Owasso man fighting to stop deployment of 'smart meters'

There's indisputable, measurable scientific evidence that the amount of background radiation we all live in has increased dramatically in recent years.

The question then becomes how to determine the potential health risks of that radiation, but that kind of research takes time and money.

Meanwhile, utility companies around the country are building massive networks of so-called "smart meters," which emit pulses of energy up to tens of thousands a time a day.

Owasso resident Joe Esposito, a former US Marine with expertise in electronics and a degree in physiology tells KRMG the Public Service Company of Oklahoma installed a smart meter on his home after he specifically requested them not to do so.

When he and his wife objected, they shut off his electric service completely.

Eventually, after paying the company more than $1,000, they installed a meter several yards from the home, but he continued suffering symptoms of what has become known in the medical field as electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

In July, 2014, Canadian physicians appealed to Health Canada to protect citizens against radiofrequency (RF) radiation exposure.

They wrote:

Many recent and emerging studies from university departments and scientific sources throughout the world support the assertion that energy from wireless devices may be causatively linked to various health problems including reproductive compromise, developmental impacts, hormonal dysregulation and cancer.

But PSO, OG&E, and a host of water, natural gas, and electric utilities around the country continue to install smart meters, which emit fairly strong bursts of RF radiation, without any actual investigation into the potential health effects.

Smart meters, of course, are not the only source of RF radiation.

Everything from cell phones to baby monitors also operate in those frequencies, but some experts warn that the smart meters are "the worst of the worst."

Esposito has created a website dedicated to bringing about a moratorium on the installation of smart meters in Oklahoma.

But so far, the utilities continue to install the devices, only recently even considering giving customers an "opt out" alternative.

That opt out, Esposito argues, doesn't relieve them of the obligation to at least study the potential health effects on the millions of customers who don't refuse the smart meters.

Meanwhile, objections regarding privacy and a potential fire risk associated with the devices are being voiced by other consumer advocates.