Many schools have installed wireless technologies, such as WI-FI, that permeate the school environment with indoor electrical pollution (electrosmog). Some schools have had to remove WI-FI due to significant increases in health complaints and excessive absences.

A leading expert on this topic, Cindy Sage of Santa Barbara, CA, has a new study that shows Smart Meters in CA are likely exceeding even the outdated FCC standards. Dr. Dan Harper, of Solana Beach, CA, has explained that many of his environmentally ill patients reported typical RF radiation emissions health effects following the installation of their Smart Meters. For more information visit www.smartmeterdangers.org. You may also watch an excellent presentation on YouTube, The Dark Side of Smart Meters.

The Director of the Center for School Mold Help, Susan Brinchman, of La Mesa, CA, had a Smart Meter involuntarily installed by her gas and electric utility, SDG&E, on her bedroom wall 7 months ago, very close to the head of her bed. This has resulted in a significant increase in her environmental health problems. No warning was given by the utility and she had no idea that this was a potential danger until severe symptoms were experienced six months later. Her doctor demanded that the Smart Meter be removed in a letter to the utility ,and SDG&E (local utility) declined the request, to date. Read about this terrible, ongoing experience on Smart meter alert | The Canary Report.

When trying to sort out what could be making you sick in a damp building, don't forget to include the possibility of other factors, such as WI-FI, banks of Smart Meters, and their interaction with damp environments and effects on occupants.

Find out if your state Public Utilities Commission has approved the Smart Meters for deployment. You may wish to research this topic further, and decide if you want to work on prevention of further pollution of our environment by electrosmog indoors (and outdoors). Learn more at www.emfsafetynetwork.org for ideas for what can be done to safeguard your family and school from Smart Meters and other RF emitting technologies.

There is an option that should be explored: the use of digital meters utilitizing shielded cables for transmission - rather than wireless, as long as these do not produce dirty electricity. The CA State Legislature and Maine PUC is looking into this, as are several cities in CA, including Arcata and Fairfax.(SMH)

UPDATED 1/15/11: CCST (below) Smart Meter Report critiqued by Dr. David O. Carpenter, PhD, Director of the Institute for Health and Environment at the University of Albany, "This document is not an accurate description of the state of the science on the issue of radiofrequency fields, and is full of inaccuracies." Click here to read entire critique and our SMH article about it.

UPDATED 1/13/11: CA COUNCIL ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, with strong links to their affiliate and architect of the Smart Meter program, the US Dept of Energy http://doe.gov, has issued a report in Jan., 2011 that admits more research needs to be done and that health effects have been reported in the literature, but finds no further safety standards are needed - essentially, a key statement that encourages the ongoing Smart Meter installations in CA and the United States. The CCST report makes heavy use of utility industry science and (obsolete) FCC standards that do not apply to non-ionizing RF emissions. We question the CA Council on Science and Technology's ability to produce an unbiased report, with DOE as their affiliate. The CCST report reads like those that minimized the health effects of mold (ie. ACOEM), earlier in the decade, until the WHO stepped in. Many, including our site visitors with environmental health concerns and background, are decrying the use of the general population as guinea pigs for forced RF emissions with the installation of Smart Meters. We call for a full accounting of all conflicts of interest with the CCST, its board, the panel who worked on this report, and the basis for their findings. (SMH)

UPDATE (1/14/11)

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/01/14/14greenwire-calif-agency-mulls-opt-out-or-wired-substitute-96087.html

Calif. Agency Mulls 'Opt Out' or Wired Substitutes as Fallout Over Smart Meters Persists

By COLIN SULLIVAN AND DEBRA KAHN of Greenwire

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Resources: 

A Briefing Letter: What You Need to Know About Smart Meters (Sage)

Assessment of Radiofrequency Microwave Radiation Emissions from
Smart Meters (Sage Report, Jan. 2011)

Public Health Implications of Wireless Technologies

(David O. Carpenter, PhD; Cindy Sage)

Research:

1. COMBINED EFFECTS OF ELF MAGNETIC FIELDS WITH OTHER PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL AGENTS: REVIEW OF IN VITRO AND SHORT-TERM IN VIVO STUDIES JUKKA JUUTILAINEN, TIMO KUMLIN AND JONNE NAARALAUniversity of Kuopio, Department of Environmental Sciences, P. O. Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland ( 6th International Congress of the European Bioelectromagnetics Association, p. 42)
2. Mixtures matter; A meta-analysis of 65 studies on the combined effects of chemical carcinogens and RF exposure provides compelling evidence that the hazard is worse with both exposures when compared to either exposure alone (Juutilainen et al., 2006). http://www.atrainceu.com/pdf/34_Radiation.pdf SMH Note: many mold mycotoxins are classified as chemical carcinogens.
3. Do extremely low frequency magnetic fields enhance the effects of environmental carcinogens? A meta-analysis of experimental studies.  J. Juutilainen, T. Kumlin and J. Naarala. Int. J. Radiat. Biol. 82: 1-12 (2006). Results: " The majority of the studies reviewed were positive, suggesting that magnetic fields do interact with other chemical and physical exposures. Publication bias is unlikely to explain the findings."
4. BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS INDUCED BY COMBINED EXPOSURES TO ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AND CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL AGENTS: A REVIEW , MARIA ROSARIA SCARFÌ ICEMB AT CNR - INSTITUTE FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT, NAPLES, ITALY, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it " In this paper the most significant in vitro studies involving combined exposures to electromagnetic fields, both extremely low frequencies and radiofrequencies, and chemical or physical agents are presented and discussed."
5. Pathophysiology - Special Issue / Scientific Papers on the Health Effects of EMF (Electromagnetic Fields) http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/comments/71B9.pdf  "The technical papers in this issue are devoted to an examination and an evaluation of evidence gathered by scientists regarding the effects of EMF and especially, RF Radiation, on living cells and the health of human populations." (Preface, p.1) "...it is critical to determine which combinations of EMF conditions have the potential to cause biological harm and which do not. Obviously, pulsewave exposures represent an entire genre of exposure conditions, with additional difficulty for exact independent replication of exposures, and thus of results, but with increased opportunities for the production of biological effects. Current standards were not developed with explicit knowledge of these additional consequences for biological responses." (C. Blackman, 2009, p. 96) SMH Note: Smart Meters produce pulsed RF radiation.

Possible solutions: 

1. Learn more - knowledge is power: NEW WEBSITE ON SMART METER DANGERS: go to www.smartmeterdangers.org and study all that is on it.

4. Visit www.lessemf.com for shielding product solutions.

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