[Aluminum-coated Bubble Wrap – Arnaud Durand – Ben Hueso & Bill Quirk SB 649 Microcells / Small Cells Public Right-of-way Siting Legislation – Benefits – Class Action against EDF Électricité de France & Enedis (formerly ERDF) re Linky Smart Meters – CNIL Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés – Costs – Data – EHS – Electric Baseboards – EMR – French League of Human Rights (LDH) – Guinea Pigs – Guy Herbert, NO2ID – Health – IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – Investigatory Powers Act – Onzo – Powerline Carrier – Privacy – Stéphane Lhomme, Councilor of Saint-Macaire (Gironde) – Stop Linky Posters – Trojan Horse – White Elephant | BC – EU – France – UK]
1) From a member, who is very sensitive, about what happened to a new tenant who is sensitive. Some excellent advice to make your home safer.
(click on photos to enlarge)
“New tenant/housesitter nearly fell to her knees in pain when my baseboard heaters came on downstairs. Said she’d been feeling tingling in her feet all along, but this was new. Turned off breakers, pain disappeared. Talked to a building biologist.
Apparently the aluminum-coated bubble wrap (the kind you use around water heaters) that I used as iinsulation/vapour barrier between concrete and laminate in 2006 (before I’d heard of EMR/EHS) re-radiates EMR from all wiring but esp. baseboards–because it’s not grounded. I was told I should ground it and that would probably take care of her problem [and maybe I’ve been sensitized by my van/bubble wrap too?”
2) In France, people are becoming aware of and concerned about the possibility of having smeters installed. The translation of this article, which was done by a non-French speaker in the USA, is below, in Letters. It has some really good points. If any French “reader” sees anything that differs significantly between the article and the translation, please let me know.
http://refus.linky.gazpar.free.fr/edito-refus-compteurs-communicants.pdf
An article about this in an English article said this:
“Lawyers for Stop Linky are preparing a class action against EDF and its subsidiary Enedis, which is implementing the programme. Lawyer Arnaud Durand claims smart meters pose health and privacy issues. He calls them a “Trojan horse’” that could harvest vast amounts of data about our activities. Even rudimentary information has commercial value. “For example, a telemarketing company will know if it’s a good moment to call your house.”
3) IEEE (the major group of electrical engineers) [Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers] seems to believe that data obtained from smeters can be used to determine a whole lot about us and our patterns.
IEEE Spectrum Robotics Channela day ago
But machine learning systems, looking at that data, can tell something else about your home besides its energy use–they can tell if you are home, or if you are not. In a recent paper, Jin and his colleagues demonstrated that machine learning systems can be trained to detect occupancy without any initial information from a home owner. Using this assumption, the machine learning algorithms were able to tease out more detailed characteristics about power consumption when a home is occupied; they then are able to tell when someone is home or not, even when that person’s patterns are outside the norm. “Right now, meters are sending accurate information about energy consumption.
https://aitopics.org/search?itok=IbyIb4mg&filters=concept-tagsRaw%3Asmart+meter
4) Here is what someone in the USA sent re. the microcell bill in California – might be a good site to help with posters, etc. I love this one.
Just find a photo or whatever, log on to:
https://imgflip.com/memegenerator
Upload the photo and type what you want to say. That’s it.
Letters:
Alert regarding Communicating Meters
False virtues, but real dangers to our freedoms and our health
The distributor Enedis (ex-ErDF) wants to replace in all France electricity meters with communicating models called “Linky”. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of EDF, the company claims that these meters would be “smart” and would bring many benefits to users.
In addition, the gas distributor GrDF (with the meter “Gazpar”) and the water suppliers develop their own communicating counters [meters], with the same arguments promising a wonderful world, connected and so practical … But the reality is very different!
Note: This article refers primarily to Linky counters, as they are being deployed, but most of the information also relates to gas and water communicating meters.
Absent “virtues”
To justify their setting up, the communicating meters are adorned with many virtues which, when one looks at them, are nothing but very unconvincing pretexts.
Meters Needed to have accurate invoices? No
These meters would make it possible to have invoices corresponding to actual and not simple estimates. But, for a long time, everyone can communicate their consumption to their Suppliers, by telephone or the Internet, to have accurate invoices.
Meters Needed to save energy. No !
Advanced studies struggle to convince: GrDF evokes a tiny 1% savings with meter Gas communicators, probably not to recognize that the true figure is zero.
As for households with electricity-related meters, a study cited by the Agency for (ADEME) shows 10% savings at the beginning, falling to 5% after 4 months, and … returning to the starting point after 6 months!
The explanation of this phenomenon is well known to researchers: people placed in a situation new behavior, at least at the beginning, before life begins again.
Little by little things resume their normal course. Besides the fact that they are ephemeral, the savings are not due to the communicating meters but to the behavior of people. It is also an edifying fact: good information campaigns would make real savings … and sustainable.
To lower our bills? On the contrary !
Not only will Linky not save money but, on the contrary, many households will have to take a higher subscription and therefore pay more. Indeed, despite the denials of Enedis, the Communicating meters are disconnecting faster than ordinary meters and, as reported by various media such as the Republican East, many users are obliged to subscribe to higher subscriptions and therefore more expensive.
First, an ecological and financial disaster
Installing smart meters first and foremost requires us to get rid of 81 million meters (35 million for electricity, 35 million for water, 11 million for gas) in perfect working condition.…
The old meters can last 60 years or more, unlike the communicating meters that will have to be replaced officially in 15 to 20 years, and actually in 5 to 7 years.
To improve our lives? No, they are for BIG DATA
The communicating counters [meters] will not improve our life, on the contrary, because they are made for the development of “BIG DATA,” which captures innumerable information about us and our lives, acknowledges Philippe Monloubou, President of Enedis.
The proven danger of electromagnetic waves
Concerning health, one can only note the troubling similarities with dramatic reports such as asbestos, nuclear, tobacco, pesticides: numerous studies have highlighted the risks when others, often initiated or financed by industry, “prove” the opposite.
It is only years, or even decades later, that truth can no longer be denied as to the explosion in the number of cancers, leukemias and other serious diseases.
However, the least that can be said is that there is a very strong doubt about the alleged harmlessness of waves which are also classified as “possible carcinogens” by the World (WHO), which also points to the high level of uncertainty about extended “to electromagnetic waves. Now, with the communicating meters, the exhibition will maybe “weak” (and maybe much higher than what we want to say) but in any case it will be more than prolonged since it is permanent!
It is therefore not worth discussing indefinitely with Enedis and other meter developers. We do not want to serve as guinea pigs to see whether, in 5 or 8 or 15 years, we have cancer and leukemia. And so we do not want the counters [meters] communicating.
Linky sends us back to the caves!
Already, the number of people suddenly becoming electro-sensitive is increasing dramatically. At first considered “mentally deranged”, these people are now part of a phenomenon that can no longer be denied. At the height of the absurd, these technologies, as opposed to being “modern,” make people try to find refuge in caves or at the bottom of the woods, to be as far as possible from antennas and other counters “Communicants”, which refers us back to the Stone Age.
Communicating meters: CPL and mobile telephony!
The installation of the communicating meters, if it continues, will multiply the exposure of the population and the number of electro-sensitives. The Linky meter generates data broadcast by the (power line carrier) technology that creates electromagnetic waves through unshielded wires.
The information then converges to the neighborhood transformer from which it is redirected by GRPS, that is to say by mobile telephony, subjecting the residents to new waves.
The Gas (Gazpar) and water meters that directly send their information by radio waves to antennas located in the vicinity or on the dwellings.
The operators also have allied themselves with companies preparing for the advent of “objects connected” [IoT] i.e., you will soon have the possibility – paying of course – to connect to your Internet brush, your shoes, your jar of jam … These absurd options will be made possible, in one large “bath” of electromagnetic waves, by the installation of communicating meters.
Challenging public freedoms
But this is not all: the questioning of our health also extends to that of our freedoms.
Explanation: It is currently acceptable for our suppliers to know, every two months or at worst every month, how much we used electricity, gas or water, overall during the period concerned.
On the other hand, it is unjustifiable that these companies know our day, as well as the daily use of our objects, as this will give them countless information about our private lives, starting with our presence or absence in the place of housing; and these data will of course be recoverable by the authorities, without even obtaining permission as we now are under the rule of the state of emergency, waiting to pass to the state of siege.
History has shown that, when circumstances permit, people who claim to be democrats do not hesitate to turn into ruthless autocrats under the pretext of “saving the fatherland.”
The installation of communicating meters will provide these people with monitoring tools for the generalized population, and in particular opponents and activists for rights and freedoms.
It is so true that the French League of Human Rights (LDH) has asked to stop the installation of the Linky meters with a scathing statement.
[Translated from hyperlink]
“Linky is very talkative: the information it collects is an intrusion into the privacy of sixty-six million inhabitants, because the transfer of detailed data on energy consumption (for example every ten minutes ) can be used to identify hours of rest and sleep, hours or periods of absence, or, under certain conditions, the amount of hot water consumed per day, the number of people in the dwelling, etc. CNIL has worked on a ‘Compliance Pack’ and advocated that EDF obtains the consent of the user for the transfer of its data. However, there is absolutely no mention of this consent in the letters sent by ERDF announcing the replacement of the meters.”
“Furthermore, this transfer of data constitutes a substantial modification of the original contract for the supply of electricity, but this change is not mentioned in any way.”
“It is therefore at least surprising that ERDF proceeds with such brutality to the change of meters in users, despite their opposition, and that the managers only talk about the savings and the ease of use.”
“The LDH asked the CNIL to verify EDF’s compliance with the compliance package. Finally, it regrets that, rather than resorting to authority arguments, the necessary scientific assessments have not been carried out in order to respond to the fears that have been expressed.”
“While awaiting these assessments and the CNIL has fulfilled its mission, the LDH calls for a moratorium on the current deployment.”
Conclusion
Reject smart meters and keep our current meters!
Citizens must refuse communicating meters to preserve their health, their freedoms, public finances and the environment.
Individual refusal is possible, the penalty (1500 euros) envisaged not having been voted on by the parliamentarians.
But when the utility meters are accessible from the street or in the technical premises of collective dwellings, the Operators do not hesitate to install the communicating meters despite the opposition of the inhabitants.
The most effective solution is therefore for municipalities to refuse the smart meters. It is the municipalities that own the electricity meters (and Not Enedis), so they have the freedom to refuse the Linky implementation.
Hundreds of municipalities have already refused smart meters, countless people refusing to see their health and privacy implicated. This case seems to summarize all of our society:
European, national and industrial “elites” have decided arbitrarily to replace our meters and subject us to their industrial and financial interests. The expression of the dignity of the citizens requires the refusal of communicating meters.
Stéphane Lhomme
Councilor of Saint-Macaire (Gironde)
Commune having taken a position against the communicating meters
[http://saintmacaire.fr/z/site.php?act=2_7]
Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
The only thing green about smart meters is the money going into the corporate pockets.