Friday, January 27, 2012

Vt. health chief says smart meters look OK

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont's top health officer told lawmakers Thursday not to worry about a form of radiation emitted by the wireless smart meters some Vermont utilities want to install in customers' homes and businesses.

Dr. Harry Chen, the state health commissioner, told the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday that an international health panel last year found that radio frequency radiation emitted by cellphones is a possible source of brain cancer in heavy cellphone users.

Chen said smart meters emit well less than 1 percent of the radiation emitted by cellphones, and they're not often held right next to the head.

"From actual measurements the Department of Health has made at active smart meter antenna, the devices are not likely to emit levels of radiofrequency radiation more than a small fraction of a single percentage of the levels from a wireless telephone, even at very close proximity to the meters," Chen told members of the Senate Finance Committee.

But the committee also heard testimony by other scientists and environmentalists who said there is cause for concern.

Smart meters communicate with a utility, allowing it to track and bill for electrical usage without sending meter readers out once a month. They enable utilities to pinpoint the locations of power outages much more easily than was the case with previous technology. Eventually, they're expected to allow customers to track their own electrical usage with an eye toward saving money and energy.

Promoters of the devices say they can help reduce power demand when it peaks, for example, on a hot summer day. Such systems can orchestrate power users taking turns having their air conditioning turn off for a few minutes at a time, reducing power demand on the overall system and cutting the need for utilities to buy extra power when it is most expensive.

But critics say the wireless smart meters Vermont's two largest power companies — Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service — are hoping to install this year emit radio frequency radiation in pulses with uncertain and possibly worrisome health effects.

Dr. Karl Maret, a California physician who has studied the issue, urged the committee to require Vermont's utilities to install more expensive hard-wired smart meters.

With the wired meters, "our health long-term would be more assured. There would be no radiation whatsoever, and I think that's the core issue here," Maret said.

Chen sought to put the committee at ease. "People are not likely to be exposed to measureable amounts of radio frequency radiation from smart meters," he said.

Some of the critics pointed to "piggy-backing," in which new sources of radiation are added to televisions, microwave ovens, wireless computer systems and other already existing ones.

"All build radio frequency emissions to a point where they aren't typical, and they aren't characterized" by scientific studies, said Cindy Sage, a California-based environmental consultant.

The state Public Service Board, which regulates utilities, has been reviewing the companies' plans to install smart meters since 2007, but it is only since July of 2011 that critics have been raising health concerns in Vermont, said George Young, the board's policy director. Changing course now likely would impose significant costs, which likely would be passed on to ratepayers, he said.

Matt Levin of the group Vermonters for a Clean Environment, acknowledged his group and its allies were late to the debate. With utilities already having bought thousands of wireless smart meters, switching to wired meters would be "a very significant and costly course correction. I get that," Levin said.

But he said some individuals are more sensitive to the sort of radiation emitted by smart meters than others. He urged the committee to require the Health Department to prepare to deal with the complaints that will arise. Those calling with them "should be treated with dignity and respect," he said.


View the original article here

1 comment:

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