Friday, March 29, 2024

Dear Council member

Posted

My name is Judie Gembala.  We have been Chelan county residents since 2002 and reside in Manson.  My husband and I are in the Smart Meter Awareness group, and wish to make you aware of the effects and dangers of radiation from the smart meters P.UD. wants to install on every building receiving power in the valley.  Our intention is to inform you that our resistance and concern are for every one in the valley, ourselves, you and your grandchildren.  We express our concern in the most altruistic manner for the collective safety of the people living in this valley.
The dangers of radiation are real and the detrimental effects of radiation are becoming more apparent as people educate themselves about how much radiation we receive and how our world is becoming an increasingly irradiated one.  We receive it from sunlight, dental x rays and microwaves, and our cell phones.  These rays are not innocuous and do harm us, a host of medical issues are connected to EMF in our lives.  We use sun screen, limit dental and chest x rays and know that microwaves leak around their doors even with the best of door seals, and make efforts to protect ourselves.
The new 5G towers are also an alarming development being installed in the U.S. The towers will also be in closer proximity to our homes than normal cell towers.  Neurological problems of continual exposure to EMF delivered by these towers is alarming.  The 5G towers will work in conjunction with “smart meters”.  Neurological damage and cancers are a few of the many detrimental effects of any wireless radiation.  Reproductive issues and immune system problems and DNA damage are real effects of exposure to these frequencies.  Wireless radiation damages cells.  There are numerous studies that point to the dangers of radiation, it is a sign of awareness to be concerned about these new technologies.  We are irradiated when we walk through the scanners at the airport, we receive radiation when we fly in the plane.  Every exposure to radiation is dangerous. There is new information that “smart meter” radiation is being linked to Autism and Dementia. Having a cell phone to your head for merely a half an hour a day triples your chance of having a brain tumor. This is not harmless technology for all of it’s benefits and we need to educate ourselves about the dangers and to make our voices heard in opposition. We as consumers can limit our phone use.  We cannot escape wireless frequencies flowing through our homes, businesses and ourselves.  Numerous homes who have had these meters have also suffered disastrous fires from the meters.
At the last meeting of the council one of your members said that they would look into how this would impact our community and what PUD’s opinion would be.  With all due respect, now is not the time to defer to the opinion of the  P.U.D. administration. We the people have always been reassured that we are the P.U.D., that it is a publicly owned entity.  Is that fact represented by the lack of concern shown by power companies as they disregard the concerns of the owners of the utility?  This is a financial benefit to power companies. They feel reassured by outdated safety studies and are very reluctant to slow or stop installation based on the mere opinions, research and concerns of power customers. They listened to the opinions and information our group brought them, our concerns and request for an “Opt In” policy for the meters.  Ann Congdon, a P.U.D. board member for the county, took a stand against installing these meters.  She expressed the opinion that she could have just abstained from the vote for installing them on our homes and businesses and said that in good conscious she could not abstain.  That she would be shirking her responsibility to us, the power consumers in her district, and she would not vote to install them.  She was a member of P.U.D. who came to our meeting, watched the documentary “Take Back Your Power”, educated herself on health issues connected with these devices. Her stance was an example to me of courage in the face of industry pressure and the most courageous and ethical expression of true accountability to us, the consuming public that I have seen in my experience.
You are in the wonderful position of taking our research, opinions and educating yourselves to look intently at what these meters will mean to our health and well being.  P.U.D. expressed to our group that they would have no interest in the intrusive disclosure of how and when we would be consuming power, but that is not the point. By the power industry’s own admission, the data collected will be of far more value that the income of the power sold to the power consumers.  This in a time when we continually give up privacy for a perceived benefit in more and more aspects of our lives.
Please make your decision with great concern and care.  These meters should not be imposed upon us if any number of the populous are concerned that they are dangerous.  The best outcome would be if the Council declined all of these meters in the valley.  You have the position, the right and the responsibility given to you by us, to respond to and make the best decision about the installation to these meters.  An “Opt In” position is at least showing concern for our citizens, but does nothing to protect the people who have no awareness of the dangers of “smart meters” and are totally vulnerable to the hazards of having them on their homes.  I believe your duty is to make the most conservative decision in regards to these meters.  Those people who have them unwittingly installed on their homes may perhaps feel very betrayed down the road when the true costs of this system are known.  There is also the fact that even if we don’t have a smart meter on our own home, we still receive radiation from houses that do. The increased household expense of buying the “smart appliances” that will be required so that they can transmit, by internal transmitters, the information of your power consumption to P.U.D. are a cost no one is mentioning.  Our toaster, manufactured in the fifties, will not and cannot communicate with the “smart meter” and as such will be seen to be obsolete in the power companies intention to capture all your power consumption information.
Please take this opportunity to reflect upon the courage of a P.U.D. board member who would not defer to the opinions of her fellow board members and the power industry and acted on her informed research and her personal ethics to vote against this technology.  You are now in the position of showing that same courage.  You will not be punished by the industry for your accountability and your constituents will applaud a decision made to simply say “no thanks” to “smart meters” in any form for the valley residents.  Isn’t it wonderful when life gives an opportunity to act with integrity as we make very critical decisions, because we can?

Kindest  regards,
Judie Gembala
Manson

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