BALTIMORE - Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. is about to
replace all residential gas and electric meters with smart
meters, saying the meters manage consumers' energy usage
better, and in time, save money.
Some customers are questioning whether the new technology
would be bad for your health.
Smart meters basically reads itself then sends the energy
usage reading wirelessly to BGE. The utility company has
touted the benefits to customers, eventually saving
customers money.
"You are going to be able to actually go onto your computer,
you are going to be able to see in near real time -- 24
hours, roughly -- your energy usage," BGE spokesman Rob
Gould said.
BGE: Smart Meters
But not everyone is looking forward to
smart meter technology, including Junghie Elky, who said
she suffers from something called electromaganetic
sensitivity, and believes radio frequencies make her sick.
"I'm a little bit nervous about that, a bit worried about
the health effects," Elky said. "At my worst, I was so
sensitive, I could not touch things with electricity without
feeling pain. I couldn't watch TV because the radiation from
the screen would make me dizzy."
Elky said she would experience headaches, fatigue and ear
aches that forced her to take a leave of absence from work.
Magda Havas , an associate professor of environmental and
resource studies at Trent University in Ontario, Canada,
has studied electromagnetic sensitivity for decades. She
said 3 to 5 percent of the population suffer severe
symptoms, and up to a third of the population have mild to
moderate symptoms.
"There are so many sources of radiation, so smart meters are
just one additional source," Havas said. "We have a lot of
it in our home. We live near cell phone antennas and they
all emit radio frequency. What seems to happen is once the
smart meters go in, people seem to be fine, and then a few
of them become quite ill."
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