Smart power meters a threat to health
Tuesday, 11 November 2014
Smart meters have some advantages. They can give a detailed picture of daily electricity use, such as the cost of a 15-minute shower. Photo / NZME.
By Sue Kedgley
Call me a Luddite, but I don't
want a "smart" electricity meter installed at home, and certainly not
without my knowledge or consent.
According to Meridian Energy, I
will have no choice in the matter. Once they start installing smart meters in
my neighborhood they will put one on our house, whether we like it or not.
Smart meters are being fitted to
replace old "analogue" meters and more than a million have already
been installed.
There's no law mandating that
power companies use them to measure our domestic electricity usage, although
the Government has mandated that all old electricity meters are tested and
recertified by 2015.
Power companies like Genesis and
Meridian are installing them for commercial purposes, because they allow them
to measure household electricity use, as often as minute by minute, from a
remote location. This enables them to get rid of meter readers, and to collect
valuable information about electricity use that can be used for marketing
purposes or sold to third parties.
Smart meters have some
advantages. They can give a detailed picture of daily electricity use, such as
the cost of a 15-minute shower. This may encourage households to reduce
electricity use.
But they are also intrusive.
They allow power companies to
collect detailed information about people's home lives - when they get up, when
they leave the house, when they turn on a computer - and some worry that the
ability to gather this data amounts to an invasion of privacy.
Some groups claim they could be
used as part of the infrastructure of a surveillance state.
Others are concerned that
wireless-operated meters add to the electrical smog we are all exposed to. Once
installed, they may pulse electromagnetic radiation into a home, emitting
millisecond bursts of radio frequency thousands of times a day, according to
documents supplied by one manufacturer.
You can't turn a smart meter off.
It just pulses, 24/7.
It is established that some
people are sensitive to electrical fields and microwave radiation and may not
be able to tolerate a new and continuous source of emissions.
In Sweden, where electromagnetic
sensitivity is recognised as an official disease, 3-5 per cent of the
population is estimated to be electro-sensitive. That percentage of our
population equates to about 135,000 people.
There are other concerns - that
power companies could use smart meters to stop power to consumers who have been
late paying their bills, or that they could overheat and cause fires. A spate
of house fires linked to smart meters has led to mass recalls in some parts of
Canada and the United States.
Some will dismiss these concerns
as trivial, imaginary or unimportant.
But surely people should have a
choice. And surely a power company should not be able to install a smart meter
for commercial purposes, without the knowledge and consent of the household.
We are switching from Meridian to
a company that guarantees it will not force a smart meter on to our home but I
would like the Government to stipulate that smart meters cannot be installed
without householder knowledge and informed consent.
If it doesn't I predict the
forced installation will become as controversial here as it is in many other
countries.
Sue Kedgley is a Wellington
regional councillor and former Green MP.
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