Australian smart meter health impact paper now published

Australian smart meter health impact paper now published

This paper was published in the November/ December 2014 issue of the Journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine and strengthens the urgent need for independent research on the health impacts (such as sleep disruption) from smart meter emissions.

From PubMed online

Altern Ther Health Med. 2014 Nov;20(6):28-39.
Self-reporting of symptom development from exposure to radiofrequency fields of wireless smart meters in victoria, australia: a case series.

Lamech F.

Abstract

Context • In 2006, the government in the state of Victoria, Australia, mandated the rollout of smart meters in Victoria, which effectively removed a whole population’s ability to avoid exposure to human-made high-frequency nonionizing radiation. This issue appears to constitute an unprecedented public health challenge for Victoria. By August 2013, 142 people had reported adverse health effects from wireless smart meters by submitting information on an Australian public Web site using its health and legal registers. 

Objective • The study evaluated the information in the registers to determine the types of symptoms that Victorian residents were developing from exposure to wireless smart meters. 

Design • In this case series, the registers’ managers eliminated those cases that did not clearly identify the people providing information by name, surname, postal address, and/or e-mail to make sure that they were genuine registrants. Then they obtained consent from participants to have their deidentified data used to compile the data for the case series. The author later removed any individual from outside of Victoria. 

Participants • The study included 92 residents of Victoria, Australia. 

Outcome Measures • The author used her medical experience and judgment to group symptoms into clinically relevant clusters (eg, pain in the head was grouped with headache, tinnitus was grouped with ringing in the ears). The author stayed quite close to the wording used in the original entries.

SNIP

Read the post here.