Are smart meters safe?

We probably haven't dedicated enough space to one of the trendiest items for politicians/business people trying to promote clean energy and energy efficiency: the smart grid and smart meters. Probably because we think they're a bit overrated, a fact we hit on in our post "Smart Grid - Who benefits most, utilities or customers". This thought was reinforced in our post "Living with a smart meter" where we chronicled Gary Hart's observations about his life with a PG&E installed smart meter.

Aside from the fact of how useful smart meters are to utility customers, what about something more important: the safety of smart meters. There is at least one smart grid safety documentary and a blog titled Stop Smart Meters that don't think they're safe.

The Electric Power Research Institute researched the safety of smart meters last year and they were pretty clear that they're evaluation found that radiation from smart meters fell well below the FCC limits on radiation:

The EPRI research addressed RF from a specific type of smart meter with measurements conducted at the manufacturer’s test facility. For a continuously-operating rack of 10 meters, each operating at a nominal power rating of 250 milliwatts (typical of many residential units), the RF power density level 1 foot in front of the rack was 8 percent of the FCC limit; at 20 and 50 feet, these values dropped to 0.18 and 0.11 percent, respectively. From 8 inches behind the rack, RF power density was 0.6 percent of the FCC limit.

Notice that their report said "8 percent of", not "8 percent over".

According to a Grist article on the safety of smart meters, the radiation from a cellphone at your ear is 1000 micro-watts/cm^2! Almost 5 times the maximum level that the Stop Smart Meter film links to in a research PDF. So why aren't these documentaries focusing on cell phones instead of smart meters? I guess all these people worried about smart meters don't use cell phones.

While I'm not sure if smart meters actually help customers save energy, I wouldn't be worried about the safety of a smart meter if I had one on my home. I'd be more worried about fossil fuel power pollution. When researching this issue for yourself, I would be wary about looking at numbers of radiation that aren't compared to other sources of radiation that we live with in our daily lives. Also, keep in mind that you should only be concerned with the radiation you would receive from a smart meter while living in your home, not 1 meter in front of the meter. How often have you stood right in front of your existing meter? What about the amount of time you spend with a cell phone inches from your brain!

What are your thoughts?

Tags:

living with smart meter

safety of smart meters

smart meters safe

Comments

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/23/2012 - 17:25

Chris, I have personally seen the lab observations (CELL DAMAGE, DNA Chain Breaks) of non-ionizing radiation on human cells in test tubes and on laboratory rats (Breaches in the blood-brain barrier) at levels considerably lower than emitted by smart meters. I have also read over 400 peer reviewed articles, (hard copies in a private library), about half and half industry sponsored, independently done. It does not take a rocket scientist to recognize that the Telecommunication act of 1996 was passed to disqualify valid health related challenges to the placement of cell towers, and industry supported science is orchestrated to diffuse independent research conclusions and confuse policy makers who have never understood the proper use and application of statistics. The PG$E admission of "Up to 190,000 radiation transmissions per day" was delivered to a judge at the PUC and is in pdf form, which I cannot attach here, but it is on page 5 of the document: PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY’S RESPONSE TO ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE’S OCTOBER 18, 2011 RULING DIRECTING IT TO FILE CLARIFYING RADIO FREQUENCY INFORMATION. You should be able to access that from the California PUC. The Santa Cruz County Health Department Smart Meter Health Report has recently been posted and can now be accessed at http://emfsafetynetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Health-Risks-Associated-With-SmartMeters.pdf (You will need to know how to apply inverse square relationship to fully determine ranges of exposure rather than only point exposures given.) I will give you some SHORT video links in my next comment that are more appropriate for these limited depth comment sections. I hope this helps. Best, RW

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/23/2012 - 17:29

SMART METER HEALTH PROBLEMS AND CANCER. 1. SMART METERS – 100 TIMES MORE RADIATION THAN CELL PHONES.  Video Interview: Nuclear Scientist, Daniel Hirsch, (5 minutes) http://stopsmartmeters.org/2011/04/20/daniel-hirsch-on-ccsts-fuzzy-math/  2. SMART METERS – CANCER, NERVOUS SYSTEM DAMAGE, ADVERSE REPRODUCTION AFFECTS.  Video Interview: Dr. Carpenter, New York Public Health Department, Dean of Public Health, (2 minutes)  http://emfsafetynetwork.org/?p=39461 3. The NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE Calls for Halt To Smart Meters in Homes and Schools. http://electromagnetichealth.org/electromagnetic-health-blog/halt-smart-meters/ 4. The WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION May 31 2011 placed the Non-ionizing radiation coming from Wireless Smart Meters (& some other wireless devices) on the Class 2-B CARCINOGEN LIST. http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2011/pdfs/pr208_E.pdf 5. The NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH Feb 2011 found biological changes in the brain after only minutes of exposure to non-ionizing radiation. http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/305/8/808.abstract 6. LABORATORY SCIENTISTS have observed  (1) Human Cell Damage  (2) DNA Chain Breaks  (3) Breaches in the Blood-Brain Barrier  from levels of non-ionizing radiation lower than emitted by WIRELESS Smart meters. http://electromagnetichealth.org/electromagnetic-health-blog/cc-video/ 7. INSURANCE COMPANIES won’t insure smart meters due to biological damage seen by scientists they hired.   TV Video (3 minutes) http://eon3emfblog.net/?p=382   Cell Phone use and other devices are Voluntary and can be shut off at the user’s discretion, but Smart meters mounted on homes are emitting radiation 24/7 and can not be shut off. PG$E, California’s Utility Monopoly, recently admitted that each smart meter transmits radiation between 10,000 & 190,000 times each day. This corrects previous false statements repeated often by utility companies across the country.   NOTE: many of the tests on non-ionizing radiation (the type of radiation emitted by smart meters) have been done using devices other than smart meters because smart meters have only been in people’s homes for a very short time. But as a Wireless smart meter emits 100 times more radiation than a cell phone, it is not difficult to project. If a machine gun (smart meter) fires 100 bullets in the same time that a pistol (cell phone) fires one bullet, it is not difficult to project the harm that the machine gun can do, even if the tests were done with the pistol.

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/23/2012 - 17:55

That is a number representing a theoretical maximum (at 99.9 percentile) - pulling it out of context and using it as typical is bad science, to say the least.

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/23/2012 - 18:45

Regarding the option to opt-out, the state of Maine (where I live) is currently deploying smart meters. Opponents have forced an option to opt-out, and I recently received the mailing from our utility offering two options for opting out. Option A is a smart meter that emits no radio signal, however there is a one-time installation charge of $20 plus a monthly charge of $10 for manual meter reading every two months. Option B is a new electromechanical meter with a one-time installation charge of $40 plus a monthly charge of $12, again this will be read manually every two months. Since Maine is a very rural state with a population of just over 1,000,000 people, there is an extraordinary amount of vehicle mileage involved in reading our meters. This is a state where smart meters will save a truly significant amount of fossil fuel and labor. The feature that I like most about smart meters is that the utility company will know immediately when there is a power outage and can focus their energies accordingly without requiring customers to call in to report an outage during a storm. They will also be deploying user webpages showing power consumption eventually. Users who can view their electrical consumption graphically are often able to reduce their consumption by up to 20%. Another major benefit of smart meters.

Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/19/2012 - 23:51

I do not use a cell phone and the meter sits at my front door, where my family and I have no choice but to pass by it everyday. It does make me uncomfortable to stand on my porch. I do not like the fact that the hydro company can come in and stick this thing on your house and you have no say in it. Re: cell phones - I read this article by http://stopsmartmetersgeorgia.org/viewsyoucanuse.html Who should we believe? The Hydro company? "When comparing whole body exposure to radiation from a smart meter and a cell phone, Professor David Hirsch found out that a smart meter puts out over FORTY TIMES MORE RADIATION than a cell phone (the power company will tell you it’s much less – please look at www.stopsmartmetersGeorgia.Org for references.) Imagine forty cell phones attached to your wall, and on all the time. That’s important to know when you consider that your exposure to radiation is cumulative – it adds up over time."

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