Smart Meters and Yoga’s Role in Rebalancing the Earth
Every September, baseball fans across the country anticipate the World Series. This enthusiastic myopic worldview may seem to be of little consequence, even though the competition only includes American teams on American soil.
But regarding technological innovation and sustainable energy investment, it behooves Americans to realize that the U.S. government and industry has ponied up to theories that many other countries reject. If the science informing public policy and accepted by experts in other nations is accurate, false beliefs are leading America towards an unsafe, unstable, unsecure, exorbitantly costly and environmentally destructive future, under the guise of wireless smart meter alleged benefits.1
At every point in history, within any cultural paradigm, diversities exist within the range of consciousness. When ownership of slaves was widely embraced, some land barons were caring, while others routinely beat their workers to death. The momentum of the mass culture expresses the midpoint of a range of choices. At times, that midpoint slides backwards in its relationship to grace. Cultures, empires, and lives have been destroyed.
But during extraordinary lifetimes, individuals may participate in what cultural anthropologist Jean Houston describes as jump times. Human nature can be wholly transported along its own evolutionary pathway at crucial junctures. A rising tide lifts all boats.
For example, prior to air brushing techniques, in the 1970s, the fashion industry surgically inserted plastic into models to enhance their appearance. The 2011 Dow Corning settlement for leaking silicon gel breast implants involved several billion dollars for a few hundred thousand patients. Many more suffered terribly. Digital photography unleashed unprecedented creative potentials and eliminated the dumping of photography chemicals into landfills.
The stakes involved in the unexamined use of wireless consumer goods are far greater than those resulting from plastic surgery due to rapid expansion and widespread consumer demand.
Technology now propels the ecology and the economies of the world at breakneck speed to new thresholds. Yet many nations, including former Soviet block countries, cautiously regulate wireless technologies with exposure limits designed to protect against unknown risks. In light of emerging evidence of harm to health and the environment, other nations are revisiting their radio frequency (RF) exposure limits.
The deployment of wireless utility smart meters emitting microwave radio frequencies is taking the U.S. in the opposite direction.
Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation, Late Lessons from Early Warnings
Non-ionizing radiation utilized in wireless applications does not manifest the same mechanism of harm created by ionizing x-rays and nuclear bombs, which rips electrons out of their orbits. Yet, when x-ray technology was first introduced, it was presumed to be safe. Thomas Edison’s assistant died in 1904 from x-ray exposure, and artists painting luminescent watches presented cancer clusters in the 1920s. In 1958, a link between pregnancy and childhood leukemia became evident. Meanwhile, shoe stores with unshielded shoe fitting fluoroscopes offered parents the opportunity to see a child’s bones inside a sneaker. It took decades for governments to respond to early warnings.
Emerging evidence does not support the theory that non-ionizing radiation only causes damage when tissue is heated, which is the operating premise underlying limits in countries that do not recognize evidence of harm, including the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Non-industry experts are sounding the alarm, including the American College of Environmental Medicine and the authors of the 2007 and 2012 Bio-Initiative Reports.
The October 2013 Pathophysiology report by Dr. Martha Hebert and Cindy Sage concerning autism warns:
“With dramatic increases in reported autism spectrum conditions that are coincident in time with the deployment of wireless technologies, we need aggressive investigation of potential ASC – EMF/RFR links. The evidence is sufficient to warrant new public exposure standards benchmarked to low-intensity (non-thermal) exposure levels now known to be biologically disruptive, and strong, interim precautionary practices are advocated.” 2
Researcher Dr. Martin Pall’s studies indicate calcium ion gates as a mechanism of injury for RF exposure. Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) is an adverse reaction to non-ionizing radiation.3
Sweden recognizes EHS as a “functional impairment,” not a disability.4 India has lowered its RF limits to 1/10th of the previous level, in alignment with the recommendations of the 2012 Bio initiative Report. 5,6
Israel is evaluating how many children have developed electromagnetic hypersensitivity relative to the use of Wi-Fi in schools.7
A Council of Europe Resolution calls for a dramatic reduction in human exposure to EMFs and microwave radiation from mobile phones and other wireless devices. “This Resolution makes a strong call for properly applying the precautionary principle to EMFs – both from electric power and from wireless communications technologies.” 8 Most Western European countries use power line technology, not wireless radiofrequency, in their utility infrastructure modernization programs.9
Texas Denies RF Health Dangers, Suggests It’s Mental Illnesses Instead
In Massachusetts, three documents are currently posted on National Grid’s website to address health concerns regarding the Worcester Smart Meter WiMax Pilot Program. One is written by the FCC, and one by the Utility Telecom Council.10
The third report from the Public Utilities Commission of Texas erroneously states that the scientific research reveals no definite or proven biological effects from exposure to low level RF signals.11 The report dismissed the 2011 classification of RF/EMF as a class 2B possible human carcinogen by the World Health Organization, and defers to an outdated WHO 2005 fact sheet. The report notes:
“It had been suggested that symptoms experienced by some EHS individuals might arise from environmental factors unrelated to EMF including flicker from fluorescent lights, glare and other visual problems with video displays, and poor ergonomic design of computer workstations. Other factors that may play a role included poor indoor air quality or stress in the workplace or living environment.”
“Finally, there were some indications that the symptoms may be due to pre-existing psychiatric conditions as well as stress reactions that were a result of worrying about EMF health effects, rather than EMF exposure itself. It explained that EHS is not a medical diagnosis, nor is it clear that it represents a single medical problem. Thus, some medical experts described EHS as an example of a psychogenic illness. A psychogenic illness is a constellation of symptoms suggestive of organic illness, but without an identifiable cause, that occurs between two or more people who share beliefs about those symptoms. Psychogenic illnesses have made headlines when they have become manifest as a widespread phenomenon.”
In contrast, on October 15, 2013, the French Health Agency ANSES published results of its assessment of risks related to exposure to radio frequencies based upon a review of the international scientific literature:
“Faced with the rapid development of wireless technologies, ANSES issues recommendations for limiting exposure to radiofrequencies, especially for the most vulnerable populations….Limited levels of evidence do point to different biological effects in humans or animals. In addition, some publications suggest a possible increased risk of brain tumor, over the long term, for heavy users of mobile phones. Given this information, and against a background of rapid development of technologies and practices, ANSES recommends limiting the population’s exposure to radiofrequencies – in particular from mobile phones – especially for children and intensive users, and controlling the overall exposure that results from relay antennas. It will also be further developing its work on electro-sensitive individuals, specifically by examining all the available French and international data on this topic that merits closer attention (emphasis added).”12
Italy would not agree with the Texas report findings either, and has hard-wired its utility meters. Italy's Supreme Court ordered Vatican Radio to compensate a small town near Rome following claims that children there were at a higher risk of cancer because of the broadcaster's high-powered transmitters.13
The Texas report is not an assurance of safety and health; it is an indictment of the industries involved, and an example of regulatory capture. U.S. Agencies are collaborating with, rather than regulating the industries under their charge, including the FCC and the FDA, for financial gain.
We have been down this road before.
These are the values underlying the man-over-nature, man-over-man, man-over-woman, man-over-time, man-over-man-via-machine worldview that manifested in earlier epochs including the Spanish Inquisition, witch trials, and tales of destruction of Atlantis regarding the misuse of power and technology.
Now, California residents have mounted a class action lawsuit as the result of health damages due to smart wireless utility meters.14 California’s legislature has rightly stripped the California Public Utilities Commission of its budget.15 At last count, 57 CA municipalities representing nearly 4 million people oppose smart meters.16
Maine’s Supreme Court ruled that the state’s Public Utilities Commission has not adequately addressed health concerns.17 The Maine deployment is also under audit for cost overruns that resulted in a requested 8% rate increase for customers, instead of promised savings.18
Yoga’s Role in Rebalancing the Earth
Thich Nhat Hanh wrote: “Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos, the trees, the clouds, everything.”
Yogis and chi gong masters who traveled to the United States in the last century could not divulge that the Eastern practices they were bringing here were quintessentially the purest from of health care and of ecology. If any foreign yogi had claimed that a particular practice could be used to perceive, diagnose, treat, and cure an energetic imbalance before it manifested as illness, he would have been incarcerated for practicing medicine without a license.
Using their bodies, the yogis and chi gong masters were able to dowse the incoming energies from the cosmos. They endeavored to alchemize with electromagnetic frequencies, the source of all life. Before the industrialization of time, the sky itself was the clock and the calendar. Energetic patterns were understood against the backdrop of natural law.
If Americans are unable to recognize the impact of the full and new moons on the electromagnetic pathways known as the meridians, they cannot perceive that wireless technologies are altering their physiology. If medications alter the set point of the nerves and glandular system, the individual feedback system is no longer functional. If stimulants, inadequate sleep, and artificial EMFs shift the balance of the culture away from nature and towards dependence on drugs, citizens become addicted and enslaved to contrived freedoms, rather than liberated.
Our culture has not yet recognized that women and children are more susceptible to EMF harm than men, and that electromagnetic hypersensitivity is not a psychological condition. The survival of the species is not protected as nature intended.
If the culture does not realize that wireless technologies are energy hogs, rather than a form of sustainability, smart meter deployment will unleash a consumptive pattern of health and environmental hazards far greater than those of the fossil fuel carbon-based model.
According to author Judy Kosovich on examiner.com, “If there is one thing that Germany is widely respected for, it is its ability to develop and implement technologies. Therefore, that Germany has departed from the recommendation of the European Union that smart meters be adopted is important news. The German Federal Ministry of Economics retained Ernst & Young, a widely respected accounting firm, to evaluate the economics of a full smart meter rollout. Its conclusion: smart meters are not in the interest of German consumers.”
Kosovich goes on to contrast the German’s economic logic with American consumerism. “Of course, for countries such as the US, where growing the economy is a high priority, smart meters provide a wonderful mechanism for stimulating the economy. First, you throw away perfectly good meters. Then you replace them with new meters, thereby incurring manufacturing costs and installation costs. Then you use electricity to power these meters that broadcast, then you create incentives for people to buy new products that will lower electricity use during peak hours. On top of that, you have new health problems for which people will seek medical attention, perhaps resorting to pharmaceutical solutions to their headaches and sleep problems. Smart meters were brought to us with the Federal ‘stimulus money’ because they would not have been justifiable without it.”19
Many other countries already recognize and respond to evidence of harm. As is the case with GMOs and mercury, the U.S. has prioritized economics over the health of its citizens, thus lagging behind the rest of the world.
Salzburg, Austria limits its telecommunications to a 2G network. The Worcester Smart Meter pilot requires the deployment of a 4G network.
European baby monitors are voice activated, and the use of cordless DECT phone technology has been phased out. Uninformed Americans receive inaccurate industry comparisons between smart meters and commonly used household devices, implying that both are safe.20 The desire for faster, more powerful, more complex wireless transmissions is an unrecognized expression of cultivated greed that perpetuates an unsustainable consumption-based economic model.
In 2014, the arriving Year of the Horse corresponds to the Heart in Chinese medicine.21 Lacking in belief or literacy in the influence of nature’s rhythms and frequencies encoded in time, Americans are on course to break their own hearts."
French oncologist Dominique Belpomme stated: “We citizens, we will have a bill to pay…a humanitarian financial invoice.” In the 1960s, the yogis in their prescience, provided tools to help Americans call their spirits back home. Smart wireless utility meters are not safe, not secure, not green, and not sustainable. We are at the fork in the road. Choose wisely. For this new world we pray.
TAKE ACTION
- In MA, please contact your local representatives and the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley and request an immediate no-fee opt-out specified in Bill H2926. Request as investigation into the health implications of RF radiation, an assessment of ambient RF exposures, and binding liability for costs associated with emerging health issues, including recognition and protections for EHS individuals.
- Contact your utility company and ask for a non-RF-emitting meter and disclosure of change in functionality and/or installation of RF emitting infrastructure.
- Contact HaltMAsmartmeters.org for more information, 888-272-6510.
- Please reduce unnecessary exposure to RF for yourself and others.
Patricia Burke is a meridian yoga teacher and environmentalist working with activists across the country to bring RF limits in the United States into alignment with the Precautionary Principle. She also endorses the Bolivian Law of Rights of Mother Earth, and an end to human experimentation without knowledge or consent.
Footnotes
1. National Institute for Science Law and Public Policy, “Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid,” by Timothy Schoechle, PhD. The report states that billions of dollars in federal subsidies for ‘smart’ utility meters have been misspent on meter technology that will not lead to energy sustainability or contribute to the possibility of a more efficient and responsive electricity grid.
2. Autism and EMF? Plausibility of a Pathophysiological Link – Part I, by Martha Hebert and Cindy Sage, TRANSCEND Research Program Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02129, USA Pathophysiology. 2013 Oct 3. pii: S0928-4680(13)00037-0. doi: 10.1016/j.pathophys.2013.08.001.
3. Electromagnetic fields act via activation of voltage-gated calcium channels to produce beneficial or adverse effects by Martin L. Pall * J Cell Mol Med. Received: January 8, 2013; Accepted: May 20, 2013
4. In Sweden, electrohypersensitivity (EHS) is an officially fully recognized functional impairment (ie, it is not regarded as a disease). Survey studies show that somewhere between 230,000 and 290,000 Swedish men and women report a variety of symptoms when in contact with electromagnetic field (EMF)-sources.
5. “The government-issued guidelines on health hazards from tower radiation.”
7. In August 2012 a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court to ban Wi-Fi in schools prompted a court order for the Israeli Government to find out how many children in the country were suffering from EHS.
8. Council of Europe calls for dramatic reduction in EMF exposure.
9. Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. “BLEC Opposes DEEP's Draft Comprehensive Energy Strategy on Smart Grid Technology”, December 13, 2012, page 10. “Many smart meter networks in Europe are based on PLC.”
10. www1.nationalgridus.com/WorcesterProgramFAQResidential
11. Texas Public Utility Commission, Project No. 40190, Project Relating to Advanced Metering Issues, Report on Health and Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields from Advanced Meters.
12. French Health Agency Issues Recommendations to Limit RF Exposure.
14. Mass tort lawsuit filed over smart meter health injuries.
15. SACRAMENTO — Legislators on Wednesday moved to rein in the Public Utilities Commission, taking the highly unusual step of wiping out its $1.4 billion budget to force the regulatory agency to justify how it spends its money. The PUC, which one lawmaker called a "fiefdom," would also be stripped of its ability to start nonprofit organizations that generate programs that hike rates without the approval of the Legislature under language approved by the Assembly budget subcommittee on resources and transportation.
17. Opponents voice concerns over Maine smart meters.
18. The staff of the Maine Public Utilities Commission is recommending an audit of Central Maine Power Company's so-called "Smart Meter" program, citing concerns about significantly higher costs that could be passed along to ratepayers.
19. www.examiner.com
20. Read the National Grid document here, and the rebuttal compiled by Clare Donegan of HaltMAsmartmeters.org
21. “Smart Meters: The Winter Solstice Tsunami of 2012”
