PG&E claims that ‘SmartMeters’ radio frequency (RF) emissions are ‘far below FCC guidelines.’ Is that really true?  What about multiple meters being co-located, such as on apartments?  What about children playing or sleeping close to meters?  What about the effects going through walls into homes and businesses?

FCC guidelines are set to protect a very large man (6′ 185 lb) from being heated by a single 30 minute exposure to radio frequency (RF) radiation. 

No standards exist for long term exposure to multiple sources of low levels of RF radiation such as we have today.  Being forced to submit to having a RF emitting device put onto one’s home or business is a violation of our right to health choice.  Over twelve studies from around the world show irreparable DNA damage from long term exposure to low levels of RF radiation.

RF Exposure ‘safety’ standards are measured in microwatts per square centimeter or µW/m². As the chart below shows, they vary widely in countries around the world. Note: One watt = 1,000,000 microwatts

Current US ‘guidelines’ are recommended by an inter-agency group including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Defense (DOD), and are administered in a flaccid kind of way by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). And there’s the rub. The FCC doesn’t set the standards, so it claims it can’t change them. No single agency is directly accountable and the system is well-insulated (or is it barricaded) against scientific input or political impact from the public sector. What are citizens to do when all the so-called ‘regulatory agencies’ – each with its own agenda and ‘turf’ to defend – are in a state of corporate captivity, staffed with revolving door careerists from the very industries they are supposed to regulate?

The current US guidelines are based on what are called ‘thermal effects,’ meaning only the heating of living tissue is considered a ‘bio-effect.’ But mountains of peer-reviewed independent studies from around the world show serious harmful effects at low exposure levels long before ‘heating effects’ occur – like irreparable double-strand DNA breaks, breaching of the blood-brain barrier that keeps toxins out the the brain, and effects on sperm that not only reduces their production, but makes them swim in circles, instead of ever onward in search of the hopeful ovum.

Such alarming bio-effects are among the reasons independent scientists from around the world regard US RF exposure standards to be out-of-date to the point of criminal irrelevance in protecting public health.

Here’s a chart courtesy of consultant Cindy Sage showing examples of serious bio-effects at exposures far below the FCC guidelines shown on the left.

Sage recently wrote to the FCC asking for information about how the current standards are applied. She wasn’t reassured by the agency’s response. Read full PDF of letters here.