Smart sounds good, doesn’t it? We have smartphones that rarely leave our hands and smart meters on our homes sending data to our utility companies. We have smart speakers that are always listening, which can play music on command or place a delivery order for dinner. We are surrounded by brilliant technology that makes our lives easier.
These devices may be smart, however, how smart are we to use them? They communicate constantly through electromagnetic, or radiofrequency waves, that flow all around us. However, just like you want to drink clean water, breathe clean air, eat organic food and use clean body products, you’ll also want to secure a clean “electronic” environment too.
Let’s take a closer look at what a smart meter actually is and what the experts are saying. Then you can decide if you should be concerned about how it affects your health.
What is a Smart Meter?
We know about smartphones and other household conveniences, yet what is a smart meter, and should you be concerned about dangers related to a smart meter? Most of us use electricity provided by an electric co-op or utility, and we have a meter on our home that measures usage. Traditionally, this is an analog meter that’s read monthly or bimonthly by an employee of the utility company.
The smart meter, also called an Advanced Meter Installation (AMI), is a two-way device used by utility companies to measure energy usage in your home. It’s mounted on the outside of your home like a traditional meter and is more common in newer homes.
RF Radiation
No one has to come to read your meter because the meter sends data about your usage to the electric company. It does this quite frequently. As often as every 15 minutes, in fact.
They use radiofrequency (RF) waves, a form of electromagnetic energy, to transmit energy consumption data to a central computer at the utility company. These RF waves move through space at the speed of light. The transmissions are sent using a method of communication based on either a cell phone, pager, satellite, radio, power line (PLC), WiFi or Internet (TCP/IP).
Utility companies first started using smart meters in Europe and now the practice has spread to the US. In fact, more than 43 million smart meters have been installed in homes and businesses in the US alone since 2012.1 This number is quickly rising thanks in large part to our government’s Smart Grid investment of $3.4 billion in 2009. By the end of this year, 132 million smart meters are expected to be installed in the US, which equates to an investment of almost $9 billion.2
Should You Be Concerned About Smart Meter Dangers?
Those of you who are familiar with my work as a functional medicine physician know that I always advocate that we can take back control of our health. This includes informing ourselves as best we can.
I want to ensure you are aware of the information available. This way you can make informed decisions regarding your home environment, as I have recently done. One fact that cannot be ignored is that smart meters emit electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in the form of radiofrequency (RF) radiation, which is a byproduct of radiofrequency waves. No one disclaims this.
RF radiation was classified in 2011 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), as “possibly carcinogenic (cancer-causing) to humans.” Furthermore, there is no data that shows RF radiation is safe. In fact, no one has conducted health studies on humans living in homes with smart meters. The World Health Organization is planning a formal assessment of the health effects from RF exposure, however, this report is not yet available.
People with smart meters in their homes have reported a sudden increase in dizziness, ear pain, memory problems, heart palpitations, anxiety, and sleep problems. We do know that exposure to large amounts of RF radiation as a result of accidents involving radar has caused severe burns. Whether in large or small amounts, RF radiation has adverse effects on your health.
The US safety limit for RF radiation is 1,000 micro-watts per meter squared. However, it’s not uncommon for some smart meters to produce up to 60 times this amount. That is equivalent to the output of 160 cell phones.3 And smart meters are continuously transmitting data and producing RF radiation in and around your home.
The amount of RF energy exposure depends on how far the smart meter mounted on a building is from the smart meter antenna. However, there are simple ways you can protect yourself and your family. I’ll explain these after I talk about something called dirty electricity, which you can definitely clean up in your household.
What is Dirty Electricity and How it is Related to Smart Meters?
Most of our electronics are powered by direct current (DC) at about 12 volts. However, our modern electrical circuits use alternating current (AC) at 120 or 240 volts. Our electronic devices have to convert the AC power to DC power. This conversion creates dirty electricity in the form of erratic electromagnetic interference (EMI) which is also a type of RF.
This dirty electricity travels through your home’s electrical system and radiates into the environment through outlets, power strips, and electronics, polluting your environment with “electropollution.”4 The smart meters compound this problem by contributing significantly to the levels of dirty electricity in a home.
This is due to the repeated spikes and surges of higher frequencies of electricity that run throughout every circuit of a home with a smart meter. Electropollution can travel through the air, contaminating every room in your house.5 However, the good news is that just as we would filter our air, we can filter out electropollution too.