{"id":14305,"date":"2018-10-03T02:40:25","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T09:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=14305"},"modified":"2018-10-03T02:40:25","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T09:40:25","slug":"some-duke-energy-customers-claim-smart-meters-are-making-them-sick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=14305","title":{"rendered":"Some Duke Energy customers claim smart meters are making them sick."},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Here&#8217;s how you can opt out.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"originBylineContainer\">\n<div class=\"byline wtvd\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Tonya Simpson, Diane Wilson<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"meta\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><time class=\"timeago\" title=\"Monday, October 01, 2018 06:30PM\" datetime=\"2018-10-01T22:30:47Z\">Monday, October 01, 2018 06:30PM<\/time><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"body-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">New options are now available for some Duke Energy customers who want to &#8220;opt out&#8221; of a controversial new technology.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Starting Oct. 1, Duke Energy Carolina customers will have the option of saying &#8216;no&#8217; to having new smart meters installed on their homes. The North Carolina Utilities Commission approved <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.duke-energy.com\/our-company\/about-us\/smart-grid\/smart-meter\/smart-meter-opt-out\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Duke Energy&#8217;s new plan<\/a> after a more than two-year debate on the technology.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Under the opt-out plan, Duke Energy Carolinas customers who want a non-communicating digital meter can get one, for a price.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Those customers will have to pay a one-time fee of $150 and an additional $11.75 per month. Duke Energy says those cost will cover the manual reading of the meters and the processing of the usage data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Anyone who has a medical reason for opting out will not be charged any fees, but they will have to provide a notarized letter from their doctor that says they should avoid being near smart meters. Many customers in the Triangle area are covered by Duke Energy Progress and the company says they are still working on an opt-out policy for those areas. They encourage anyone who has questions or issues to give them a call.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Duke Energy started switching out analog and older digital meters in North Carolina for the new so-called smart meters earlier this year. The company says about two million meters have been switched so far.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The switch is part of a statewide grid improvement initiative that Duke Energy says will make the utility more reliable and give customers more control over their energy usage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;Before you would get your usage information along with your bill so it was too late to really do anything about it, now with a smart meter you can see your daily and hourly usage information online,&#8221; said Duke Energy spokesperson Jeff Brooks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Despite the possible benefits, some Duke Energy customers say they don&#8217;t want to make the change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;This is being shoved down our throats and anybody in their right mind would not want a smart meter after reading about how bad they are,&#8221; said Rachael Robertson of Burlington. &#8220;There&#8217;s a long list of side effects from a smart meter.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Robertson says she likes to stay active and is in good health, but that changed a few months ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;I&#8217;m having an issue with sleep deprivation, ringing in the ears, and I&#8217;ve been having some headaches. They&#8217;ve been going on for several months now,&#8221; she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When says she went to her doctor, who couldn&#8217;t find anything wrong, now she believes her symptoms are being caused by her smart meter. Robertson says she started feeling sick right around the time Duke Energy switched her meter.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Duke Energy says it is aware of the concerns about health impacts, but the company insists the meters are safe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;We have not seen any indication that the smart meters have an adverse impact on human health. Lots of studies have been done on these technologies,&#8221; Brooks said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A number of studies and opinions about smart meter technology have been written, but not all of them agree.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">One letter sent to the state utilities commission from a group of scientists and health professionals reads &#8220;The adverse health impacts are real, significant, and for some people debilitating.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Local radiologist Dr. Larry Burk agrees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Burk began studying electromagnetic fields in the 1980s. He says there is almost no research on smart meters but they use frequencies similar to cell phones and can have a negative impact on people with conditions like electro-hypersensitivity, or EHS.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;Certainly if you&#8217;ve got EHS I would recommend opting out, if you&#8217;ve got a chronic disease I would consider it, if you&#8217;re normal, normal meaning healthy, it&#8217;s up to you,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/abc11.com\/health\/some-duke-energy-customers-claim-smart-meters-are-making-them-sick\/4383939\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s how you can opt out. Tonya Simpson, Diane Wilson Monday, October 01, 2018 06:30PM New options are now available for some Duke Energy customers who want to &#8220;opt out&#8221; of a controversial new technology. Starting Oct. 1, Duke Energy Carolina customers will have the option of saying &#8216;no&#8217; to having new smart meters installed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,108,468,142,18,495,289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health_and_safety","category-itron","category-north-carolina-usa-2","category-opt-out-options","category-smart-meter","category-south-carolina","category-usa-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14306,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14305\/revisions\/14306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}