Today, we’re joining the movement to prevent dangerous and intrusive smart meters from being installed in every home. For the sake of your health, your privacy and your community – please get involved!

Smart meters invading homes worldwide

Utility smart meter rollouts are imminent or already underway worldwide.  Participating countries want to install a wireless transmitter/receiver equivalent to a cell phone mast in every home.  These will transmit your energy or water use data throughout each day to your energy or utility company.  With communication occurring between several devices in a ‘home area network’, and between the device and a central server, users will be subjected to an invisible ‘sea’ of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation (RF-EMR) – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Governments have so far ignored health, privacy and security concerns.

The health risks of the ‘Smart Grid’

The most comprehensive collation of worldwide data on the health effects of radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic radiation (EMR), the BioInitiative Report 2012, contains convincing scientific evidence that the RF-EMR used by smart meters is a major source of public health concern.

Documented health problems associated with smart meters include: heart palpitations, chest pain, dizziness, inability to concentrate, memory loss, fainting spells, headaches, nausea, sleeplessness, memory loss and an increased risk of cancer.

Health effects of EMR due to more than heating

According to government bodies, such as the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR), the only way that RF-EMR exposure could damage health is through a heating effect on tissues. They tell us there’s no danger to health below internationally accepted guideline levels developed by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  However, this is untrue and ignores an enormous body of scientific evidence.

The BioInitiative Report 2012 considers results from approximately 1800 new studies on EMR, performed in the last 5 years. Here are some of its major conclusions:

  • “The clear consensus of the BioInitiative Working Group members is that the existing public safety limits are inadequate for both ELF [extremely low frequency radiation, emanating from electronic and electrical appliances and power lines] and RF”.

  • “It appears it is the information conveyed by electromagnetic radiation (rather than heat) that causes biological changes – some of these biological changes may lead to loss of wellbeing, disease and even death”

  • “There may be no lower limit at which exposures do not affect us...it is unwise from a public health perspective to continue “business-as-usual” deploying new technologies that increase ELF and RF exposures”

  • “Biologically-based exposure standards are needed to prevent disruption of normal body processes. Effects are reported for DNA damage (genotoxicity that is directly linked to integrity of the human genome), cellular communication, cellular metabolism and repair, cancer surveillance within the body; and for protection against cancer and neurological diseases”

Not only that, but the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the WHO, also considers RF electromagnetic fields to be “possibly carcinogenic” to humans.

Further information is contained in the ANH-Intl response to a recent UK consultation on smart meters.

Does the idea of having one of these in your home appeal to you? We thought not. Please get involved in our campaign.

 

More benefits to the utilities than to the consumers

In addition to the health concerns, the 2010 VaasaETT Global Energy Think-Tank report found “as a technology, (without appropriate regulation) smart meters provide more benefits to the utilities than to the end consumers”.

And consider this. On the one hand, utility companies make profits from sales of units of electricity, water etc. On the other hand, we are supposed to believe they want to reduce sales of those units via smart meters! Something doesn’t add up.

The organisation Take Back Your Power describes the smart grid in the following way: “Around the globe, citizens of all walks of life are invited to realize that we’re all now on the playing field of a corporate control end-game. Through power grid modifications and smart meter installations, monopolistic forces are currently implementing a highly-hackable “smart” system of wireless utility metering, monitoring, selling private data, and control of life in citizens’ homes”.

ANH-International believes that the worldwide rollout of smart meters should be halted immediately, and calls for worldwide action.

We must all act NOW to stop this — before it’s too late!

Call to action

To make this easier, below are specific actions you can take, depending on where you are in the world.

UK

  • Residents can take specific action to withdraw consent to have a smart meter installed at your property, through the Stop Smart Meters campaign. Once on the website's homepage, click on the first box, headed: ‘1st Line of Defence: Withdrawing Consent’. This takes you to a page where you may choose one of two actions, or both. Click on 'Sign now!' to send a notice of non-consent / notice of liability to 76 key recipients who are pushing the UK program. Click on the red text for a PDF version of the wording, and you may personally send this yourself to your Utility Company(s)

  • To share this vital information with others in the UK, click on the second box on the Stop Smart Meters homepage, headed: ‘2nd Line of Defence: Posting leaflets.  Leaflets can be printed off, and will assist you in alerting your neighbours and enabling them to take action too

  • Alternatively, visit the Mast Sanity smart meter campaign, where you may download their template letter for your utility companies, and their smart meter information guide for alerting your neighbours and contacts.

USA

USA residents can take action through the ANH-USA website. There are different actions you may take depending on which state you live in.  Click on Action Alert under the State relevant to you:

  • New Hampshire

    Support HB454, a bill that would allow a smart meter opt-out.

    New Hampshire Action Alert

  • Virginia

    Support SB 797, a bill that would allow a smart meter opt-out.

    Virginia Action Alert

  • Maine

    Support LD 94, a bill that would remove the smart meter opt-out fee.

    Maine Action Alert

  • California, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, and Oregon

    Tell your state legislators to pass a law prohibiting utilities from charging customers a fee just because they want to opt out of having a smart meter installed on their property.

    Action Alert

  • All other States

    Your state needs a bill that would prohibit electric utility companies from installing a smart meter on a customer’s premises—or requiring a customer to use any advanced meter—unless the customer has requested it, without having to pay a fee.

    If your action alert doesn’t go through, you’re in luck, your state either already has a free opt-out law, or has no plans to install smart meters at all.

    Action Alert

     

  • Further information about campaigns by State at Take Back Your Power (USA Directory) and Stop Smart Meters.org

CANADA

AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND

SPAIN and MEXICO

  • Visit the website No Smart Meters (in Spanish), and take the recommended action.

GERMANY

Contact the following German EMF/EMR organisations to find out about any 'stop smart meter' campaigns in Germany: http://umweltinstitut.org/

Click here for futher information on wireless radiation in German

OTHER COUNTRIES

Check out the Take Back Your Power Worldwide Directory, and contact any relevant EMF/EMR organisations to find out about any 'stop smart meter' campaigns in your country.

GENERAL THINGS YOU CAN DO

  • Get as informed as possible, and let your political representatives know how you feel about smart meters.  Tell them that you don’t want one!

  • Share information on smart meters with your neighbours and ask them to do the same. This is vital, as smart meters emit RF-EMR beyond the range of a single house and into the next-door properties

  • Get the word out as widely as you can, using Facebook, Twitter and other social networks

  • The effectiveness and precise recommendations for the following may depend on the situation your country: Register your refusal to have a smart meter with your utility companies (energy and water), and make a note on your property that you "do not give permission for a wireless smart meter to be installed"

  • Further information at Take Back your Power (Worldwide)

  • Watch out for the Take Back Your Power feature film coming soon. Official trailer (share widely)!

  • Watch the documentary: Resonance: Beings of Frequency  (share widely)!

ANH-Europe homepage

ANH Intl Electro-Magnetic radiation (EMR) Campaign Page