viewpoint
BY MICHAEL E. LEE
A New Health
Hazard?
The coming fight over smart meters
W
hat we have here — is a failure to communicate.
At least that is what EWEB, our self-defi ned
“customer owned and transparent” public utility,
seems to be saying. They (vs. us?) have been laying the
groundwork over the past several years to spend $30 million
on a new kind of electric meter for us. We get to pay (perhaps
$500 each) for what is looking like an expensive, intrusive and
maybe dangerous gadget to replace the formerly sturdy and
harmless electric meter. EWEB research indicates that people do
not know much about “smart” meters. Well, perhaps we have not
been informed of very much.
A recent R-G op-ed by Roger Gray, EWEB general manager, assured us that the coming
smart meters (and they are coming, if not stopped) are a good thing. They would provide an
effi cient two-way radio signal using microwaves to transmit detailed data from residences to
EWEB. The utility would then send the information back to customers so they might adjust
their bad usage habits accordingly. Another “advantage” is that time of use data allows
charging more for peak use — to reward turning off air conditioning when it is hot, I guess.
If not compliant, you pay.
“Smart” meters thus provide very detailed information for three purposes: 1) to
show customers in detail how and when they use electricity, 2) to document time of use
information so higher rates can be charged, and 3) to allow control signals from utility to
homes. (i.e., shutting off power — and in the future controlling home appliances with a signal
from EWEB.).
Coming soon are imbedded appliance chips which will allow transmissions from EWEB to
turn off or adjust thermostats on the air conditioners and furnaces in private homes. Some
California homes with smart meters have been raided by police for overuse of electricity
(probable cause for marijuana grow lights). Also, it is feared the signals could be hacked,
informing criminals when residents are not at home.
Once the often quirky meters are installed people can only protest, or sue, probably all
in vain. Once installed, or even contracted for, it is too late to go back.
Here in Eugene, it is not too late — yet.
Perhaps the most telling reason to wait and not install these meters is the uncertainty
surrounding health effects. Gray stated that the meters will transmit “less than 10 seconds
a day,” seeming to negate all health concerns.
But this is true only in the most technical sense that the download for the day to EWEB
will be a burst. However, to collect data, houses must be interconnected in a “mesh” of
meters, signaling each other nearly constantly with directed microwaves collecting data
24/7. Obviously, many health professionals are not worried about the download, but the
data collection microwave signals coursing through homes and the unknown health effects
from living in the microwave fog of a “mesh.”
It is PR, not science, to claim the risk is “one-onehundreth (sic) of what is emitted from a cell
phone,” as EWEB has been doing. Worldwide, many scientists are proposing the Precautionary
Principle (i.e., not enough data on safety — wait, do not expose people). It is known that exposures
are cumulative, and one fi nal small exposure could cause a cancer. To make up your own mind
just Google smart meters and check YouTube to listen to scientists’ warnings.
Historically, the vast majority of public health success stories have been bans. Lead in
gasoline is one. And the famous John Snow in the 1854 cholera epidemic in London just
removed pump handles so infected water was unavailable. Time to remove the handle, folks!
We are set to pay for fragile and dangerous meters, and EWEB is not a private concern. In no
sense are smart meters needed by customers. Power companies, like all companies, seem
to love control and high technology solutions, even when inappropriate, and to gather ever
more information. But the costs are too high here, and the unknowns far too potentially
dangerous to risk groups — like children, the elderly and sensitive people.
Bottom line for smart meters: Just don’t do it!
Michael E. Lee, Ph.D. worked for six years as research director at the University of Minnesota Public Interest
Research Group, and for 10 years was an adjunct research scientist at Oregon Research Institute For more
information on smart meters, contact Kathy Ging at 342-8461 or kathy@kathyging.com
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SEPTEMBER 22, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
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letters
TO THE EDITOR
RUDE DUDE SPEAKS
Driving around Eugene in my
politically correct Prius I am mostly polite.
But this is a pretense by which I achieve,
if not invisibility, at least some modicum
of non-noticeablity. Actually I am a
misanthropic old codger widely viewed as
a real rude dude. I always feel ridiculous
even participating minimally in this stupid,
diseased culture.
Luckily for Eugene the presence of my
wife tends to ameliorate hostile outbursts
and encourage a diplomatic demeanor,
especially in the fall when university
students swell the ranks of imbeciles one
encounters on the streets. Don’t want the
old gal to start shrieking because I take a
notion to bestow a lesson, sans tuition, on
one of the arrogant little twerps.
However, my wife is not always
present while I am politely tooling around
town. Then those cocky campus brats
better beware. Want to play the punk
who swerves from lane to lane, kicking
in the afterburners when unoccupied
pavement appears, terrorizing cyclists
and pedestrians? I am not always the
most astute when it comes to taking my
medication and something snaps in my
brain and I’ll be on your tailpipe like
white on rice. Congratulations, you’ve
acquired the attention of someone who not
only despises the hokey legal system but
champion chumps like you who make the
hokey legal system marginally signifi cant.
You now have a double dose of rage locked
on your bratty butt like a Sidewinder
missile on a MiG-17.
Your only reasonable recourse at this
point is to pull over and endure one of my
fi ve-minute polysyllabic jeremiads, for
which I am so famous. Believe me, I’ll
not squander much time. After all, if you
had any brains you wouldn’t be pickling
the neural mush slopping around in your
skull at an institution of liar earnings ... er,
higher learnings.
David H. Tyson
Eugene
KNOCK DOWN THE DOORS
Our new school year is stacking up better
than the Republicans and other right-wingers
could have dreamed! At one elementary
school in Eugene where class sizes reach 37
students (in classrooms built in the 1950s to
hold 20), experienced and gifted teachers
were crying in the hallways during the fi rst
week of class because it is impossible to give
attention to individual students in a class of
36. The expected increase in class size of
four students somehow changed over the
summer. At this school, class sizes increased
by 10 to 13 students.
Districtwide, teachers and staff hours
and pay were cut, many staff and teachers
were dismissed, four elementary schools
were closed, classrooms that were stuffed
to maximum capacity last year now are
over capacity, and each teacher has to teach
more students in less time. Meanwhile,
administrators at district headquarters got
raises.
If I were a parent, I’d be knocking down
the doors at district headquarters, demanding
the district respond to this emergency by
making more resources (money, classrooms,
teachers, staff, supplies) available in the
classrooms, now, this week.
This doesn’t mean we have to build
bigger schools with bigger classrooms
in which one teacher can “manage” 40
8-year-olds, as corporate bullies insist.
That is not what children need!
Ann M. Tattersall
Eugene
NO SMEAR CAMPAIGN
When south Eugene voters elect a
county commissioner to serve again and
again, we do so for solid reasons. We choose
someone dedicated to progressive values,
great quality of life, open government and
the natural world — someone prepared and
accessible. That’s why Pete Sorenson has
been our commissioner since 1996.
Pete’s diligent support for schools, parks
and public participation is well known. He
is consistently engaged in a substantial
range of concerns. At town halls, on radio,
in the courthouse and through his helpful
responsiveness to constituents, Pete whole-
heartedly goes the extra mile.
Hopefully, there will not be a smear
campaign based on the bogus lawsuit under
Open Meetings Law. The judge reached
conclusions far beyond the statute, yet the new
majority refused to challenge his decision.
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