Why Are Smart Meters Worse than
Cell Towers for Your Health?

Traditional electromechanical meters are rapidly being replaced by utilities with electronic smart meters to lay the foundation for the United States’ smart grid energy infrastructure.

Wireless Smart Meters

A wireless smart meter sends radiofrequency microwave radiation through two antennas, typically in the same frequency range (900 MHz to 2.4 GHz) as cell towers. Unlike cell towers that are now located further from residential buildings, a smart meter located in an outside wall of an occupied home of office space will effectively transmit at a much closer range – increasing the exposure risks!

For the smart meters to communicate with the grid, each meter has a network radio that sends radio frequency signals to other meters and the grid -- generating an invisible “mesh” of chaotic radio frequencies.

Health Risks

The health risks of layering additional EMF and wireless technology radiation in homes is being essentially ignored in rolling out smart meter installations. Compounded exposure will include your new appliances (stoves, washing machines, microwaves, dishwashers, heating and cooling equipment, refrigerators, televisions, computers, small kitchen appliances etc.) with integrated transmitters.

Appliances will send transmissions wirelessly to smart meters that in turn will transmit very low frequency signals with energy use information every few hours. In order for appliances to send your energy demand information to the utility provider (and if desired your own cell phone or computer), your home’s smart meter will receive appliance device signals and then transmit its own signal to aggregated networks that finally link to the internet and grid.

The dangers of smart meters for people living in multiple meter pole office or multi-unit housing is another unstudied area – not to mention the impact of proximity to utility collector meters that are designed to transmit RF signals from 500 to as many as 5,000 homes. For many communities, the level of layered “mesh” driven exposure will be truly unprecedented and virtually inescapable for most people (let alone animals and natural systems).

Since the transmitters will soon be integrated into most new devices, shutting off the communication is not going to be a viable or easy option for consumers. Download our smart meter safety guide for tips to keep yourself safe!