Today Tom McMillin shared with his constituents the following on his Facebook page:
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Kathy Warras of West Bloomfield Township, stands
next to the
Smart Meter she says has caused her terrible health problems,
including severe headaches.
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I know many...maybe most of my FB friends don't have a
problem with Smart Meters...but they are being imposed by a state-regulated
monopoly and there are many who have concerns...and our state constitution says
citizens have the right to petition their government - I'm holding a hearing on
12/2 to let them voice their concerns.
"State Rep. Tom McMillin, committee chair, called for
the hearing after being contacted by many constituents and other citizens about
privacy, health and safety concerns relating to the meters.
“With this hearing, we’re giving the people of Michigan an
open and transparent platform to not only voice their concerns but hopefully
have them addressed by public utility officials” said McMillin, R-Rochester
Hills. “Residents have contacted my office, terrified that their power will be
shut off after receiving letters from utility companies threatening to do just
that if they don’t allow a smart meter to be installed on their home, even
though they have a perfectly working analog meter.”
One of those constituents is Clarkston resident Georgetta
Livingstone, a former engineering instructor at Oakland University, who said
DTE cut her electricity this spring after she paid someone to install an analog
meter back on her home.
“When the smart meter went on my home, I had a total
breakout on my body. It looked like an allergic reaction,” said Livingstone. “I
decided to take action myself, and had the analog meter put on.”
After her power was cut, she was reduced to “primitive
life,” she said, having to use the restroom at a nearby Kroger and take showers
at a neighbor’s home. When she searched for answers, she connected with the
group working with McMillin.
“I was so glad that someone else sees the problem here,”
Livingstone said. “These companies should allow the customer to have a choice
... I don’t want to be told what to do.”
Have you had health issues with smart meters? Comment below and your comments will be shared with Tom McMillin.
I am very glad someone is actually listening to the valid complaints of citizens who are suffering from the effects of these so-called 'smart meters'! The problem isnt just the 'smart meters' but the digital meters in general. And these meters have caused the same problems everywhere they have been used around the world.A simple Google search on the subject of 'smart meters' brings reports from Europe, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, South America and all areas of the United States.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Consumers Energy states they have not placed 'smart meters' in my area, they are using semantics to divert attention away from the real issues with the meters they HAVE placed. They placed a digital meter on my service almost four years ago without my knowledge.We have suffered constant brownouts and momentary power loss the entire four years. Others in my neighborhood suffer the same momentary outages I do-but at individual times-not at the same time I do. It is obvious that the problem is in the meters themselves. Light bulbs often last only a few weeks.Computer equipment fails regularly. I had to pull all of the outlets in this single-wide trailer and replace the outlets and wiring because the wires had loosened and in some cases became detached, with attendant danger of fire. The problem is this: digital meters allow the utility to send wide variations of voltage thru them without failing. This is called 'dirty electricity'. The constant overheating/cooling of the wires and the harmonics created is what loosens them-and what burns out light bulbs, appliances, etc. Digital meters cause fires-not just in the meters themselves (which also happens regularly) but in older home wiring. The Red Cross said last year it had aided nearly double the number of household fire victims in the previous year in Jackson and Hillsdale County: none of these fires are attributed to the digital meter as the fire starts in the home wiring itself-because of damage caused by the digital meter. Most were determined to be 'electrical fires', the most common cause of home fires.Vey convenient-and still just as fatal.
For four years, I have been unable to sleep except at the foot of my bed: to sleep with my head near the outside wall causes me to have insomnia, heart palpitations, anxiety attacks,tinnitus and skin eruptions, joint pain-all problems I did NOT have before the digital meter was placed. Perhaps the aluminum skin of this trailer makes the effects worse-I dont know. But I am absolutely certain that the effects are caused by dirty electricity leaking into the house.I am a senior citizen on a fixed income and cannot afford to pay for a months'-long string of tests and experiments to come up with an accurate medical diagnosis. Instead, I suggest that this committee review the damage claims made years ago against Consumers Energy-and other utilities in other states- with farmers over damage to livestock in pastures crossed by high-power electric lines. Some states did award damages and a great deal of valid expert testimony clarified those dangers. The problem is the same-only now, we are having it directed into our homes intentionally. The problem with voltage in places it should not be and in variable voltages is an old one for the courts. The committee might want to read the following cases in Western Michigan that spent years in the courts-and I am unsure of the final decisions. But the facts are there-utilities regularly have varying amounts of voltage in places where it should not be and cause harm to living beings. Just that fact that they have bigger lawyers and deeper pockets should not permit them to cause damage to anyone! http://www.electricalpollution.com/Michigan_Hillman.html and
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/mi-court-of-appeals/1080596.html
In the past year, the Consumers Energy has been transmitting their 'readings' from the ‘smart meters’ they insist they havent placed (and obviously have) via Wireless internet, I believe, using our home internet cable modems. There is evidently an agreement with Comcast in this area that allows them to do so-and ties nicely into the demand by Comcast that we all upgrade our cable modems-to units which incorporate a 'guest hotspot' within our home networks. Although I use a hard-wired ethernet cable for my internet service, I can turn on a wifi-finder and identify from one to three 'guest' connections to my network at varying strengths and varying periods of time most of the time. I only have one home within the 300-ft legal transmission distance for home wifi . .and that house is empty, although the power is on. Obviously, what is transmitting are these 'non-existing smart-meters' as there is nothing else in this rural area to do so-and they are likely using my meter as a collector for the signals from other meters in the near area as I have internet service. I have repeatedly requested this digital meter be removed and replaced with an analog meter to no avail. My meter WAS replaced recently as it was faulty-with another digital meter!
ReplyDeleteThe digital meters create higher billing rates for home electrical usage due to the way they work: the old magnetic, analog meters could not respond fast enough to pick up every bit of the short burst of extra power needed when a motor starts . .like the refrigerator, furnace blower, fan, pump, etc. So, MPSC has always taken that assumed 'loss' into account when setting rates-rates are set to account for the loss. The digital meters however, DO record that momentary power surge accurately . . and those added kilowatts are added to the billing-charged at the higher rate for surge loss .. . . so the utility gains a windfall of approximately 30% on every utility bill (older homes with older appliances and rural areas usually pay more due to a larger number of starting motors).
In Michigan, the utility companies have always insisted they had no intention of instituting a 'time-of-use' rate system based on the data from smart meters. That is also an obvious untruth: I am a member of Consumers Energy's 'consumer panel' and regularly complete their surveys on a number of issues. This week I completed a survey on how to present an understandable bill based on time-of-day differential rates! Obviously, they are lying about this, too!
I respectfully request your committee look deeply into this issue before this entire 'smart grid' is in place and operational: stopping it after it is complete with be an uphill battle.