An article in the The Australian 17/9/15 augurs well for smart meter opponents, hinting at financial losses by the key stakeholders of the Victorian rollout.
A report by the Victorian Auditor-General, John Doyle, finds that the $2.2 billion government-condoned rollout from 2006 – 2014 has had profoundly limited financial benefits!
While opponents like myself might prefer that any decision be based on HEALTH concerns to all residents, it is still heartening to see that market forces are discouraging any future plans to install this unsafe technology in a technocratic compulsory manner, such as occurred with the unfortunate Victorian ‘guinea pig’ residents.
John Doyle’s report alludes to a 2017 target to have 15% smart meter customers sign up for ‘flexible pricing’. The rationale given for the government’s mandate for this highly corporate rollout was that customers would be better able to keep track of their energy usage so they could choose ‘flexible pricing’ for their needs. In reality, only 0.27% have signed up since 2009, and in the meantime every household has paid for the cost of the smart meter installations via extra charges applied to their power bills.
John Doyle finds in his report that almost 70% of Victorian residents do not have any idea about the so-called benefits of smart meters.
Talk about adding insult to injury! While being microwaved by harmful unacceptably-high EMF radiation emanating from both sides of the smart meter – see image – the resident has also had to pay financially while not understanding or seeking the sudden changes. EMF-aware residents who opposed the installation on their properties were treated appallingly by the power companies, backed up by government threats of punishment. Many residents have developed electro-hypersensitivity syndrome (EHS) since the smart meter installation and have had to flee their homes in the state of Victoria like refugees! Many more are suffering EHS without even knowing the cause of their sudden migraines or chronic fatigue.
And all this to give shareholders of Landis and Gyr a massive profit.
Landis and Gyr obtained 56% of the smart meter rort with their digital meter model E350 – see image. But they’re laughing because in 2011 Toshiba bought Landis and Gyr for the amount of US$2.3 billion. Landis and Gyr shareholders include Heinz heir and former chief of APN media group Cameron O’Reilly, John B Fairfax, the Smorgon family and Kerry Stokes.
The public have paid $2.2 billion to subsidise the smart meter rollout in Victoria and any savings have just gone straight back to the power companies who got to sack all the meter readers. The digital smart meters are like radios – they transmit all the data, without the need for meter reading. The problem is that anything that transmits like a radio to that distance has high electro-magnetic frequency Radiation and transmits all day and night without any let-up, up to 200,000 signals every 24 hours. Residents are getting 24/7 non-ionising radiation at unacceptably high levels.
The Australian College of Environmental Science recommends 10 micro-watts as a safe EMF limit in the home, as our bodies cannot be shielded from this type of Radiation. Digital radio-wave smart meters transmit 50,000 micro-watts of non-ionising Radiation!! It’s no wonder people are suddenly developing unexplained migraines!
Considering that Lloyds of London – the biggest insurer in the world – has refused to indemnify payouts for radiation health damage due to mobile phone EMF exposure, the Landis and Gyr shareholders and the Victorian government had better hope there are no costly retrospective lawsuits in the future.
After all, the use of mobile phones is voluntary – albeit ill-informed – and exposes the user to approximately 2,000 micro-watts EMF Radiation. Smart meters were forced upon unaware Victorian residents and now transmit 50,000 micro-watts EMF Radiation in both directions, making them lethal unremitting technological devices peppered throughout the whole state in a scenario not unlike the ASBESTOS debacle.
There may exist a number of plausible reasons to oppose the installation of SmartMeters. However, exposure to non-ionising radiation is not one of them. Firstly, Sue Nelson is not correct in describing this physical agent as “highly radioactive” – in fact, these emissions are not radioactive whatsoever. And, while Sue is correct that SmartMeters are active 24/7 – they only transmit short bursts of data periodically – totaling no more than a couple of minutes a day.
Finally, the SmartMeter output of 50,000 microwatts, that Sue thinks is so lethal – is actually dwarfed by the 100 MILLION microwatts emitted by a 100 watt light bulb – and by many other household appliances. The emitted power is completely insignificant by any rational assessment; and even too low to measure in some circumstances.
Find the facts here: http://www.arpansa.gov.au/pubs/factsheets/SmartmetersandHealth.pdf
Tom, I reject your arguments in the following way:
1 Exposure to non-ionising Radiation is a plausible argument, so much so that there are focus groups dedicated to that message all over the world.
2 Your semantic interpretation of “Radioactive” appears to be derived from the 20th century concept of Radiation as nuclear radiation only. In fact, we are now in an era of heightened awareness of other types of Radiation, including non-ionising Radiation from the wireless devices proliferating our world.
3 Smart Meters are active 24/7 and transmit radio signals of data transmission in short staccato bursts that continue all day and night without let-up. Your summation of the data transmission totalling a couple of minutes is condensing those 200,000 signals into one time period. It is an argument often used by proponents and vested interests of smart meter technology but it is misleading, and I suspect that your research into this matter extends no further than the ‘spin’ put out by these proponents. I also suspect that the couple of minutes argument is wrong in itself as 200,000 signals a day could not possible fit into that time-frame, even if condensed!
4 I’m glad you agree with my estimation of the smart meter output of 50,000 micro-Watts. This should be ringing alarm bells for you! Instead you seem very conditioned to hold onto your perception that smart meters are safe. I understand this resistance, especially if you are exposed to one in your own house or office. It amounts to an ‘inconvenient truth’. But please do not use the word ‘rational assessment’ against me in a hostile way when you are using an obviously fallacious argument of comparing a smart meter with a light bulb! Light bulbs put out a different type of Radiation, not electro-magnetic. And comparing one danger to another does not mitigate the first danger, that is a fallacy…
5 I hope you will accept my moderated comments and consider my arguments so that you have a more well-rounded understanding of this controversial topic.
Greetings from b.C.Canada!
We have the same problems here with these so called smart meters,. however I am able to retain an analogue meter, but it costs $32.40 per month. I believe it is extortion.
For those who are now saddled with a smart meter and have health, privacy concerns, I recommend building and placing a faraday cage over the unit mounted with magnets, and “ground” it.
Do not touch the meter, as it belongs to the power company. On the inside wall directly behind the meter, also place a large piece of aluminum foil (shiny side in)
Placed properly the cage will reduce over 95% radiation, and the aluminum foil will provide”back up”.
Once the cage is installed make up a notice ” Shield can be removed for inspection, pleasereplace afterwards” Add “property of (and your name ,address and phone.
It is legal as far as I know! It will reduce r/f and probably result in a meter reader
Unfortunately it will not reduce dirty electricity.
Always be co operative, do not threraten, etc. Remeber what Churchill said?
“Never give up, never, never, never!”
Welcome Norm, all the way from Canada!
And congratulations on standing up for your beliefs even if it does cost you an extra $32.40 each month to keep your dear old analogue meter.
Thanks also for your suggestions re the Faraday cage and I fully endorse ‘grounding’. But many disgruntled customers in the state of Victoria are arranging to have their smart meters removed – at their own cost – and buying analogue meters to replace them. I think this is safer than trying to mitigate the EMF Radiation effect. Would you believe the bitter Victorian experience has even inspired a new political party called People Power Victoria. http://www.peoplepowervictoria.org.au/
Their charter is to help people resist and remove the smart meters.
It’s great to hear how you Canadians are dealing with this worldwide problem…
Well of course you all now realise that non ionizing radiation impacts us via the VGCC flooding us with ion calcium
Hi Susan,
I too am writing from BC, Canada. I think what some of you in Victoria are doing in having your smart meters replaced with analogues is the wisest way to go, as it’s the only way to get the message to your government about how dangerous to human health (indeed, the health of all living things) these meters are. People here in BC who have had their smart meter replaced at their own cost have had their power shut off.
I’ve been following the smart meter story around the world since 2012 and find governments that have mandated smart meters on their citizens nothing less than criminal. The video of the man in New Zealand who was brutalised and then arrested by the police for refusing to allow the power company onto his property to instal a smart meter made me sick to watch.
I’ve heard governments (like yours in Victoria, as well as Toronto, Canada) admit that the cost of smart meters and the poor financial returns have made the rollout a bad decision, but I have heard NOT ONE government express regret about how many people these meters have made ill. I have yet to hear a single government which has mandated these meters on its people account intelligently for their spectacular disregard of people’s right to health and well-being in their own home. When did that very personal choice of quality of life in one’s home become the government’s to make?
I’m tired of many things in this world, but none more so than hearing governments spout industry-manipulated data about something being proved to be safe, while ignoring the reality of the sheer numbers of people whose health it has devastated, and even going so far in some cases as telling people their illness from something (like smart metes for instance) is all in their hysterical imagination. And all the while industry and governmental corruption hurtles on and on and on …
Keep up the fight in Victoria!
I WANT BACK MY ANALOGUE METER!
Greetings Gina from Canada! I feel so much empathy with your blog comment! It is a very disillusioning world we live in when governments continue to support corporations against the individual, without the slightest concern for the health and environmental impacts.
The world-wide smart meter invasion is a classic example of this, along with coal-seam gas mining! I’m so sorry to hear that some Canadian opponents of smart meters are getting their power shut off. How harsh is that?!
At least Victorian residents are able to buy their own analogue meters and pay an extra manual meter reading fee, thanks to the Australian Energy Regulator (AER). Small mercies!
And I guess that’s why I’m still fighting the smart meter rollout – I live in the state of Queensland and there may still yet be time to head it off in our state and all other Australian states. Victoria has been like a test case for why it shouldn’t happen and I think that market forces are at least discouraging other State governments from making the same mistakes i.e. mandating an unpopular corporate rollout, not doing proper cost benefit analyses, leaving it to the power distributors to pass on the so-called cost benefits (which they don’t and won’t, and no government body can make them) while slugging the consumer twice over by using taxpayer $ to fund the project and charging extra power bill fees to fund the losses.
To make matters even worse, the Australian regulator is now contemplating throwing open the electricity market to competition so there is no monopoly of companies installing the smart meters. This further weakens the chances of the Victorian government ever recouping their money from the smart meter shambles in Victoria (serves them right!), because consumers will be lured by cheaper smart meters to replace the government-sanctioned models. And you can’t blame consumers after being slugged with all the costs of the rollout! But the whole ghastly operation will have been for NOTHING! ALL THAT SENSELESS MICROWAVE RADIATION, NO COST BENEFITS, A MESSY ROLLOUT WITH 10% POPULATION VEHEMENTLY OPPOSED, AND THE EXPENSIVE SMART METERS ULTIMATELY DISBANDED DUE TO NEW NATIONAL LEGISLATION…
But as for the health problems from EMF, you are right Gina, the government has put its head in the sand on this issue despite 10% of the Victorian population feeling so worried about EMF radiation that they have resisted a government directive to have the smart meter in their homes, near their children and loved ones. 1 in 10 people have made a difficult stand – this is not insignificant!
In every country, there should have been a referendum – or similar – on this issue to allow time to research these lethal digital smart meters on a more long-term basis. They have only been around for ‘5 minutes’! Not enough time for the government to say there are no dangers with them. Not even enough time to safely set the ‘established exposure limits’ of these very new ‘wireless’ devices.
You’re right Gina, it is not acceptable, and we must keep spreading the word. Good luck with getting that analogue back…
Hi Sue, thanks for wishing luck that I get back my analogue. Unfortunately as a renter, not a home-owner, I had no way of safeguarding my analogue to stop it from being replaced in the first place. (Once you lose your analogue here you can’t get it back, that’s why so many have locked theirs up.) The two rooms housing all the meters for the various flats in my building are accessible only by the landlord.
I’m glad Queensland still has a chance of heading off smart meters. While one in ten people standing against them is notable, I find myself troubled by the unawareness in people globally about the dangers of EMFs. I do believe EMFs are affecting far greater numbers of people than the data shows. Current figures reflect only those who have made the correlation between EMFs and their health problems. There are *many, many* more who’ve begun having health problems but haven’t made the connection to EMFs. I know someone who developed life-changing tinnitus shortly after a smart meter was installed in their home. I also know a very healthy thirty-six-year-old who developed heart problems after her smart meter was installed. Neither have explored the possibility that smart meters might be the cause of their sudden inexplicable health issues. The list of people I know or know of with compromised health since EM pollution began inundating our environment isn’t short! Sensitivities or symptoms can creep on gradually with some, rather than hit overnight as it does with others, so perhaps that’s why many haven’t made the connection.
I feel for kids born into our smog-irradiated world who have never experienced optimal health and don’t even know they were robbed of before they were even born. Have you noticed how many kids drag themselves around as though they’re little old people? The building I live in is three-storeyed and I routinely see kids waiting for the lift because they can’t walk up one or two flights of stairs. It shocks me frankly. As a kid, any kind of activity was a joy for me—as it was for the kids I grew up with. It was, and still is, unthinkable for me to take a lift up one or two flights. I hear or read about parents not being able to relate to their kids who have no energy for anything, when they themselves were always running around with loads of energy as a kid. What have we turned our world into, and why do politicians, who must see the evidence in their own kids, keep on pushing us further along this destructive path?
Now there’s talk of using trees for wireless communication (as if the evidence isn’t adding up ad nauseam of the damage EMFs are doing to nature in all forms—trees, bees, birds, etc.), as well as using the human body to send wireless signals!
Is there any real hope of saving the planet from the greed of men? I don’t know, but I certainly believe those of us who care should go on trying to make a difference—in our personal choices at the very least.
Off the subject of smart meters … I saw the episode of ‘Australian Story’ about organic farmer Steve Marsh suing his neighbour Michael Baxter for infecting his crops with canola, and was astonished that he lost his case. Yet why would he have prevailed with Monsanto behind the whole thing?
Canola is a whole other horror I won’t get into here, other than to express dumbfoundment at the sheer number of foods turning up on supermarket shelves and bakeries here in Canada listing ‘non-GMO canola oil’ as an ingredient, and the public largely clueless that there’s no such thing as non-GMO canola oil. I don’t know if that perverted lie has turned up in the Australian food industry yet, but I hope not. I read blogs by people who consider themselves educated about healthy eating who pay more for organic ingredients … and then use organic non-GMO canola oil in their recipes. What a waste of ingredients! And what magnificent ignorance. And it stems from the fact that people believe if a multinational makes a claim about their product, it must be true because the powerful either don’t lie or aren’t allowed to lie. That’s how much (misguided) faith consumers by enlarge have in their government’s regulatory services. Few seem aware that corporate, judicial, and political racketeering have long gone hand in hand the world over.
All the best to you in Queensland on the smart meter debate. Hope you’ve had a good start to your week.
Hello Gina, I feel your pain but don’t get too disillusioned. Things are always changing! And yes, I feel sorry for today’s kids too – they know not…
I want to comment on your observation that current data does not correlate EMR exposure with new health problems arising suddenly or slowly, especially Heart problems in youngish people. As a clinic practitioner (Acupuncture) I’m seeing a lot of atrial fibrillations in middle-aged patients who have had no prior history of heart problems. Very scary!
I’m in the middle of researching the history of the whole smart meter debacle in Victoria – I really want to understand how it all came about. Anyway I bit the bullet and read the article relied on by the government and mentioned by Tom Whitney in the first post comment above: the ARPANSA fact sheet.
I was shocked to discover that it is just a glorified article on MEASURING EMF Radiation. I did not disagree with the average measurements they recorded but I took objection to the fact that the health impact was not addressed in the slightest i.e.the correlation between high EMF exposure and health effects. It mentioned the ‘minimum exposure limit’ and left it at that.The ARPANSA article also said it would not bother to look outside of Australia for any data. Why not? And how parochial? After all, the rest of the world have had the smart meters longer than Australia and are collecting a lot of health data on smart meter exposure.
I found that the ARPANSA Fact sheet on Smart meters and health should have been titled ARPANSA Fact sheet on Smart Meters and Testing Equipment!
Thanks again for your input Gina. I fervently wish you could get yourself away from the multiple smart meters you are exposed to in your building.
Not all of the answers can be squeezed into a single fact sheet. See Technical Report 164 for more details – where ARPANSA bothered to look at the evidence outside Australia.
Check this out – and the international expert panel reports at the links below.
http://www.arpansa.gov.au/pubs/technicalreports/tr164.pdf
http://www.ices-emfsafety.org/expert-reviews/
http://www.arpansa.gov.au/RadiationProtection/emr/index.cfm
They pretend to pay attention.
I think the problem may not be with the amount (or type) of emission, but the persistent vibratory pattern or wave length. It is documented that lower range ELF, EMF, actually affect the human body more. Not many people are aware of how all the smart meters constantly communicate with each other, besides the measurement relay to the energy providers.
I retained my analogue meter, but had to move house, now with a smart meter, I’m in agony.