Friday, November 11, 2011

Many Are Claiming Health Problems Caused by Smart Meters

Many Are Claiming Health Problems Caused by Smart Meters
http://www.sej.org/publications/tipsheet/many-are-claiming-health-problems-caused-smart-meters?mid=5267

"A broad consortium of government agencies, environmental groups, and utilities and their industry organizations is touting the benefits of a "smart grid." Generally, this is conceived as an extensive revamp of the electrical system to make it more efficient and reliable, less polluting, and less expensive. Proponents of the smart grid envision it as having many benefits to both electric utilities and their customers — and see its costs largely as the dollar costs of building infrastructure. 

One component of the smart grid is smart meters, which operate as part of electric, gas, or water systems, and transmit meter readings to the utility many times a day, often via radio waves but sometimes via hard-wiring. This allows utilities to save money since meter readers are no longer needed. It also gives utilities frequent input on how much demand there is on their system at any one time, allowing them to fine tune their operations, use various tools (such as demand-based pricing) to equalize demand throughout the day and reduce peak loads, and plan for future supply needs.

The concepts sound good to many people, but serious flaws are becoming apparent as utilities rapidly install smart meters across the country, according to a rising chorus of critics. They are concerned about privacy (since they say utilities can interpolate many behavioral aspects of building occupants via the detailed reporting of utility use), security (since any utility's system could be hacked), and accuracy (with reports of very inaccurate readings from a small percentage of meters). Each of these issues warrants investigation and coverage.

Another major issue is possible human health impacts from smart meters. That is the focus of the remainder of this Tip."

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