Smart meters pose health hazard: expert

Smart meters pose health hazard: expert

 

RF radiation constitutes serious risk, he testifies

 

By LYNN MOORE, The Gazette May 18, 2012

Hydro-Québec's proposed rollout of 3.8 million wireless smart meters "may constitute a risk of serious, as well as irreversible, damage to health," according to a report by a U.S. public health professional testifying before Quebec's energy board Thursday.



David Carpenter, director of the University at Albany's Institute for Health and the Environment, urged that precautionary measures be taken to offset potential health problems related to radiofrequency emissions from the wireless meters.


There hasn't yet been a comprehensive study on the impact of the relatively new devices and their RF radiation on human health, Carpenter told the board.


While the body of evidence is incomplete, it "is strong enough that as a public health official it is my responsibility to tell you that we should do what we can to reduce exposure in ways that are neither excessively expensive or excessively regulatory," he said.


"If government does not acknowledge that there is reason for caution, it will be like the situation we had with smoking and lung cancer."


The meters that Hydro-Québec proposes to use in its $1-billion project to deploy smart meters across the province by 2017 would be mostly located on exterior walls.
But meters situated inside occupied rooms such as kitchens would increase exposure to RF energy that would be especially problematic for children, according to Carpenter's report and testimony Thursday.


In a report filed with the Régie de l'énergie, Carpenter said that alternatives include hardwired technology.


Meters inside homes should be moved to the outside or at least positioned so that they don't face occupants.


Carpenter was retained by the Association québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique and Stratégies Énergétiques, both intervenors in the case.
Carpenter was not accorded the status of an expert witness by board president Richard Lassonde on Thursday.


Lassonde accepted Hydro-Québec's key position that Carpenter had not himself done research directly related to RF radiation.


Carpenter, whose curriculum vitae runs to 32 pages, is the former director of the third-largest public health lab in the U.S., testified about RF and power-line emissions and cancer before the U.S. President's Cancer Panel in 2009 and is among the external reviewers of grant proposals for Quebec's cancer program.


The hearings continue.


lmoore@montrealgazette.com


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