Dear Office of Gas and Electricity Markets,

For the attention of the Chief Executive and other Board Directors:

It has come to our attention that Smart Meters are extremely harmful to People, Animals and Plant Life.

The Factual evidence is overwhelming.

Kindly therefore confirm the following:

1. As consent is required, why do not these Smart Meter Providers not request this when one moves into the property, and if we refuse consent, simply remove these dangerous Smart Meters.

2. As Smart Meters violate many of our rights, such as those laid out by the European Convention on Human Rights under Article 1 of the First Protocol, Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture/degrading treatment), Article 5 (right to liberty and security), Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and Article 12 – (right to marry and to found a family), why has OfGem authorised their continued use?

3. We want to exercise our lawful right to forbid, refuse and deny consent for the installation and use of any monitoring, eavesdropping, and surveillance devices on our property, our place of residence and my place of occupancy. That applies to and includes Smart Meters and surveillance and activity monitoring devices of any and all kinds. So what are our options when these Smart Meter Providers refuse to replace these radiation emitting Smart Meters?

In order for OfGem to better understand our deep concerns, please note the following:

4. Smart Meters cause endangerment to People through many factors. including:

A. Wireless Smart Meters, when activated, emit intense, pulsed bursts of non-ionising, RF microwave radiation. More than 5,000 studies have shown that non-ionising microwave radiation/RF EMF is harmful to People, animals and plants.

B. On 31st May 2011, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) categorised RF EMFs as a possible CARCINOGEN (Class 2b) – the same as lead, DDT, chloroform & methylmercury.

C. On 6th May 2011, the Council of Europe issued a report titled “Potential dangers of EMFs and their effect on the environment” in which they called for an IMMEDIATE reduction in exposure to EMFs by children. The Council advocates a precautionary principle be applied to wireless emissions to prevent public health disaster akin to “tobacco, leaded petrol and asbestos”. Smart Meters will increase – not decrease – the EMF exposure to members of a household and their neighbours.

D. As demonstrated by Daniel Hirsch, Senior Nuclear Policy Lecturer at UCSC, Smart Meters can expose the body to 160x to 800x times as much microwave radiation as mobile phones. Smart Meters can emit intense pulses of radiation in excess of 190,000 times every day.

E. People, animal and cell culture studies indicate long-term systemic health effects from RF microwave radiation, including hormone disruption, DNA damage, leakage of blood-brain- barrier, sperm count reduction & damage, sleep disorders, learning difficulties, attention deficit & hyperactivity disorders, dementia and cancer including leukemia and brain glioma (tumours). There is concern that pregnant women and children are particularly vulnerable.

F. The ICNIRP safety standards which the UK Government and HPA continue to use, fail to recognise the non-thermal, biological effects of microwave radiation. These standards were voted obsolete by the European Parliament, 522 to 16 votes – yet still remain in use in the UK.

G. As highlighted by Dr. David Carpenter (Director of the Institute of Health and Environment – University of Albany – and former head of the New York Department of Public Health), there is evidence that exposure to RF radiation increases the risk of cancer, increases damage to the nervous system, causes electro-sensitivity, has adverse reproductive effects and a variety of other effects on different organ systems. He has stated on record that there is “no justification for the statement that Smart Meters have no adverse health effects”.

H. European surveys have shown at least 1 in 20 people are moderately or severely sensitive to RF EMF radiation, experiencing a broad range of debilitating symptoms. The number of sufferers is rising rapidly. This is problematic and in some cases life-changing for sufferers, and will place further pressure on the National Health Service as well as impacting business productivity.

I. In January 2011, the American Association of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has called for the complete removal of Smart Meters and a return to safe analogue due to scientific and medical studies repeatedly showing health risks from exposure to microwaves emitted from wireless devices.

J. In March 2012, Dr Andrew Goldsworthy’s research warned that Water Smart Meters, via their strong RF microwave emissions, can severely reduce water quality, leading to increased toxicity of poisons present in the body.

K. Smart Meters monitor household activity and occupancy in violation of our rights to privacy and domestic security.

L. Smart Meters identify individual electrical devices inside the home and record when they are operated causing invasion of privacy.

M. They transmit wireless signals which may be intercepted by unauthorised and unknown parties. Those signals can be used to monitor behavior and occupancy and they can be used by criminals to aid criminal activity against the occupants.

N. Data about People’s daily habits and activities are collected, recorded and stored in permanent databases which are accessed by parties not authorized or invited to know and share that private data by those whose activities were recorded.

O. Those with access to the Smart Meter databases can review a permanent history of household activities complete with calendar and time-of-day metrics to gain a highly invasive and detailed view of the lives of the People.

P. Those databases may be shared with, or fall into the hands of criminals, blackmailers, corrupt law enforcement, private hackers of wireless transmissions, power company employees, and other unidentified parties who may act against the interests of the People under metered surveillance.

Q. It may be possible with analysis of certain Smart Meter data for unauthorized and distant parties to determine medical conditions, sexual activities, and physical locations of Peoples within the home, vacancy patterns and personal information and habits of the People.

R. Energy/utility companies and Government agencies do not have the lawful right to monitor, manage and control our utility usage. Profiling and monitoring of our energy and utility usage is a gross invasion of privacy and will be susceptible to misuse in the wrong hands.

S. A one year study in Toronto, Canada, showed the energy/utility bills have gone up in 80% of cases, many by more than 50%.

T. The UK Government has said Smart Meters will cost more than £11billion for estimated savings of just £25 per home/year – and that saving will only possible if People have at least two Smart Meters and succeed in changing their own behaviour to create the savings. Not only will there be a need for this £11billion to be clawed back, in part, through our energy/utility bills, but many new Smart Meters only have a 10 year lifespan before requiring replacement – which is a shorter lifespan than current analogue meters. They will potentially require more regular servicing too.

U. Wireless transmissions of my personal energy usage, with information about the devices I use, when I use them and what I am doing with them at any given moment, will be available to your these Smart Meter organisation and any potential hackers.

V. Smart meters can be hacked, have been hacked and will continue to be hacked. By deploying millions of Smart Meters with the same software, firmware and hardware, they become a highly-concentrated, strategic target for any malicious hackers and will endanger the community if an attacker, for example, can switch the power on and off from remote en masse. This makes Smart Meters dangerous and a liability to the bill-payers who would have to ultimately pay for any damage through higher bills. The FBI has warned that Smart Meters hacking real and is “likely to spread”.

W. Ethical hackers in Germany have shown how easy it is to unlawfully access data from Smart Meters and to remotely control them. This is a risk to us, our families and our entire energy grid. Former CIA Director James Woolsey has called Smart Grid a “really, really stupid idea”.

X. In a wireless ‘Smart’ Grid, our entire home will become a node on the Internet. This means our homes and device usage will suddenly become available to hackers, who can use the data to analyse when certain people are at home, e.g. young children.

Y. In the US, this data has been sold by energy companies to 3rd parties, e.g. police, corporate marketing departments and insurance companies. Smart Meters represent pieces of invasive surveillance equipment within our homes. We may have nothing to hide but we believe that we have the right to defend our privacy and our right to decide how we use our utilities from the National Grid.

Z. Smart Meters will make it far easier to disconnect customers remotely – a particular concern in light of the hacking threats, especially to Smart Water Meters.

AA. In North America, Smart Meters have been shown to explode, cause fires, and can interfere with sensitive electrical devices such as heart pacemakers.

AB. Smart meters are not protected from EMP attacks, large EMP or localized EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulses).

AC. Disabling the receiver will not prevent other forms of “hacks”. For example, a malicious attacker could confuse the internal CPU, reset it, change random memory locations, change the KWH reading, force a power disconnect, or completely disable a Smart Meter with a simple coil of wire and a small battery. This cannot happen with a mechanical meter. It is well known that a wide EMP can take out car computers; Smart Meters will make that possible on the city wide electric infrastructure.

AD. A thief or burglar could use the same EMP or hacking methods to turn off the house power even if the electrical switch box is locked.

AE. Scientists have widely refuted claims that Smart Meters are ‘green’. There is a significant (and growing) body of work showing Smart Meters actually harm nature and our environment.

AF. Smart Meters, in tandem with In-Home-Display units, are likely to consume far more energy than the old analogue meters do.

AG. The Council of Europe’s May 2011 report on RF microwave radiation indicated that hundreds of studies have identified significant impacts of sustained RF microwave radiation on our natural environment, including: stress reactions and genetic problems in plants, trees, animals and insects, problems in migratory animals like birds and bees, birth defects in calves and fertility problems in herds.

AH. Tree deaths, plant die-offs and bee colony collapse disorder cases have also been reported shortly after Smart Meter installation/activation in the United States.

All rights reserved.

Yours faithfully,

George Tsigarides