EDITOR,

Protest, if you will, Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s plans to install SmartMeters because you believe they’re part of a corrupt, profit-mongering corporation. Protest because you think you’ll be cheated by improper billing. Or protest because you still want a human being to read your meter. But please, don’t object to smart meters based upon your vague fears of electromagnetic radiation and the effects it may have on your health.

Radiation-induced cancers are caused by ionizing radiation, which breaks chemical bonds and causes genetic mutations in living tissue. Each of us are bathed — and have been for decades — in electromagnetic radiation, including radio frequency, microwave and optical radiation, none of which are ionizing forms of electromagnetic radiation and therefore capable of causing cancer. Only ultraviolet and shorter-wavelength types of electromagnetic radiation (e.g., x-rays) are capable of causing cancer.

It is 105 years since Albert Einstein’s demonstration of this principle — the photoelectric effect — for which he won his Nobel Prize. He proved that it is the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation that matters, not the intensity.

Electromagnetic radiation emitted by cell phones or SmartMeters cannot cause cancer by any known physical means. A high enough intensity of non-ionizing radiation, however, might get you hot (via infrared and visible radiation in sunlight, for example) or heat your food (via the effects of microwaves on water molecules). But it won’t break chemical bonds and give you cancer. If you don’t understand this, ask someone who does.

If you still believe you’re at personal risk due to cell phones and SmartMeters, or that you’ve discovered a heretofore unidentified cancer-causing agent in your collection of personal electronics, try a tin hat. Aluminum foil works well — it’s just as effective as avoiding cell phone use. Just don’t cut your finger on the box.