Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 2019)
A4 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2019 OPINION editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager SOUTHERN EXPOSURE Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Tylor Olson, an installer with smart meter manufacturer Aclara, installs a unit on a house in Astoria for Pacifi c Power. Are we smart to embrace smart meters? I f you Google “smart meter dangers,” you may soon fear for your mito- chondial functions like insomnia, tin- nitus, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, irrita- bility, listlessness, heart palpitations, and changes in cognitive behavior. In the monograph “Smart Meters: Countdown to a National Crisis of Illness and Death,” John P. Thomas suggests millions will experience chronic disabil- ity and fatal illness from exposure. Our cell proteins will become “per- manently altered” and we may suffer for decades “with chronic fatigue, unex- plained anxiety, and attention defi cits until a life-threatening illness makes its ugly appearance.” Unlikely? Every power company and most scientists would say the levels of radiation are lower than the cellphones pressed against our thighs. In a Feb. 12 City Council work ses- sion, Pacifi c Power’s Alisa Dunlap came to Cannon Beach to introduce councilors to smart meters at a work session. Residents ques- tioned the safety of smart meters, and lamented the lack of public informa- tion available. R.J. Resident Bob Thom MARX said smart meters are not “entirely safe.” He was concerned about the lack of information presented by the city and Pacifi c Power, and the lack of press cov- erage given to the topic. He asked that the changeover be delayed to educate the public. Former Seaside High School science teacher Ed Johnson called smart meters a “big money venture.” “There’s been so little background information put out to the general public that’s not being provided by the corpo- rations that are responsible for the tech- nology,” Johnson said after the Cannon Beach work session. “They didn’t even vote on it, It was just coming. I wasn’t very happy.” The 5G network may adversely affect humans and wildlife, he said. “You won’t be able to go any place on this planet without being impacted.” In a similar presentation at Sea- side City Hall, Frank Erickson, a retired radiologist with an impressive list of medical credentials, told city council- ors he had “seesawed” whether to opt in or opt out for smart meter installation at his own home. “I’m still rethinking,” he said. Meet and greet No wonder that the fi rst package received at the Pacifi c Power meet and greet March 5 at Seaside Brewing Co. was a handout from the Utilities Telecom Council, “No Health Threat from Smart Meters.” The same binder included the fact sheet, “Electromagnetic Fields and Pub- lic Health: Mobile Phones”; the mono- graph “Radiofrequency Safety and Util- ity Smart Meters,” Sept. 25, 2013; and “Aclara’s response highlighting inaccura- Pacifi c Power Installers with manufacturer Aclara Technologies will install Pacifi c Power’s new smart power usage meters. Pacifi c Power Material presented by Pacifi c Power. cies in ‘Evaluation of the Aclaral-210+C AMI Meter,’” by William Bathgate. Heavy titles, designed to counteract the mountain of conspiracy theories, junk science and speculation regarding higher frequency radio waves. Cory Estlund, manager of Pacifi c Power’s fi eld support based in Portland, is the guy whose job is to shake people like us out of paranoia. Smart meters are a more effi cient way of gathering home energy usage details. “Instead of having a meter reader come out once a month, data is reported on a real-time basis,” he said. “This is the fi rst time we’ve been able to give you insight into what you’re actually using.” Smart meters have been in exis- tence for almost 20 years, Estlund said. They’re all manufactured by Aclara Technologies, which bought out the meter business from General Electric. Today, there are more than 70 mil- lion smart meters throughout the coun- try. Estlund has had a smart meter in his own Portland home since he moved in 15 years ago. Future shock? After watching Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in “The China Syndrome” almost 50 years ago, I learned never take anything with radioactive material for granted. The movie was released to nuclear industry denials — and the tim- ing couldn’t have been worse, followed 12 days after its opening by a meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Offi cial denials and industry cov- er-ups, in not just the nuclear indus- try but in many aspects of our lives, fol- lowed through the decades: Love Canal; the Hanford site; the Flint, Michigan, water crisis; and the Boeing 737 MAX 8. In the 1990s and early 2000s, I remember covering many meetings on the topic of cell towers. Towers were ugly, for one thing, sprouting up on mountains, hills and then farms and backyards. And maybe unhealthy — but one of the provisions of the 1996 Tele- communications Act was to ban chal- lenges to cell tower sitings based on potential health impacts. Now smart meters join the great cav- alcade of American fears: fl uoride, cath- ode-ray tubes, microwave ovens, pace- makers to our ubiquitous cellphones, all of which have the capacity to poison, radiate, fry or otherwise contaminate us in one way or another. One of the documents presented at the Seaside Brewing information session included a white paper analysis of radio frequency associated with “advanced metering devices.” While I didn’t understand a word of it, I do like the word “advanced” better than “smart” to describe these contraptions. “Smart” gives it a human quality that you don’t necessarily want in an elec- tronic device, especially when it is monitoring your electric orange-juice squeezer. It’s a little too close to another famously intrusive device, the HAL 9000 computer in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” “Good morning, Dave … How are you this morning?” R.J. Marx is editor of the Seaside Sig- nal and Cannon Beach Gazette, and cov- ers South County for The Daily Astorian.
