"Smart" electric meters, commonly known as smart meters, are becoming more and more common. As towns grow in population and utility companies look for ways to reduce their costs and increase their efficiency, many municipalities are embracing the so-called “smart grid”.

A smart meter serves the same purpose as the electric meter you’ve always had attached to your house. It tracks your home’s electricity usage so that you can be billed for it. The difference lies in the meter’s method of communication. Remember when the meter reader used to come around to your house and write down the numbers each month? A smart meter does away with the need for meter readers entirely (and the fleet of vehicles they drive, and the insurance and maintenance and fuel for all those vehicles), and instead transmits your usage numbers to the utility company via radio frequency micro-waves.

Is Smart Meter Radiation Harmful?

Utility companies maintain that since smart electric meters are not transmitting information all the time, the radiation they produce is not a significant risk. That the occasional surges of signal required to send usage updates to the utility company result in such a low overall radiation average that it is not worrisome.

Unfortunately, that is not the full story. Smart meter problems are more complex and taking a simple average to evaluate exposure and its subsequent risks is a gross oversimplification of the issue.

Even setting aside concerns about the overall security of the smart grid and the personal surveillance issues of continual data collection, pulsed smart meter radiation brings with it a unique set of problems. Studies done by the military as far back as the 1990s have clearly shown that pulsed radiation can cause definite health problems from tachycardia to modification of the human genome.

Smart Meter Problems

What are some of the health problems smart meters cause? The list of potential health effects is extensive:

• Disrupted sleep patterns, inability to sleep
• Ringing in the ears, tinnitus
• Seizures
• Stress, agitation, anxiety, irritability
• Headaches, sharp pain or pressure in the head
• Concentration, memory or learning problems
• Fatigue, muscle or physical weakness
• Disorientation, dizziness, or balance problems
• Eye problems, including eye pain, pressure in the eyes,
• Cardiac symptoms, heart palpitations, heart arrhythmias, chest pain
• Leg cramps, or neuropathy
• Arthritis, body pain, sharp, stabbing pains
• Nausea, flu-like symptoms
• Sinus problems, nose bleeds
• Respiratory problems, cough, asthma
• Skin rashes, facial flushing
• Urinary problems
• Endocrine disorders, thyroid problems, diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Hyperactivity or changes in children’s behavior
• Recurrence of cancer

How to Reduce Smart Meter RF Radiation

To the industries running the power grid, these health risks aren’t a problem. But to the individuals living right next to a smart meter, the question of how to block smart meter transmission of radiation becomes crucial. A smart meter cover is a simple stainless steel mesh cage that slips over the glass dome of the meter and blocks about 98% of the RF EMF it emits. It not only lowers the continual output, but it controls the pulsed spikes that can be dangerous to health—all while still allowing the utility company to get the readings they need to track power consumption.  

This simple, DIY EMF shielding device is easy to install and instantly effective. And when you move, just take it with you to install on your next smart meter. Peace of mind actually is this easy.