Halt MA Smart Meters, a Massachusetts-based organization, says communities throughout the Boston area are uniting with groups in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont that oppose smart meter technology.
Smart grid programs are being installed nationwide by utility companies that want their equipment to have the capacity to communicate remotely between their stations and consumers' homes, thus saving distribution costs for the companies. However, Halt MA Smart Meters says the technology adds electromagnetic radiation to consumers' daily home life.
Operating within recently deployed "mesh networks" of wireless antennae and microcell towers, smart meters pulse radio frequency radiation into homes and the environment, on average, every two to nine seconds, the group says.
In addition, Halt MA Smart Meters argues utility companies are misleading consumers about the meters on their homes by claiming the equipment is being read by meter readers when it is, in fact, transmitting wirelessly.
Smart meters can also reveal when customers are home or away, what appliances they have purchased, and many other personal homeowner habits that may be turned over to third parties for marketing purposes, the group adds.
To read more about Halt MA Smart Meters' initiatives and concerns, visit the group's website at haltmasmartmeters.org.
