Is Your Smart Meter Making You Sick? What Sensitive People Need to Know

I first wrote this article in October of 2018. Updated to include more about sensitive people, much of the information remains the same and is even more relevant today as smart meters are potentially using stronger signals and being installed by multiple types of utility companies. (You may have more than one!)

In this article:

• What smart meters actually do and why their intermittent pulsed signals are especially disruptive to sensitive nervous systems.
• Sharon's firsthand account of developing joint pain, hot flashes, and hormonal disruption after a new smart meter was installed, and how they resolved.
• A comprehensive list of symptoms linked to smart meter exposure - from sleep disturbances and cognitive issues to autoimmune reactions and heart palpitations.
• Why sensitive people experience smart meter effects more acutely, and why the impact often compounds with other EMF exposures.
• Why smart meters also create dirty electricity in your home wiring... and what to do about both issues.
• Practical steps to take if you suspect a smart meter may be affecting your health.

Sensitive people are often the first in their neighborhood to notice when a smart meter has been installed nearby. Their nervous systems and immune systems register the pulsed radiation that most people don't consciously feel, showing up as symptoms that are easy to dismiss until you understand the connection.

We are continuing to learn just how dangerous smart meters can be. They are affecting everything from sleep and anxiety to autoimmune issues and other unexplainable symptoms.

Previously, I wrote about the health issues a smart meter caused in my family after our electrical meter was changed out to a smart meter about two years ago. We have had a few other direct exposures since then, including a second smart meter installed on our house two months ago.

I will share my continued story below as well as other common health problems that can be a direct result of smart meter exposure. Could a smart meter be causing some of your health problems? Read on and find out.

First a Quick Summary of Smart Meters

If you are not familiar with “smart meters,”  they are replacing the older analog electric meters on homes and businesses so that the utility company can monitor your electrical usage long distance using wireless technology. They have been in use in some locations for many years and continue to be installed in many cities and communities in the US and around the world.  (Gas and water utility companies are starting to use them too.)

The utility companies, and even the engineers that created them, will tell you they are not bad for you. Yet many, including myself, know first hand that these smart meters are affecting our health. So much so that some communities have put a ban on the installation of smart meters. (Source)

A smart meter is powerful and can transmit its information long distances, sometimes as far as 30 miles, using radio-frequency (RF) and electromagnetic radiation (EMF) similar to cell phones and other Wi-Fi systems. Yet the radiation emitted from smart meters is especially disrupting because, unlike typical Wi-Fi systems, smart meters use staggered pulses that are spiky rather than continuous and smooth. This is very disruptive to our physical bodies.

The same smart meter also transmits additional signals from one smart meter to the next and to intermittent “stations” installed in your neighborhood. In effect, they are talking to each other on a regular basis. Your neighborhood’s intermittent station could be located on a utility pole near your house or it could be an enhanced smart meter on one of the houses. (Source)

It means that you have another wireless system that is transmitting radiation in and around your house, something you don’t need if you want to stay healthy, and one that you can’t control unless you know what to do. (Use the picture here to determine if you have a smart meter.)

Months Later Another Exposure Occurs

Last year, after we finally learned the best way to protect ourselves from the radiation created by the smart meter installed on our house (as I describe here), I decided to rearrange some rooms in the house. I wanted the room I used the most during the day to be further away from the smart meter.

However, after a few weeks, I started to feel some old “smart meter” symptoms come back. After some investigation, I realized that the new room was in direct alignment with the smart meter on my neighbor’s house. In fact, I could look out the window and see the side of the smart meter when the neighbor’s wooden gate was open.

I knew I had to do something, so I called the owner of the house (it is a rental) and told her my story.

I purchased another meter guard like the ones you see pictured above and installed it on my neighbor’s smart meter. It was worth the cost for my piece of mind and my family’s health. (Luckily we do not have a neighbor on the other side!)

More Recently the Smart Meter Story Continues

Two months ago, the second meter on our house was changed out to a smart meter. (The building used to be a duplex, so it has two meters. I explain in my previous article why we did not opt out.) Unlike last time, at least I knew immediately that the meter was changed, because I heard a knock on the door before the meter was replaced just two minutes later.

But, I was not prepared and had to wait before I could obtain a smart meter guard through the mail. That means that I had to live with the unprotected smart meter for a few days. It was an unwelcomed but interesting experiment, because I got to monitor my body’s reaction to the pulsing radiation that was emitted from the new smart meter during those three days. (I knew it was there because I own a device that can read these signals.)

What occurred was quite surprising!

I expected my sleep to be affected right away since last time I was exposed to the smart meter, I awoke every morning at 5 AM without fail. This did not happen during the few days of new exposure. What happened instead was that all my joints started hurting. I felt like I had arthritis in my hips and knees and like I had aged 10 years. It was hard to get in and out of chairs and difficult to walk up and down steps.

These aches and pains slowly went away the few weeks after the smart meter protection was installed on the second meter (as shown in the picture above).

What was even more shocking, however, was that I started getting hot flashes for the first time. I am in my early 50s, still have my period, and never experienced a hot flash. At first, I did not put the two and two together. Looking back, though, I realized that the hot flashes started almost to the day of the smart meter installation! I was getting a hot flash 5 to 8 times a day and waking up at night with the same. I also missed a period for the first time since I was pregnant 12 years ago.

I had learned years ago that if you keep your liver detoxified, you should not have hot flashes (or morning sickness). So, I assumed that the exposure to the new smart meter must have stirred up something inside of me that was already there.

Within a week of adding the protection to our new smart meter, I started a liver cleanse. I am happy to report that the hot flashes, within a month, were very mild and down to only one or two a day. They were gone a few weeks later. My period resumed my next cycle.

Typical Health Issues Resulting From Smart Meters

Is there a health problem you are having and can’t figure out? It may be a smart meter exposure in your house, school, or place of work. It may have become your “health trigger.”

Common health issues related to smart meters include:

• Sensory Issues – tinnitus, vertigo, hearing loss, vision problems, cataracts, sensitivity to light, impaired sense of smell, sensitivity to touch
• Cognitive Issues – brain fog, memory loss, difficulty concentrating
• Physiological Issues – sleep disturbances, fatigue, headaches, migraines, chronic pain, sore joints and/or muscles, digestive issues, nose bleeds, nausea, difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, increased heart rate, high blood pressure, skin rashes/redness, dehydration, sore throats, clenching teeth at night
• Emotional and/or Nervous System Issues – anxiety, depression, malaise, anger, mood swings

Symptoms will be different for each person. Sleep disturbances are one of the most common and can compound the issue, since your body is not able to fully rest and repair during deep sleep as it should. There may also be multiple symptoms occurring simultaneously that may present as another, larger health issue altogether.

The amount of metals in your body can also make a difference. Things like amalgam fillings, braces, and metal pins and plates can act as an antenna and enhance these signals and your health issues.

My personal theory is that the effects of the smart meter accentuate physical weaknesses already present in your body. For sensitive people, this is especially true. A sensitive immune system that is already managing toxic load, food sensitivities, emotional stress, and the unseen energies absorbed from the surrounding environment has less reserve to handle an additional continuous source of pulsed radiation. Smart meter exposure often acts as the final stressor that tips an already-burdened sensitive system into visible symptoms.

Common Reactions to Smart Meters Once Protected

Symptoms from smart meter exposure do not always show up right away, since electromagnetic radiation (EMR) actually accumulates in the body over time. Continued exposure also tends to deplete certain nutrients from the body over time, which can create additional issues.

Your symptoms my occur more quickly if you have already been exposed to other EMR sources on a regular basis – sources such as extended use of your cell phone and other Wi-Fi systems in your house, school or place of work and even your car. Any wireless device that transmits information such as smart watches, baby monitors, automatic blinds, Bluetooth, etc. will create additional radiation.

The pattern of my sore joints and hot flashes and how they were reduced after the smart meter was protected is not unlike what my clients and others have been reporting. When you remove the smart meter, or use protective measures, people tend to feel better.

Some similarities of health improvements include:

• Certain symptoms can disappear right away once protection is added to the smart meter. This is often the case with headaches and sleep disturbances, like waking up the same time every night.
• Other symptoms may resolve on their own after several weeks, things like aches and pains, mood swings, etc.
• More persistent symptoms can be part of a larger issue and need additional support and take more time to resolve. This is what happened to me when the first smart meter reactivated old Lyme Dis-Ease symptoms. It can also include autoimmune-type symptoms, unresolved anxiety, etc. This is when you should work with a health practitioner for additional help.

For sensitive children, smart meter symptoms may show up as behavioral changes, sleep disruption, emotional volatility, or physical complaints — often starting subtly and building over time. Parents of sensitive children who notice unexplained changes after a smart meter installation in the neighborhood should take the connection seriously.

What you (or your child) experience will depend on your own personal health history. (In our house, we have eliminated all wireless systems, so we knew our reactions were due to the smart meter alone. Find out how you can better protect yourself from all types of EMFs in another of my articles.)

If you have unusual health issues and you find a smart meter on your house, it may be worth calling the utility company to determine when it was installed and to see if it corresponds to the time when your health issues began.

Additional Problems with Smart Meters

Installing protection around the smart meter unit (as described here) is a great solution, but it only resolves part of the smart meter problem: the radiation. The other problem, and one that is not often discussed, is what the meter does to the electrical system in your house. The pulsing signals of the smart meter creates what is called “dirty electricity.”

Dirty electricity is a “spiky, pulsed, highly variable electrical current that rides through building wiring and permeates the building’s rooms.” (Source) The old analog electrical meters did not cause this, but smart meters do. The sporadic pulses created in your home’s electrical wiring are electromagnetic in nature. You can be affected by these magnetic fields as much as the radiation coming directly from the smart meter itself.

(Note that some utility companies offer special “opt-out meters,” known as DTEs. These may reduce your radiation exposure but not fix the dirty electricity issue. The best option is to keep your original analog meter when you can.)

Dirty electricity caused by the smart meter can cause many of the same health issues as those shown above. Again, each person will be different.

Currently, the best and least expensive partial solution is to turn off the electrical breakers in your home’s electrical panel. Find the breakers that affect your bedrooms and turn them off at night before you go to sleep. (Make sure your refrigerator is not on the same circuit.) That way you're not exposed to the effects of dirty electricity during the seven to nine hours you sleep.

Newer devices to make this easier are also starting to come on the market. As I learn more I will continue to keep you posted.

Continue to Educate Yourself

Unfortunately, as 5G and other networks become more prevalent, the current smart meters will eventually be upgraded to something that may be more detrimental to our health. Now is the time to check your house and put protective measures in place. Protecting yourself from Wi-Fi radiation is a huge step in healing your body and staying healthy.

However, there are multiple sources of “electrosmog” in your home. Please use the articles on this website to educate yourself about EMFs and wireless radiation (EMRs) so that you can protect yourself, your family and friends, and your pets. 

Another great resource that I recently discovered is the Smart Meter Education Network. This website is not only extremely educational, but it also helps you set up community “smart meter talks” so that you can help educate others.

You can also watch the documentary Take Back Your Power for free on YouTube to learn the facts about smart meters, the sorted history behind them, and the fact that very little is known about the long-term effects of exposure – both to our health and our environment.

We all need to continue to educate ourselves, especially as technology gets stronger and more global systems are put into place. Unfortunately, the dangers to our health are real.

If you are a sensitive person experiencing symptoms you cannot otherwise explain, a new or nearby smart meter installation is worth investigating as a potential health trigger. You can learn more about practical smart meter protection in the companion article Smart Meters Are Not Smart. And for step-by-step guidance on reducing your home's overall EMF exposure, explore my EMF Protocols™ mini-courses. 

Related articles:

See more articles on EMFs, wireless safety, and other types of electrosmog for sensitive people and families.

• EMF Basics for Sensitive People: What They Are and What You Can Do
• Dirty Electricity & Sensitive People: What It Is and How to Reduce It  
• Smart Meters are NOT Smart: How Sensitive People Can Protect Themselves
• EMF Detox and Grounding for Sensitive People: How to Clear What Your Body Absorbs
• Toxic Homes & Building Materials: What Sensitive People Need to Know
• Also see course: EMF Protocols™