Replies

1. 
   davidmeiland | Nov 14, 2014 09:00am | #1

   There is a very small contingent that has been concerned about the safety of smart meters from the beginning, and most of them will probably continue to be concerned regardless of any studies to the contrary. There is a huge majority that has never given the issue a moment's thought, and you are apparently part of that. Locally, our smart meters transmit their data through the powerlines and don't have any radios in them. If you ask a random passerby about it, they usually guess radio and have never heard of powerline communication.

2. Expert Member
   Dana Dorsett | Nov 14, 2014 05:27pm | #2

   Most people posting on a blog are absorbing more electromagnetic flux being emitted from the device they're using to enter that post with than they are likely to receive from even a radio-communications type of smart meter. If you're doing it from your Wi-Fi connected laptop or tablet computer something you'd be absorbing even more.

   Of course, one could give up all use of electricity and live in a cave in Patagonia far from intentional transmitters & power grids, if the thought causes too much stress. :-)

   While it's possible to measure biological issues related to radio frequency electromagnetic fields, the power densities at which any effects at all are measurable are many orders of magnitude higher than what you would get with a recent-vintage cell phone (roughly the order of magnitude of the power used in smart meter communications.) And you probably don't spend hours with your head or body in intimate contact with a smart meter (unless there is a new fad-fetish I've never heard about!?! :-) )

   One way to think of it might be something like this:

   Exposing bare skin for 1 second out of the 86,400 seconds in a day to noon-time sun is not going to create a health problem (other than vitamin-D deficiency for insufficient sunshine).

   An exposure of 10 seconds or 100 seconds per day would also not be harmful.

   At 1000 seconds/day (17 minutes) some people MIGHT have health issues (sunburn) most would not, and over decades there an increased skin cancer risk would be measurable.

   At 10,000 seconds/day (2 hours 45 minutes) acute symptoms such as sunburn is likely, and over the long term skin cancer risks are quite a bit higher.

   At 86,400 seconds/day (100% of the time) it'll kill you in a matter of days.

   But that's a difference in exposure of 3 orders of magnitude between what is clearly zero risk and the first possible identifiable risk (possible mild sunburn, remote but real long term cancer risk), 4 orders of magnitude difference in exposure between zero risk and the first risk levels of significant consequence (severe sunburn and highly elevated cancer risk.)

   Given that your exposure from a smart meter hanging on the side of the house updating it's host system every few seconds is going to be at least an order of magnitude below just carrying a cell phone in your pocket (which pings cell towers on a periodic basis), it's unlikely to have a measurable health risk associated with it. Those trying to determine the risk from cell phone emissions are even having difficulty quantifying that risk, if it even exists. It should come as no surprise that studies can't find a link between smart meters (any type) and health problems, given just how low the exposures are. That's not to say there isn't some extremely remotely small risk associated with it, only that the risk is sufficiently lower than the other risks of daily living that it's not been possible to parse it out of the health statistics. There is a small but real risk of being injured by a meteor strike too, but its not going to show up in health studies.

   By contrast, measuring the increased risk of electrocution for occupants of houses connected to the power grid are pretty straightforward, and higher than any potential risk from flea-power RF communications.

   The cell phone comparison is apt, since it's several orders of magnitude higher exposure, yet still difficult to measure in health statistics. At 1-foot away it takes about a millenium to reach the exposure levels that a typical cell phone user sees in a matter of weeks or months, but it varies by the exact model of smart-meter & phone.

   But of course it could be that the power company has fried my brain, and is controlling my thoughts via the smart meter to make me type this... (if in fact, there was a smart meter in my house, or office, which isn't the case.)

   Sincerely,

   R. Nixon