Just Say No to Big Brother’s Smart Meters by Orlean Koehle
by PG&E to the highest bidder for marketing strategies. Of course, PG&E denies that they would ever use the data for such purposes, but PG&E has been known to tell untruths before.
Smart Meters are Harmful to Workers - the People Installing Them:
The following is taken from a PDF file showing a letter that was written September 20, 2010 and sent to the Chairman of the Safety Committee at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1234, PO Box 2547, Vacaville, CA. The letter is written by a group of five union members and one disabled rights activist to warn union workers for PG&E and other electrical companies about the harmful effects of Smart Meters. The letter can be accessed at IBEW1245.pdf(48KB). The following is a summation of some of its main points:
• PG&E is not telling the truth that the Smart Meters RF exposure is compliant with the FCC’s RF safety standards. “These lies will endanger you, your families, and the public safety at large.”
• No safety standards for long-term exposure actually exist in the U.S. (from a letter from Norbert Hawkins of the EPA’s Radiation Protection Division.)
• The safety standards that exist in other countries such as Russia and European Countries are far too limited.
• Smart Meters should be ruled illegal because of the health risks from their unshielded RF emissions.
• What are those risks? “Studies show that long-term RF, even at low frequencies, have neurological, immune and DNA affects, cause sleep disturbances, memory loss, learning and cognitive difficulties, trouble concentrating, spatial disorientation and slowed motor skills, increased blood pressure and heart rate, lower sperm count, miscarriages, chromosome aberrations, and cancer.”
• What are the health complaints already from the newly installed Smart Meters? They include sleep disturbances, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, vertigo, nausea, loss of consciousness, pressure and ringing in the ears, hyper arousal and trouble concentrating, rashes, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, irregular menstrual cycles, and sensation to previously tolerated wireless technology. be.
• There are other safety concerns: In some cases, Smart Meters are interfering and causing the malfunction of RF medical equipment, such as pace makers. They interfered with a baby monitor and other household equipment. Smart Meters have also interfered with arc-fault circuit interrupters, which prevent fires. The letter cites examples of where a smart meter blew up in a business, fires were caused by the Smart Meters in a vacuum shop and in a restaurant.
• The SmartMeter program is fundamentally anti-labor. “Automation has always meant loss of jobs. Office closures are considered a benefit of the SmartMeter Program as shown on page 6 of the PG&E Monthly SmartMeter Steering Committee Report to the CPUC, July 2010. Once all of the Smart Meters are installed, most installers and meter readers will be out of jobs. The company’s health insurance will no longer be available to cover workers’ long- term health impacts resulting from working with toxic technology.”
• PG&E does not have a proven track record to make us want to trust them with decisions affecting the lives and well beings of our communities.
They have a history of injury to
workers, customers, and the environment and trying to cover up misdeeds. Here are just some of the most prominent ones that made it into the news: recent tragic fires in San Bruno (where 50 homes were burned and 7 people killed) which were caused by old PG&E leaky gas pipe lines; plutonium contamination in a children’s playground in Humboldt County; illegal PCB dumping in Santa Clara County; toxic waste in low income neighborhoods in San
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It is too early to tell what the long-term effects will
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