I think everyone should also remember the inverse square law of radiation. When you double the distance away from a source (in the far field) the power level becomes 1/4th.
So, stadiums of phones really don’t add up equally because most are too far away to even add up to anyone’s exposure.
Similarly, Smart meters were tested by an acknowledged expert in the field, Ric Tell, and he tested them in a field with gangs of them transmitting. Google “EPRI ltron Smart Meters” if you’d like to learn more.
I won’t go as far as to say there can be no hazard without a thermal effect, but that really is where the level of research, to date, is at. Think of the lives Cell phones have saved, as opposed to potential risks, if any.
My personal feeling is that everyone has many more important things to worry about, but hey, that’s just me.
How about before they go and install 30 SmartMeters just outside Reply’s bedroom? It’s not unreasonable to ask the question, and all this talk about ionizing radiation is just avoiding giving an answer. PG&E has mostly answered, based on the links I gave.
Cripes, look at the absorption spectrum of something as simple as water. Why would anyone think the behavior to the left of the yellow bar has any thing to do with the behavior to the far right? The mechanisms of absorption are completely different.
Or look at the dielectric constant of water. The far left is 3 THz, and 900 MHz is a little bit in from the right. Just over that range, water has a completely different behavior. Ionizing radiation is close to three orders of magnitude to the left of that chart.
Yes, exactly, it’s irrelevant. That’s what everyone else is saying. With ionization being irrelevant, the only remaining mechanism for harm is heating, and the power’s far too low for that.
Just wanted to jump back in and say that I’ve been following this thread with a mixture of excitement and bafflement. Thank you all for a fascinating discussion; this is probably the best summary of the issues I’ve been able to find.
If I’m understanding this right, RF radiation is non-ionizing and decreases greatly in power over distance, and seems unlikely to be able to hurt living things unless it’s outright burning them (what most of you are saying).
HOWEVER… there may be mechanisms not fully understood through which even non-ionizing radiation can affect biology (what ZenBeam is saying).
Sure, also add to that there is no reason to believe those “not fully understood” mechanisms have any chance of occurring at the magnitude of radiation you might encounter.
Your articles are talking about magnetic fields, not the effects of radiation. No amount of wifi and cellphone exposure produces a magnetic field remotely as strong as pointing a hairdryer at your face.
Albeit there being no sound scientific basis for the magnetic fields we encounter in regular life causing us any harm, one thing you can be sure of is that if they DID, foil wallpaper offers no protection against them.
And then a 2011 WHO report finds cell phone use to be “possibly” linked to a type of brain cancer, but stated that the evidence was “limited” and “inadequate” and again calls for more research. If that study’s any indication and power levels are a factor, I wouldn’t necessarily worry too much about a single phone or Smart Meter, but if the numbers in this thread are accurate, I might start to be concerned about spending 8 hours a day asleep 5 feet away from a bank of – I just counted – 35 of them. shrug I’m not usually the paranoid type, but I at least want my risks to be informed, calculated ones.
So is it still fair to say “the science is still out”, or am I missing something that more conclusively demonstrates the risk is nonexistent? I’m not equipped to research this on my own, lacking even a basic understanding of electromagneticism OR biology, much less interactions between the two
I just spoke to PG&E on the phone about this specific scenario, and they said:
The electric meters transmit about once an hour each for a total of about 45 seconds per meter per day
The gas meters transmit once a day
It’s “very unlikely” for them to transmit all at once, even if they’re all transmitting on the hour, but the representative couldn’t say whether that was by design or by coincidence
So probably still nothing to worry about in this particular case, not because RF is necessarily harmless, but because even 35 of them aren’t transmitting together for very long periods of time.
The first article references both electric and magnetic fields, and the second is still sufficient for its intended purpose, showing that ionization and heating are not the only mechanisms.
