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Indybay Feature

City Council Discovers 'Smart' Meters are Not UL Certified

by Joshua Hart
Capitola- During a meeting last week in which they joined six other local governments* who have passed laws criminalizing the installation of wireless ‘smart’ meters, the Capitola City Council discovered that the wireless ‘smart’ meters that CA utilities are trying to install are in fact not certified by Underwriters Laboratory, a certification that is required under the state electrical code for all electrical appliances and equipment within the home.
640_ul.jpg
The lack of certification was confirmed by Karl Moeller, a senior engineer with UL earlier today:

Product certifications can be verified by going to http://www.UL.com then scroll down to the bottom and click on "on-line certifications directory". You can search for active certifications at the On-line Certifications Directory. In this case I did a keyword search for:
- Landis* There were a few matches, but nothing looks like a direct match.
- Silver spring* No matches came back.

In summary, I am unable to confirm these devices as being UL certified.

Best Regards,

Karl E. Moeller
Senior Customer Service Engineer II
-------------------------------------------------------------------
HVAC, Appliances, and Lighting
Underwriters Laboratories Inc.
1285 Walt Whitman Road
Melville, NY 11747

The revelation came after Councilmember Termini, who is an electrician by trade, asked PG&E about the certification. After PG&E staff went to their car to fetch a ‘smart’ meter, the council and PG&E spent several minutes unsuccessfully trying to locate the UL symbol on the meter. This convinced Councilmember Termini that an immediate ordinance was required to protect public safety.

A number of fires that started in the new wireless meters have been reported, and last month a whistleblower from Wellington Energy- PG&E’s installation contractor- alleged serious breaches in safety procedures by installers, who are temp workers- not trained professionals as required by the Federal Communications Commission. Reports of fires, shorts, and electrocutions are also being reported in other countries where ‘smart’ meters are being installed, such as Australia. (see http://bit.ly/fWUqA7)

“Gov. Brown must immediately act to remove President of the CPUC Michael Peevey, a former executive with Southern California Edison, who has been a symbol of the agency’s coziness with utility companies, a coziness that contributed to the San Bruno disaster as well as the current ‘smart’ meter debacle. The CPUC simply isn’t doing its job and it needs a change of leadership.” said Joshua Hart, Director of Stop Smart Meters!

A Protest is planned tomorrow- Wednesday Feb. 16th Noon-1:30pm at the CA Public Utilities Commission, corner of McAllister and Van Ness in San Francisco. Representatives from grassroots organizations fighting the smart meter onslaught will be available for interview. Visuals include protesters with signs.

*Counties of Santa Cruz, Marin, Mendocino, and Cities of Watsonville, Fairfax, and Rio Dell have criminalized smart meter installations. A total of 26 local governments in California have demanded an immediate moratorium. More information: http://stopsmartmeters.org
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Comments (Hide Comments)
by Art Baker
My SmartMeter is manufactured by the General Electric Company and is no doubt UL tested and listed. It really gets my goat that you guys piss and moan about the SmartMeters and what you perceive as their dangers. You're the same clowns sitting there with your cel phones at your ear. You get more radiation from your cel phone than you do from a SmartMeter that is outside the house. And you guys love to use those buzzwords "microwave radiation". They transmit in a section of the radio spectrum although high in frequency, not at microwave frequencies or at the power levels that point to point microwave transmitters use. Please get your facts straight about what you're yelling about.

These are digital instruments and are much more accurate than a human meter reader. They don't know how to lie. If one bothers to read about them, you'll find that they are very helpful in letting you monitor your electricity usage. These are all preset so you don't need a physics degree to install them. And they are not transmitting 24/7.
by Indrid Cold
I do not own a cell phone, and I do not want a Smart Meter. Your just throwing a Red Herring into the discussion.
by Sacerdotti
Is turn PG& E into a public utility along with getting rid of smart meters.
by reader
PG&E infiltrators are typically the first to post on any article about Smartmeters. You can tell by the absurd claims they make. Eric Wesoff exposed one of them on a story he wrote, just by pointing out who it was who was talking early on.
by repost
"UL can help businesses in a range of ways, including standards development, compliance expertise, and third-party testing and certification. We are deeply involved with the creation of new standards for smart meter technology, so when you partner with UL, you can put industry-leading thought to work on making products more safe and reliable."
by Willis
"PG&E infiltrators are typically the first to post on any article about Smartmeters. You can tell by the absurd claims they make. Eric Wesoff exposed one of them on a story he wrote, just by pointing out who it was who was talking early on."

Really now? When an educated person speaks the truth, you think there is some conspiracy by PG&E to "infiltrate" your group. I study physics in school and there is really no way that the radio transmitters in smart meters (or cell phones for that matter) can harm you. There is just not enough power and energy to ionize or burn. Apparently ignorance isn't bliss in this case.
I am against smart meters. I have no idea if they cause health issues. What I do know is that we as human beings have had little time to adapt to the barrage of EMF that increases daily. We have had are entire existence to get used to natural emf.
And I have to ask, whats the benefit were getting?
There are other issues at play people should also be concerned about -- The safety of our power grid for one. Even our own federal government has had issue with adding a wireless portal into the grid. Then there are privacy issues. PGE will be able to monitor every device in your house and even turn one off with the flick of a switch. If you think they are doing this for our benefit, think again. In these times of cutting off funding for everything, why do we need this now and why does it have to be forced upon us?

The study below makes sense too me although the impact on people is still unknown. New technology that allows people to control a robotic arm with their mind uses EMF, so it would make sense emf has has an affect of some kind on the brain.

A new study http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/only_on_fox10/daily_dot_com/study-looks-into-cell-phone-radiation

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