No health review for PG&E SmartMeters

At the urging of Pacific Gas & Electric, the California Public Utilities Commission voted 4 to 1 on Thursday to dismiss a request to examine the possible health impacts of the company's SmartMeters.

The EMF Safety Network, a consumer advocacy group, had asked the CPUC for an independent study of radio frequency emissions from SmartMeters and evidentiary hearings on their health impacts. It argued that the CPUC had not adequately addressed health concerns about the technology before its widespread deployment by PG&E.

Yet, a CPUC administrative law judge had argued that the EMF Safety Network's petition should be dismissed, arguing that the emissions from SmartMeters were much smaller than those from many other commonly used devices and fell within the guidelines of the Federal Communications Commission, which licenses the devices.

"The radio frequency (RF) emissions from Smart Meters (sic) that the EMF Safety Network wishes the Commission to investigate are one/six thousandth of the Federal health standard at a distance of 10 feet from the Smart Meter and far below the RF emissions of many commonly used devices," wrote Administrative Law Judge Timothy Sullivan in his decision, which was adopted by the CPUC on Thursday.

The commission effectively deferred to the FCC: "Since the Commission generally does not delve into technical matters which fall within the expertise of another agency, in this case we defer to the FCC, which possesses extensive expertise on staff for evaluating and licensing or certifying Smart Meters (sic) that operate via the use of wireless technology," Sullivan wrote.

Sandi Maurer, the founder of the EMF Safety Network, objected to the CPUC's decision, arguing that it had relied too heavily on the arguments made by PG&E. "The commission did not have adequate information about the SmartMeter system, about the health impacts of microwave radiations or about how SmartMeter technology operates," she said in an interview. "They relied on PG&E's unsubstantiated, unreliable, inconsistent and grossly underestimated data."

The decision adopted by the commission did use data from and echo arguments made by PG&E. For instance, it stated that exposure to radio-frequency emissions from SmartMeters "is considerably less than the exposure from many radio devices in common use such as cellular telephones, laptop computers and microwave ovens," as the company contended in one filling. PG&E had also argued that the FCC's standards pre-empted state or local regulation.

Some 22 cities and three counties in California have launched formal objections to the mandatory deployment of SmartMeters. Some of those, including the cities of Sebastopol, Berkeley and San Rafael, have raised concerns about their possible health impacts. Some residents there have complained about insomnia, headaches and ringing in the ears, which they link to the technology.

Assembly member Jared Huffman has asked the California Council of Science & Technology to evaluate whether the federal safety standards are adequate. A draft of that report is due in a few weeks.

EMF Safety Network's Maurer said that her group would not be daunted by the CPUC's decision on Thursday. "We will be retaining a lawyer, and we will either ask for a rehearing or we'll be discussing what our options are," she said. "We will not stop."