Smart meters pose long-term heath risks, some say
Donna Stenman, who has come down with several perplexing health symptoms in the past year, may have to abandon her retirement home in Farmington Hills, which she bought in 2011 with her husband, Ralph.
The reason, she said: A smart utility meter.
DTE Energy officials sent the Stenmans a letter Wednesday stating they will soon be putting a smart meter on the couple’s home for the second time, following a recent order in Oakland County Circuit Court. Stenman, 69, said she is scared for her husband’s — and her own — health.
“My husband has a heart condition,” Stenman said. “The smart meter could put him into atrial fibulation and he could have a stroke, and our doctor wrote a letter saying so.”
The Stenmans were sued by DTE in 2012 after the couple removed the smart meter that was installed at their house and mailed it back to the company, then installed their own older, analog meter.
Tampering with the device broke Michigan law — and could also be a felony — read a complaint filed by DTE.
Like many other anti-smart meter activists, Stenman said she and her husband were experiencing strange symptoms due to the radio waves emitted by the smart meter. Headaches, extreme nausea, dizziness and a host of other ailments were brought about by the “two-way radio transmitter and receiver, (which) blanket their home with electromagnetic radiation,” according to court documents. She fears if she and her husband don’t vacate their retirement home, they will experience the negative health effects they did before they installed their own, which they purchased on the Internet.
Two of the couple’s doctors even wrote letters that noted smart meters would be hazardous to the pair, said Stenman.
In a letter she submitted along with an affidavit in the suit, David Brownstein, a doctor at West Bloomfield’s Center for Holistic Medicine, wrote that Stenman has a high sensitivity to electromagnetic radiation, and has been advised to decrease her exposure to it.
Novi Providence Hospital Cardiologist Mark P. Lebeis, who also wrote on behalf of the Stenmans, said smart meters may not be as safe to the public as they could be.
“You kind of need to be careful in assuming that there’s no risk to the public. We may need more information to really know whether it’s safe, or if it benefits the company, or whatever,” said Lebeis. “The problem is getting an unbiased source, and that’s not easy to do these days.”
While DTE officials contend that the meters’ frequency emissions are below Federal Communications Commission levels, others say the radio waves pose long-term risks of Parkinson’s disease and even cancer.
DTE Spokesman Scott Simons said the company maintains that there is no merit to claims that the advanced meters cause negative health effects.
“We remain confident in the safety, security and benefits provided by the meters,” said Simons, “but we also recognize that there are some strong emotional feelings about the meters, so individual customers are able to opt out of the program.”
DTE has crafted the opt-out policy to recoup the monthly costs the company would incur to send meter readers to homes without smart meters, and because DTE would have to set up a separate billing system for those same customers, Simons said.
DTE has installed as many as 1.1 million of the new meters in southeast Michigan, and has a goal of 2.6 million by 2015.
After a year of litigation — and a ruling by the Michigan Public Services Commission in May allowing an opt-out policy that says DTE Energy can charge a $67.20 one-time fee and $9.80 per month to customers who do not want the digital, radio-frequency smart meters — Judge Rudy Nichols ordered that a hold on the Stenmans’ case be lifted, which would allow DTE to reinstall a smart meter on their home.
That wasn’t the case for Dominic Cusumano, 58, and his wife, Lillian, who were also sued in 2012 by DTE for $25,000. Cusumano owns homes in Addison Township and St. Clair Shores, and his family took their own smart meter off because his wife was falling ill, and the smart meter was causing it, he said.
Unlike the Stenmans, the Cusumanos were awarded a hold by circuit Judge Shalina Kumar, and are keeping their analog meter for now — which they bought and installed themselves — pending as many as five Michigan Court of Appeals cases dealing with the opt-out policy. One of those cases, Cusumano said, is Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, who has said he doesn’t think people should have to pay in order to opt out.
If any of those cases come back favorably, noted Cusumano, his case has a chance of going to trial in circuit court, and he thinks he could win.
Meanwhile, the Stenmans’ case has been kicked out of appeals court, and looks to be — for all intents and purposes — nearing closure. Stenman dreads having to look for a new home, because her son lives close by, and friends are in the area, she said.
“We recently went out looking for places to live, and every house has a smart meter,” said Stenman. “I got so sick, I had to go sit in the car ... I tried to go back in, but I just couldn’t ... it took me an hour to recover.”
Stenman said she can’t take her case back to appeals court before the circuit case is over. As for damages, which DTE is asking for: “If anybody got any damages, it’s us,” she said.
The topic of smart meters, which send electronic meter readings to electricity providers via radio frequencies, has been a source of contention for many. A groundswell of support has come along with the drama the issue has produced for at least two years.
State Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, has introduced legislation that prohibits utilities from refusing service to people who don’t want the smart meters. Web sites and advocacy groups have also been centered around the disdain for the new meters, including Michigan Stop Smart Meters, founded by David Sheldon.
A documentary called “Take Back Your Power,” directed by Canadian filmmaker and entrepreneur Josh del Sol, was released in early September on the issue.
As several cases between major utilities and customers statewide who are opposed to the meters remain tied up in litigation, Oakland County commissioners await a resolution that would put the county against opt-out fees for smart meters installed by DTE Energy.
Commissioner Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, said he felt “outside pressure” was hindering the vote on the issue when it was struck down in a recent vote. However, the resolution is set to resurface for another vote in the second Board of Commissioners public meeting in October.
What the passage of the anti-smart meter opt-out policy resolution could mean for Oakland County residents does not amount to much, conceded Commission Chairman Michael Gingell, R-Orion Township. He said the resolution would simply be a piece of paper handed to state lawmakers voicing the county’s official dislike for the policy — but it wouldn’t be binding, he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Turk covers the police beat and the Oakland County Board of Commissioners for The Oakland Press. He is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University. Reach the author atjohn.turk@oakpress.com or follow John on Twitter:@jrturk.
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