Smart Meters: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Electricity - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 112

which may heighten sensitivity to any potentially negative aspects and fuel resistance to
the technological change.
Public opposition to smart meters has been justified by multiple concerns which vary
by jurisdiction. In some communities, the most prominent concern is health impacts from
electromagnetic radiation, while in others the most critical concern relates to higher costs
or incorrect billing or the loss of privacy given the vast amounts of household-specific
electricity data being collected. Skepticism about effective management and the
appropriate use and sharing of the vast quantities of data collected by smart meters has
grown in response to increasing societal concern about surveillance of communications.
Recent research found that Europeans are more concerned with privacy risks, while North
Americans (in both the United States and Canada) are more concerned with health risks
(Hess 2013 ). Safety concerns regarding smart meters have also emerged and are related
to several electrical fires that were started following faulty smart meter installation; the
apparent cause of fires reported in Pennsylvania, California, and British Columbia was
either defective meters or faulty installation (Clarke 2012 ). Additionally, concerns about
excessive costs and inaccurate billing highlight the possibility that instead of achieving the
promiseofsavingconsumersmoney,themeterscouldraisecostsandprovideonlyminimal
benefits to consumers.
5.4.1 Health Concerns
Health concerns of smart meters are related primarily to the uncertain and not
well-characterized risk of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) radiation in the radio
frequency (RF) band from the wireless technology used in many smart meters (Hess
and Coley 2012 ) . This type of radiation, often referred to as RF EMF, is non-ionizing,
meaning that unlike higher-energy, higher-frequency radiation such as X-rays or uranium
decay, RF EMF does not have enough energy to directly damage DNA inside living cells.
While ionizing radiation is known to cause cellular disruption, the impacts of non-ionizing
radiation are less certain; it is known that non-ionizing radiation does have a thermal
effect in that at certain levels of exposure the radiation heats up living tissue, but whether
this translates into damage remains uncertain (Rivaldo 2012 ) . The frequency and power
of the RF waves of smart meters is similar to that of cell phones and Wi-Fi routers.
Compared to cell phones, RF exposure from smart meters is less because smart meters
communicate short, pulsed messages throughout the day and smart meters are generally
installed outside the home, so the source of the RF waves is farther away from people
than a cell phone, which is held close to the head (American Cancer Society 2012 ). The
strength of RF diminishes with distance from its source (WHO 2006 ) , so many experts do
not view exposure to RF from smart meters as a significant risk. Exposure standards and