Re: Regulator’s reading on smart meters (vicnews.com)
According to Tom Fletcher, the “expert” hired by Fortis claims that the “natural RF background level” is 10 times that of a bank of smart meters and more than twice that of other man-made sources. This is ludicrous, unscientific and false.
The natural radio frequency background level is the intensity of the radiation in the radio/microwave range in the absence of any additional man-made sources. By definition, this is the baseline level and therefore cannot possibly be higher than any other measured level in the presence of other RF sources.
The commission to which the expert himself refers to states, “Compared to man-made fields, natural fields are extremely small at RF frequencies.”
The data in the table are “averaged” values referring to a convenient mix of frequency ranges which are not relevant to the smart meters and therefore non comparable. It would be like comparing sunrays to AM radio waves – two extremely different types of electromagnetism with totally different properties and effects on the human body. Also, pulsed digital signals like the ones from smart meters are not comparable to continuous radio waves like the ones from natural sources.
This table would not withstand the scrutiny of any respectable scientific organization or peer-reviewed journal, yet the B.C. Utilities Commission accepted and approved this “expert” testimony during the hearings about Fortis’s application for its advanced metering program.
The public is being badly misled in this debate. I would strongly advise Mr. Fletcher to double-check his information and to consider some independent research before labelling the opposition to the smart meter program a “circus of quackery.”
Nabhraj Spogliarich
Saanich
