*Counties of Santa Cruz, Marin, Mendocino, and Cities of Watsonville, Fairfax, and Rio Dell have criminalized smart meter installations.  A total of 26 local governments in California have demanded an immediate moratorium.

 From:        http://stopsmartmeters.wordpress.com/

Woman Buys $4K Ad To Protest PG&E SmartMeters

Click on link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG961lE1-pE

Thank You For taking part in todays Protest at CPUC.

Photo Jennifer French

Photo Jennifer French

Protest 'Smart Meters' in San Francisco-TODAY- Wednesday Feb 16th

San Francisco in PG&E’s Crosshairs for Exposure to “Extra Strength” Smart Meter Radiation

Posted on January 21, 2011 by onthelevelblog

Widespread deployment of 'smart' meters is imminent in San Francisco

More cities and counties every week are moving to criminalize ‘smart’ meter installations in response to people who are being sickened by the powerful bursts of rf radiation (now up to 25 local governments have officially demanded a halt to the program). The town of Rio Dell in Humboldt County is the latest to ban the devices outright, and Mendocino County will consider a ban on Tuesday.  Four women have been arrested at two separate protests in the North Bay over the last month for peacefully blocking installations of the meters.  And questions are now being raised about the make up and scientific objectivity of the CCST panel whose report was widely reported to give the ‘all clear’ on health matters last week.

Nevertheless, amidst all the controversy, and despite the SF Board of Supervisors formal opposition to the meters, PG&E tells the Chronicle they are preparing to install in the City within the next two weeks.  As the company admits in their internal documents obtained through a freedom of information request, San Francisco poses a special challenge to the ill-fated wireless smart meter program (beyond the City’s history of civil disobedience).  Many utility rooms (with sometimes hundreds of meters) are underground, downtown urban canyons interfere with wireless communications, and a lack of utility poles in many areas means they have to install their data collector units (or DCU’s) under grates and other awkward locations closer to the public.

So you would think they would be sensible and use fibre optic cable or something.  But the first thing you gotta learn if you’re a piggy feeding from the ratepayer and taxpayer feeding trough is to always make things more technically complex and expensive than they need to be.  Thus, of course they just make the wireless signal STRONGER.  That’s right PG&E has developed a secret weapon to deal with the pesky problems posed by the City and its residents– a powerful transmitter called S.U.N.D.S:

These extra strength wireless devices will be used to send utility usage data to the surface from underground utility rooms- rather like killing an ant with a sledgehammer. This is set to be rolled out in SF on a massive scale despite thousands already sickened by the emissions from the regular meters.

The SUNDS program (Subterranean Network Deployment System) which in practical terms- combined with the density of the land use in the city means that RF from the smart meter system is likely to be considerably stronger in SF than elsewhere.  An anonymous source at PG&E tells us that the SUNDS program involves boosting the antenna power from 1 to 6 watts- which would mean another potential violation of FCC limits.  This really is the wild west with regulators and legislators asleep at the wheel, drugged by donations as the car accelerates toward the cliff.

Wireless antenna are being installed under utility grates throughout the city. Did PG&E obtain permission from the city for these? Homeless people sleep on top of these grates to keep warm in the winter- what about their health?

How many thousands of people will be sickened and sleepless after these are installed?

Exposing the population to wireless radiation from these 625,000 meters packed into a 7×7 square mile city- the densest city west of the Mississippi- on top of all the pre-existing radiation- is a human experiment of unprecedented proportions.  We’d be tempted to just let them do it and allow the program to collapse in on itself- if we didn’t have friends and loved ones living in the City who are going to be hurt.

PG&E plans to start smart meter installation in SF within the next 1-2 weeks, potentially starting in the Marina district where people have already received notification letters.  Please take a minute and write an e-mail to your friends who live in SF with some links to anti-smart meter websites like this one, and encourage them to write their supervisorand mayor to demand the city enact an ordinance prohibiting installation.

People throughout the state have stood their ground against the utilities- inSanta Cruz, Marin, and Sonoma Counties, and the truth is that this direct action has achieved results.  We wouldn’t be shocked to find out that the fleet of white Wellington trucks elicits a response from the people of San Francisco.  Send us reports of any protests and please include written accounts, photos, and video so we can post on the site.

I like the quote sent in by Nina Beety- a tireless opponent of ‘smart’ meters from Monterey County:

“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires of freedom in the minds of men”

-Samuel Adams

Thanks for all of you who continue to make those brush fires rage.

Everyone knows advertising is used to sell us on things we don't really need. PG&E has a multi-million dollar promotional campaign to 'sell' us something we certainly don't need. Don't buy their lies.

Stop Smart Meters! is able to continue doing what we do in part due to the many small donations from people like you!  Our donate page is here.  Thank you.

This entry was posted in Citizen rebellion, Democracy, PG&E, San Francisco. Bookmark the permalink.

← Charging People to Safeguard their Health Has a Name- It’s Called Extortion

From:    http://stopsmartmeters.wordpress.com/

URGENT!! HEART CONDITION- SMART METERS MUST BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY!!!

A bank of Smart Meters, that emit radiation 24 hours a day, were installed on the wall of my home, and I have been severely affected with heart palpitations, non-stop ringing in the ears, shortness of breath, insomnia, and sleep interruption, and more. I posted signs not to install smart meters, which is a legal action, but PGE/Wellington Energy illegally trespassed and ignored the signs.

I have a heart condition, and am EMF sensitive, and yet despite many very futile calls to PG &E, they have not removed the meters, nor have they replaced them with the non-wireless analog meters that have worked perfectly for decades. I have been an excellent ratepayer for decades, I am low-income and cannot afford to move. This is unjust discrimination, and gross negligence not to allow an “opt-out” of any kind. And even worse, with PG & E being fully aware that I have a heart condition, they have added more smart meters on the wall of my home, and they are threatening to add double the meters to my home in the next days, or weeks. How can a utility demand that our health, and the health of our families, and pets be exposed to 24 hour radiation, with no ability to say “NO”?   Anon, Sonoma

FROM: http://emfsafetynetwork.org/

Transmitting Smart Meters Pose A Serious Threat To Public Health

Transmitting smart meters are being installed nationwide on gas, water, and electrical services, driven in part by funding for the Smart Grid Program approved as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This is of great concern because the exposure to microwave and radiowave radiation from these meters is involuntary and continuous. The transmitting meters do comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) "safety" standards. However, those standards were initially designed to protect an average male from tissue heating (cooking) during a brief exposure. These standards were not designed to protect a diverse population from the non-thermal effects of continuous exposure to microwave and radiowave radiation. Therefore, these "safety" standards were not designed to protect the public from health problems under the circumstances which the meters are being used. The transmitting meters most often being used transmit continuously, every few seconds. This is picked up by a receiver and logged by the utility. You are exposed to the transmissions from all the meters within transmitting range. The meters often have a range of over 2 miles. Thus, the exposure is continuous and the "safety" standards the meters comply with are irrelevant to the situation. Please read this letter from the Radiation Protection Division of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the limitations of the FCC standards. Some transmitting meters transmit at less frequent intervals, however, they still seem to be causing health problems. This could be due to the still elevated levels of radiowaves and microwaves in the neighborhood because of all the neighbors transmitters. Remember, many, many meters are transmitting at these intervals. (One person with a meter transmitting hourly reports waking at the time it transmits.) The transmitting meters can also put high frequencies directly on home and building wiring. This can happen deliberately through signaling to electrical loads or inadvertently through poor engineering. Poorly engineered meters can cause electrical pollution by putting the transmitted signal directly on home wiring or by the way they draw power to operate. Whether deliberate or inadvertent, studies are finding high frequencies on building wiring is related to a host of health problems. Milham and Morgan found a dose-response relationship between high frequencies present on building wiring and cancer. Removing high frequencies on building wiring has improved MS symptoms, blood sugar levels, asthma, sleep quality, teacher health, headaches, ADD, and numerous other health problems. (Visit Research page to see papers.) Technical papers provide a solid electrical and biomolecular basis for these effects. A recent paper by Ozen, showed that transients induce much stronger current 

• Food and Drug Administration - The FDA regulates electronic consumer products that emit radiation (such as microwave ovens and video monitors and cellphones). You can file a complaint through the Medwatch Program or by calling 1-800-FDA-1088. The same program that regulates medical devices, regulates consumer products that emit radiation. 

• Consumer Product Safety Commission - The Consumer Product Safety Commission is responsible for taking dangerous products off the market. You can file a complaint with the Consumer Product Safety Commission at 1-800-638-2772 or https://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/incident.aspx. 

• EMR Policy Institute - Please send a copy of the complaints filed with the FDA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to the EMR Policy Institute at info@emrpolicy.org with "Transmitting Smart Meter Complaint" in the subject heading so that they can independently compile the complaints. This is not a substitute for filing complaints with the FDA or the Consumer Product Safety Commission. 

They will not stop installing these meters unless complaints are filed. Check back or join the email list for further steps you can take. You may join the list by typing "join email list" in the subject heading when you email the Webmaster atwebmaster@electricalpollution.com. 

The only known cure for Radio Wave Sickness is to stop being exposed to high frequencies. 

From  

http://www.smartmeterdangers.com