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A year-long study by the Arizona Department of Health Services concludes that smart meters pose no hazard to the health of Arizona residents.
The Arizona Corporation Commission requested the study because electric utilities had received complaints and questions about the safety of meters’ pulsed transmissions, a common concern in the industry.
Smart meters transmit usage information directly to the utility using radio waves, and these radio waves have caused concern.
The study involved sending workers from the Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency around the state to measure the radio waves transmitted by the meters at various locations, as well as reviewing studies and standards on smart meter radiation from other states and countries.
The study concludes that smart meters’ transmissions have such low power and are so intermittent and short that they fall well below even the most stringent safety levels for radio frequency radiation. In fact, the study says, such transmissions are weaker and much shorter in duration than the signals given off by cell phones.
The entire report is available at www.azcc.gov.
