StimulatingBroadband.com 12/29/2010 San Francisco - Two activists protesting the deployment of smart meters by Northern California's Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. (NYSE: PCG) today became the first anti-smart meter campaigners in the U.S. to be arrested for their actions.
Katharina Sandizell-Smith and Kristin McCrory were accused of blocking a public street in Inverness Park, California this morning and arrested by Marin County Sheriff's Deputies. In a variety of venues, groups associated with today's arrests allege that wireless smart meters emit levels of electromagnetic frequency (EMF) radiation that are harmful to human health.
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| Marin County Sheriff's Deputies arrest Katharina Sandizell-Smith (left) and Kristin McCrory (right) in Inverness Park, California this morning. Photo: Courtesy of Scotts Valley Neighbors Against Smart Meters |
Today's arrests mark a new flash point among anti-smart meter groups scattered around the nation and electric utilities installing the terminals which are key elements of the emerging American smart grid infrastructure.
In comments of this afternoon to this publication, spokesperson Joshua Hart of the group, Scotts Valley Neighbors Against Smart Meters, that organized the protest went further than voicing the group's continued criticism of PG&E's smart meter effort. He warned the U.S. wireless industry of an increasing militancy, as activists fighting what they see as the harmful impacts of a variety of EMF applications present throughout society.
"The wireless industry needs to look itself in the mirror and decide whether they are going to follow the tobacco industry's route of denial and deception, burdening a generation with lasting health impacts or invest in high speed fibre optic, wired and stable connections for our future telecommunications needs", said Hart in an email in response to our questions about today's arrests.
"There is a growing revolution across the country against forced wireless smart meters, and other microwave radiation near people's homes. Government and industry would be wise to take note," concluded the spokesperson of the group named , based in Santa Cruz County, California.
Hart agreed with our estimate that today's arrests in Marin are the first in the United States staged by anti-smart meter protesters. This assessment is concurred with by another leading anti-smart meter organizer, Sandi Maurer of Sebastopol, CA. Ms. Maurer is a co-founder of the EMF Safety Network.
While several California legislators and consumer groups have criticized various aspects of PG&E's smart meter roll out as it effects ratepayers, these two groups have instead focused on what they see as the EMF ramifications of the large scale deployment.
Concerns about the perceived harm of EMF radiation have been voiced for years by citizens opposed to the construction of wireless antenna sites. The new focus on smart meters has however caught the U.S. wireless industry by surprise at a time it is greatly increasing its capital investment in 4G broadband networks.
Activists allege that the peak or pulse radiation emitted by wireless smart meters, as the terminals cycle through bursts of near real time data delivery, should be further investigated and limited by federal equipment certification processes. They routinely state, in testimony to state utility regulators and in other venues, that this issue of peak radiation has not been properly studied by either the utility or wireless sectors.
"Who Are Those Guys"?
Coming on the heels of passage in June of San Francisco's local ordinance requiring EMF warning labels on all wireless devices sold in the city, calls in Congress for further radiation studies, and EMF activism around smart meter installation programs in other California locations, one wonders if a tipping point of negative public opinion may loom on the horizon.
Marin County, California, like its more famous sister county across the Golden Gate, San Francisco, is one of the most progressive polities in the nation. Should the American wireless sector see concerns about EMF issues in Marin, in San Francisco, and in other areas of the Golden State as early telltales of a potential national trend, or as outliers easily dismissed?
"Yes," said Sandi Maurer answering our question about the possible importance of today's apparently planned arrests, "today is significant in terms of the movement" toward what she calls "prudent use" of wireless.
"There is a certain part of the population, I can't guess how large it is, that avoids the use of wireless for health reasons," said Maurer of the EMF Safety Network. She pointed out that for those people wary of EMF radiation from a variety of sources, the perception that a utility will install a wireless meter in one's home without an "opt out" provision is upsetting.
Advocates for smart grid investment nationally -- investment which has been given an $11 billion jump start by federal stimulus funding ($3.4 billion dedicated to smart meters) appropriated by Congress for programs of the U.S. Department of Energy -- can be forgiven for regarding two arrests in bucolic and tony West Marin as being apropos of nothing.
Coupled with consumer protection concerns over billing accuracy, and over capital costs loaded onto the rate base, will the growing militancy focused on smart meters argue for some state level regulatory second looks? Will these, in turn, result in even further slowed deployments of this essential end equipment needed to capitalize the larger national smart grid infrastructure?
Should the industry and the regulators, perhaps, be like Butch and Sundance and at least deign to ask "Who are those guys"?
Our Take: Two Industries Need to Take A Closer Look in 2011
We believe wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers will be paying closer attention in 2011 to how smart meter deployments may become, surprisingly to many of us, drivers of an elevated concern with EMF issues by some U.S. consumers. We think the smarter utilities and regulators will be doing the same. We think that's a good thing.
Yes, yes, we've heard all the arguments that people concerned about this stuff are crazy.
Here's the deal: We in the telecom industry make our living in a sector that is regulated at all 3 levels of government. We've permitted wired and wireless technologies since before most people even knew what cable television was. We've been preaching in favor of the smart grid over broadband since before those terms were in common use. Despite what we might like to think, we don't have a god given right to dig up a street, site a tower, or receive public sector subsidies. We do all those things, and more, because our customers want our services.
When fellow Americans, no matter how few and no matter how vilified, are going into the streets to get arrested about something our industry is doing, is that really a good thing for us? Anyone that thinks it is a good thing has never actually done the hard work of permitting, licensing, or deploying the technologies that drive our country's economy.
Let's drop back and listen, do some more studies, allow opt outs when necessary. The big power monopolies, like PG&E, trace their ancestry back to the robber baron era. They often remind us of that. Let's remember that many of us in competitive telecom grew up fighting another monopoly called the Bell System. We had the American consumer on our side as we did. Let's remember that too.
StimulatingBroadband.com
14 comments:
WIRELESS SMART METERS
Nearly 100% of scientists NOT connected to industry have found cell damage or DNA breaks or violations to the blood-brain barrier from Wireless signal radiation, even from low levels of wireless signal radiation.
Nearly 100% of Industry scientists have not found any damage from wireless signal radiation.
This is the same pattern that existed with cigarettes prior to the government finally forcing labeling of health risks.
When dozens of top scientists in the world with the highest levels of integrity and many 100's more find something, that trumps (displaces) the reports of those who could not find it regardless of their numbers.
When Columbus found North America, that proves it exists regardless of thousands of previous attempts that did not find it or claimed it wasn't there.
So HEALTH is a relevant factor and even insurance companies support that conclusion by no longer insuring wireless radiation exposure risk.
Insurance Companies Won't Insure Wireless Device Risks Video (3 minutes, 13 seconds)
http://eon3emfblog.net/?p=382
YES! YES! YES!
Thank you so much, Peter Pratt (author of article)!
Thank you so much, Katharina and June (arrested activists), Josh and Sandi (activist organizers),
and Robert (commenter)!
YES! Thank you for this excellent article. I testified to Congress when we learned my husband's brain cancer is attributed to his cell phone use. Kucinich was about to do something but the election hurt us. The FCC exposure limits for phones, cell towers and smart meters are lame and cowtowing to industry. Bigshots in D.C. and industry CEO's should be worried too-did their kids and grandkids get innoculated against microwave radiation? I think we need more brave souls to risk arrest BUT we need more to help us with the cell phone issue. I worked on SF legislation which does not put a warning on phones but merely posts SAR at point of sale. Industy is suing SF over their right to know. People should be outraged but most love these devices so much they continue holding them to their heads and letting their kidss sleep with them under their pillows. i still use one but take precautions. So until we get more to speak out about cell phones and help us take this legislation across America and the world we will continue to have 25 year olds die from brain cancer from their phones. Yes, Kemmedy and Cochrane too. If concerned citizens want to help contact me at emarks@apr.com. Thank you.
Thanks to the 'smart' meter protesters. Who else is ready to take to the streets? This is America and we can stop the nightmare being imposed on us from wireless technologies if more people step up and step out. Please support Marin county activists in continuing to fuel this movement. There are so many problems with the 'smart' meters (health risks, security risks, privacy risks, homeland security risks, meter reading accuracy risks, etc) this can be the wedge to illuminate the whole issue of the unconscionable proliferation of wireless technologies throughout our society. If you live in Marin, join the protesters and help them step up this effort.
Camilla Rees
www.ElectromagneticHealth.org
Dear Peter:
Thank you for writing this insightful article. People who have slight health symptoms (such as headaches, fatigue, skin rashes, insomnia, heart palpitations, anxiety, memory loss)are feeling worse after smart meters are installed on their homes. With no-opt out option, they are getting frustrated and angry.
Why has research on radiofrequency radiation basically halted in the United States? As Robert who commented on your article noted, through 2005 when industry funded research in this field, 70% of the time no health impact was determined with pulsed RFR exposure. Yet, 70% of the time health effects were identified when private money funded the research.
Can't we learn from tobacco, asbestos, lead, and benzene health calamities? Wireless companies seem to be following the same playbook by using doubt.
Smart meters will also impact people's privacy. Marketers will soon learn what eletrical devices are being used, for how long, and when in our homes. What happened to the privacy of our own home?
Fiber optic broadband is safer, more secure, and faster than wireless. Why can't the Recovery Act money be invested in this more promising technology for smart meters?
Movements often begin in California. More and more people will be speaking out against wireless smart meters. This is just the beginning. Watch the movement grow.
I greatly appreciate the thoughts expressed about our story on the arrests in Marin. I am not an anti-wireless campaigner, but think that those of us in the industry ignore the strongly held concerns of our fellow citizens about these issues at our peril.
At the very least, I think the California legislators, public interest groups, municipal officials, and anti-EMF activists got a raw deal from the CPCUC on the narrow issue of smart meter opt out options.
The fact there was no apparent coordination between the CPUC's smart meter / smart grid rulemaking and its broadband incentives is also not a positive at all. I'm sure the fact that PG&E has a senior AT&T executive on its corporate board is a mere coincidence in this regard.
Personally I'm not convinced that smart meters are a public health threat, but I will continue to keep an open mind. I am convinced that the CPUC needs a housecleaning by our incoming Governor.
Thank you, Peter for your sensibilities. You seem fair and kind.
Even though you do not have the conceptual imagination to visualize the misuse of smart meter/grid technology, it does not mean that "enviromental terrorists" do not. What is an environmental terrorist? It is someone or something that has the ability, opportunity, and motive to manipulate an environment through a system for their horrific desired result... The Federal Government has grave concerns over the cyber security issues, and misuse of the data mining capabilities inherent in the smart grid applications that are so heavily marketed.
Radiating people to death is a true possibility.
This is a fact people, stop being lemmings, put down your cell phones and wake up now. Reality is calling....
An interesting article, especially coming on the heels of new that telecom giant
SWISSCOM is offering fiber connections to schools for free-but only if those schools use wired connections in their LAN. See:
http://www.magdahavas.com/2010/10/20/free-internet-access-in-swiss-schools-no-wifi/
It makes me wonder if it would be possible to have a scenario where the wireless industry does something other than play the villain in this whole drama. As someone who experiences nausea, dizziness, a pressure in my head, and an inability to think clearly when in close proximity to wireless technology, this is obviously a very personal issue for me. Life has become very difficult for me since the wireless rollout really got underway in the mid 00’s, and it looks like it’s only going to get harder in the near future.
I do think it’s unlikely that the industry would really have change of heart, though-industry spin and interference in EMF research goes way back, and the scientific literature to date is thoroughly tainted by it. When one reads some history on how other public health disasters unfolded (such as tobacco and asbestos), the parallels to the wireless debacle are striking. In fact, research demonstrating biological harm from microwaves is older than the wireless industry itself, with pioneers such as Alan Frey discovering microwave-induced damage to the blood-brain barrier as far back as the 1960’s (Frey, like most of the other researchers at that time, was working on a military contract).
So yes, if the industry is willing to take seriously the damage it is causing living things and invest in research on how to mitigate that damage, perhaps we can take a less confrontational path. There has, in fact, been some promising research done in this area by teams led by the late Theodore Litovitz at the Catholic University of America. Litovitz’s team demonstrated that superimposing a magnetic noise field on the microwave signal could inhibit the damaging effects of the microwaves. His research has since been replicated in laboratories around the world.
As things stand now, though, acting responsibly and in the best interest of the public would mean the collapse of what has fast become telecom’s core business of mobile everything. Somehow, I don’t see the executives or the shareholders of wireless-only firms like CLEAR accepting that. They’re going to fight to the bitter end just like tobacco did, cancer and central nervous system disruption of the general public be damned.
Further reading:
Wireless-precaution.com
Prove-it.co
Fullsignalmovie.com
Yep we are all stuffed, and no one in governements in the western world is paying the sligthest bit of attention, instead burying thier heads in the sand like ostriches and insiting there is not a problem. Relying only on outdated thermal based levels of exposure. There is clearly something happening here, there is not yet the evidence to prove so. I saw my own daughter develope radiation sores under her lip, one childs hair fall out, one child pass out and fit, and three children develope nose bleeds. Yet I am classed as a crackpot for complaining about it, by people who have no qualifications in the field and are just toeing the government line. I am a registered electrician, Wifi and satellite technician, I am director and part owner of a local rural internet service provider, and still no one will listen to me. Smart people in the near future will be limiting thier exposure to EMF, no matter what the governments say. Because we dont't yet know,(or I correct my self, we are not yet 100% sure) and it may be 10 years before we do. Now is really the time to adopt "The precautionary approach" If you want to do yourself and your children a favour, get an education on A-thermal effects of Non-ionising radiation.
Dave Hunter, Balcutha, New Zealand.
Yep we are all stuffed, and no one in governements in the western world is paying the sligthest bit of attention, instead burying thier heads in the sand like ostriches and insiting there is not a problem. Relying only on outdated thermal based levels of exposure. There is clearly something happening here, there is not yet the evidence to prove so. I saw my own daughter develope radiation sores under her lip, one childs hair fall out, one child pass out and fit, and three children develope nose bleeds. Yet I am classed as a crackpot for complaining about it, by people who have no qualifications in the field and are just toeing the government line. I am a registered electrician, Wifi and satellite technician, I am director and part owner of a local rural internet service provider, and still no one will listen to me. Smart people in the near future will be limiting thier exposure to EMF, no matter what the governments say. Because we dont't yet know,(or I correct my self, we are not yet 100% sure) and it may be 10 years before we do. Now is really the time to adopt "The precautionary approach" If you want to do yourself and your children a favour, get an education on A-thermal effects of Non-ionising radiation.
Dave Hunter, Balcutha, New Zealand.
What the hell is everybody talking about. Please please please please please link to a scientific article so I can actually read about this.
'good point Chris. We will do a better job of providing access to scientific studies on the issue.
Are you kidding me? With all that is going on in this world you pick Smart Meters to protest.
Only in California.
As I've attempted to describe previously, although I disagree with the protesters against wireless smart meters as to their interpretation of the science behind EMF radiation, I think this issue is important to keep an eye on. I think the points these organized protests are making are important to understand.
Steve, do you really think this entire problem could go away by adopting the frat boy attitude of making jokes about "only in California", and the like. For those of us that actually build and permit networks, frat boy tactics aren't acceptable. Even a small handful of folks can stop a wireless or fiber project, or slow down a major customer equipment upgrade. To some extent we are seeing the latter here in Northern California.
I don't know what end of the business you are in, but I've never found it productive to insult people that can stop me from building a network.
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