A Salvo in the Smart Meter Wars

[deborahjross]

Smart Meter Wars are being waged in our county. People are outraged for various reasons, including the difficulty and cost of "opting out." Many cite health concerns.*

Recently, a postcard appeared in our mailbox, not sent properly through the USPS, but hand-delivered. Color, glossy, original art on face. On reverse, a list of health complaints by a consumer (who is, I assume, our neighbor) (exactly as they appear on the postcard):

Heart Palpitations
Tightness in Chest
Sharp Pains in Heart
Headache
Stiff Neck
Acid Reflux
Eye Spasms
Eye Burning
Eye Soreness
Blurred Vision
Vision Loss
Vertigo
Nausea
Strong Leg Cramps
Major Anxiety
Depression
Missed Work
No R.E.M. Sleep
No Dreams
Nightmares
Ear Pain
Tinnitus
Memory Loss
Teeth Grinding/Nashing[sic]/Broken
Dyslexia
Constant Brain Fog
Major Insomnia
Hair Loss
Scalp Tingling
Head Sores
Major Cognitive Impairment
Zombie-Like Lack of Energy
Shortness of Breath
Oppression [sic]

I admit to being curious as to the physiology of how radiofrequency waves (pulsed or otherwise) could cause symptoms in so many body systems at once.

There are, of course, other explanations. But I am too polite to point them out to her.

*"Pulsed radiofrequency fields are an emerging technology used in the medical field for the treatment of tumors, cardiac arrhythmias, chronic and post-operative pain, bone fracture, and soft tissue wounds."

Comments

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I also have a friend who will go on and on about this stuff for hours if you let her. It seems so sad to me, because she used to campaign against methyl bromide and now she has put every drop of that passion into this.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

I see this, too, when people aren't able to distinguish the degree of danger from different sources. People are, in fact, notorious inaccurate in assessing relative risks. This postcard calls Smart Meters "a crime against humanity." I think language like that gets people so worked up, they lose all perspective.

While there are (imho) valid concerns about the usefulness of the meters and the gathering of private information, the health risks from radiofrequency waves, if any, seem to be quite small (compared to the risks from known carcinogens, for example.)

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Does your neighbor realize that it is against the law to use a US postal box for anything but stamped and paid-for US Mail? There's a fine if she's caught.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

That did occur to me, but I'm not going to confront her. For one thing, I doubt it will do any good. For another, this is a fairly rural area and when mail gets misdelivered, as happens regularly, folks generally walk it over the to the proper recipients. And put invites into mailboxes when there's a party. Yep, all of this is illegal, but there's a nice sense of neighborhood, too.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I doubt the waves are causing much. But for those of us who already have old age health problems -- like balance problems, neuropathy, urinary frequency, absentmindedness as to where we put something, fumbling that drops the pills on the floor, etc etc -- being nagged to turn out the lights may be the reverse of helpful, overall.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's true. Better, I think, to find ways of reducing non-necessary energy usage that don't require active turning-things-off-and-on.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Hmmm. Has she considered that her worrying about the meters may be the cause of all this, and not the meters themselves, I wonder?

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what she thinks, but anxiety can certainly cause this entire list of complaints.

It's so much easier to blame something outside ourselves, and add to that the suspicion many people have about technology (fr'ex, they hear "radiation" and think "radioactivity") and concerns about government/big business invasion of their lives and privacy.

The inverse square law and all that

[davetrow.livejournal.com]

If she has a home wireless network, she's getting more EMF from her router than from her smart meter.