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.
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. She then
calculated total numbers and percentages for each symptom cluster.
Percentages were rounded to the nearest whole number.Results
• The most frequently reported symptoms from exposure to smart
meters were (1) insomnia, (2) headaches, (3) tinnitus, (4) fatigue, (5)
cognitive disturbances, (6) dysesthesias (abnormal sensation), and (7)
dizziness. The effects of these symptoms on people's lives were
significant.
Conclusions • Review of some key studies, both recent and old
(1971), reveals that the participants' symptoms were the same as those reported
by people exposed to radiofrequency fields emitted by devices other than smart
meters. Interestingly, the vast majority of Victorian cases did not state
that they had been sufferers of electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome (EHS)
prior to exposure to the wireless meters, which points to the possibility that
smart meters may have unique characteristics that lower people's threshold for
symptom development.
Source: PAT
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