Lloyds of London will not cover cell phones.

In recent years, legal claims over damage to property value because of EMF and RF emissions have met with some success. Plaintiffs in these lawsuits usually allege that the value of their property has been reduced because of its proximity to devices that emit RF or EMF. The theory behind this argument is that, since the general public believes that exposure to RF or EMF emissions is dangerous, the property is less valuable regardless of whether or not fears over the dangers are founded. For example, the selling price of a house located near an RF or EMF transmission line may be much lower than prices of similar properties located farther away, simply because families are afraid of potential negative health effects that could result from living in a house that is so close to the transmission line.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/emf-radiofrequency-exposure-from-cell-32210-2.html

Nancy Baer

In October, the Soviet Union stole personal data from the South Carolina’s Department of Revenue of 75% of that state’s citizens. The Soviet Union took tax returns that had been filed since 1997. Now, the State of South Carolina must spend billions of dollars insuring all of those citizens for the rest of their lives.

http://www.thestate.com/2012/10/26/2496396/south-carolina-taxpayers-privacy.html#.UMjAsayANWU

If such a thing were to happen with our data that APS wants to “harvest,” do you believe they will purchase an insurance policy to cover you until your death?

Here is a letter recently sent to the CPUC by engineer Rob States:

Two engineers have been diligently working on Smart Meter dirty power and RF issues – the combined team possess two MS degrees from MIT, a California P.E. license (Professional Engineer’s License), and a PhD from Stanford in Electrical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude. They have been working on this nearly continuously for the last four months.
The scientific data tells us that 5% of the population will get sick immediately from RF disease, and another 10% will develop the disease over time. This means about 4.5 million people in California are potential victims.
Since individuals with no history of RF disease are experiencing symptoms the first day the meter is installed, we can assume the meter’s RF emissions are not the only problem. The RF network is activated months after initial meter installation.

Extensive measurements have demonstrated that all of the meters measured so far, including ABB, GE, and Landis Gyr, emit noise on the customer’s electric wiring in the form of high frequency voltage spikes, typically with an amplitude of 2 volts, but a frequency any ware from 4,000 Hertz, up to 60,000 Hz. The actual frequency of the phenomena is influenced by the devices that are plugged into the customer’s power. Some houses are much worse than others, and this observation has been confirmed by PG&E installers that have talked to us.

Since 85% of the population is not immediately effected by this phenomena, the knowledge about what is causing symptoms in PG&E’s customers will be slow to evolve. We expect word of mouth to be the primary information source since the media is so disconnected from this phenomena.

The scientific literature has studied microwave illness since the 1930′s when radar operators became ill. Radar equipment emits radiation that is intermittent, and recent scientific papers have increasingly reported that pulsed radiation is significantly worse than continuous radiation. Humans have been exposed to continuous microwave transmissions from radio for decades. Exposure that Smart Meters present to California citizens is new and unlike previous electromagnetic emissions.

PG&E has published none of the functional specifications of the meters now being installed, including their BLOCK DIAGRAMS, SCHEMATICS, or BILL OF MATERIALS. The scientific community has been prevented from identifying any of the design problems prior to their installations.

The decisions by PG&E and the CPUC to conduct NO SAFETY STUDIES has forced them to discover the current problem after the meters have been installed and after significant capital has been invested in this project. Even a rudimentary safety test with 100 randomly selected people would have probably uncovered this problem long before its appearance in PG&E’s customer base.

The fix for preventing dirty power disease in PG&E customers is expensive. Because the dirty power must be stopped in the customer’s LOW IMPEDANCE house wiring, all of the filter components must handle high power, and therefore are expensive. Current estimates put the end customer cost at $500, and that does not include fixing dirty power interactions that Smart Meter causes with devices already in the customer’s home, such as computers, FAX machines, copiers, plasma TV’s, and the like. Merely treating 15% of the California households puts the total liability for after market problems at $2B, approximately equal to the entire cost of the existing program’s roll out.
Though 15% of the population has early and obvious symptoms, a large number of microwave disease related health problems will not surface for some time. As science advances, the links between microwave disease and its sources will only improve, causing ever increasing liability for societal institutions that are responsible for the offending emissions. Though the cell phone industry has purchased immunity from liability through their extensive lobbying efforts, the experience of the tobacco and chemical industries has shown that this immunity can fade as priorities of the general population affects the political process.

Though microwave disease is not directly observed in 85% of the population, the asymptomatic effects (meaning effects that have no apparent symptoms) are well published in the scientific literature, and span a wide variety of lethal and debilitating diseases, including cancers, auto immune diseases, suicide risk, depression, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), and a host of others. Steve Job’s pancreas and liver problems are particularly conspicuous when manifested in a life long vegetarian who was chronically exposed to pulsed microwave emissions from wi-fi, computer power supplies, and the like. Liability for microwave diseases could explode in the future, as data in the cell phone industry already suggests.

Among the population of affected individuals, there are sure to be attorneys who are experienced in class actions suits, and who clearly recognize a $2B avoidable cost has been imposed on an unwilling public. This type of law suit has been responsible for some of the largest corporate liabilities in our civilization’s history, and has already affected PG&E and the CPUC in the past (i.e. hex-avalent chromium in Hinkley CA).

Once the California real estate community becomes aware that 15% of the general population will no longer be able to live, work, or shop in their properties, the potential liability will be in the trillions of dollars, and will effect a population of wealthy individuals who have significant political influence in Sacramento. These entrepreneurs have been particularly skilled at legally punishing institutions that are responsible for declines in their asset values. In fact, the asset base of the retirement trust of California’s state employees is significantly exposed to California’s real estate market.

A reasonable person could conclude that the potential liability PG&E currently faces, both immediately and in the evolving future, could be significantly larger than their asset base. Their long term survival as a corporation could be at risk, and a potential outcome could include the wholesale transfer of their asset base into receivership pending settlement of outstanding liabilities.

Legal liability could force PG&E to approach the CPUC for a doubling of the existing utility rate. This would be a politically untenable request, and could result in the dissolution of the CPUC’s existing regulator authority.
The future for both the CPUC and PG&E is uncertain, and potentially disastrous. A prudent course would be to treat the entire Smart Grid project in California as a major risk, and to aggressively engage in damage control. Since the technology that is actively being dismantled by the CPUC and PG&E has previously demonstrated none of the current risks, an aggressive plan to offer an analog meter opt out is a prudent option. Since so much damage has already been done, there are no guarantees that even this measure will prevail.

PG&E’s current course of relying on PR spin has little chance of stemming the trends that have already been set in motion.

Rob States, M.S., P.E.
Chief Engineer, Wave Dry, LLC.
415-927-2739 Office
415-596-2718 Cell

Since Sedona has not had smart meters installed yet, NOW is the time to get smart and have a community wide opt out for the whole city of Sedona.

Also, if needed, Warren has provided plenty of information on what to write to the Arizona Corporation Commission. We should be sure to include in our comments that Arizonans need to Opt-In, not Opt-Out, of the ACC’s “Smart” Meter requirement.