Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? : Melbourne Indymedia

Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees

By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
The Independent
Published: 15 April 2007

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.

German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.

Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."

The case against handsets

Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But proof is still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils, such as cancer, take decades to show up.

Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an official Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side as they held the handset.

Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives.

Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more prosaically, doctors have identified the condition of "text thumb", a form of RSI from constant texting.

Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official inquiries, warned that children under eight should not use mobiles and made a series of safety recommendations, largely ignored by ministers.

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/trackback.php?id=20070416231818470

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
This is certainly a viable reason as to why a bee colony maybe suffering from
<ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder">Colony Collapse Disorder, but for some reason I suspect the root cause of this is from GM crops. Considering cell phones are the cause, let us look at

"In the US, by 2006 89% of the planted area of soybeans, 83% of cotton, and 61% maize was genetically modified varieties. Genetically modified soybeans carried herbicide tolerant traits only, but maize and cotton carried both herbicide tolerance and insect protection traits (the latter largely the Bacillus thuringiensus Bt insecticidal protein).

In the period 2002 to 2006, there were significant increases in the area planted to Bt protected cotton and maize, and herbicide tolerant maize also increased in sown area.[20] The Grocery Manufacturers of America estimate that 75% of all processed foods in the U.S. contain a GM ingredient."
Wikipedia source

Unfortunately, those percentages make up 99% of the world's GM foods, not explaining why CCD is happening in Europe as well. If a strong link becomes established between CCD and cell phones, I imagine wireless technology will just adapt if placed under government/public pressure.

The first trend will be to use wider bands and lower powers than currently used by <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct-sequence_spread_spectrum">DSSS;, where transmitted data will 'hop' between the frequencies in that frequency band. Then it will probably evolve into the use of
'ultra-wide bands' where data is transmitted at a pseudo-random hopping of frequencies. But it won't necessarily stop the CCD problem. It all depends how bees respond to individual frequencies, and then if it's not bees it maybe another or multiple animals/insects.

Why is it so hard to study these effects? Can't researchers take some colonies and put it in a greenhouse to examine the behavior in a controlled environment? The only reason I can think of is due to making a faulty assumption - no one wants to take the risk of doing these experiments and find no causal link. If this is truly the concern, then make the objective to discover the cause of CCD and begin experiments with multiple hypotheses. Then compare variations between each experiment type and some control groups.

Worth pointing out is that the number of honey bee colonies has been steadily declining since 1971. It was in the 70's that microwave ovens began to appear as a consumer product, and at that time, I imagine there was higher microwave leakage from these ovens. Since these ovens use hundreds of Watts of microwave power, even a few watts of leakage is higher than what's emitted from a cellular phone. This has changed over the years as the leakage limit for a microwave oven was changed to 5 mW/cm^2 and was lowered again to 1 mW/cm^2 at 5 cm.

A typical newer cell phone emits anywhere from 1 to 3.6 Watts, or 3.2 mW/cm^2 to 11.5 mW/cm^2 at 5 cm when operating at peak power - so when the user is furthest away from a tower. There are many rumours as to why airlines will not allow cell phones to be used on airplanes, but to me, having multiple cell phones on an airplane constantly at their peak transmit power trying to connect to multiple towers on the ground, sounds like a recipe for navigational disaster. Either way, the issue of CCD should be studied closely as our food supplies are at risk if pollination rates continue to decrease.

This will become even more important if a strong correlation exists, as over the next few years wireless networks will become more prevalent due to - what seems at least - an exponential increase in consumer wireless devices.

My guess to the cause of the CCD if assuming wireless communications are the cause, would be related to the dipole rotation of water present in the nectar they are carrying, and the electrostatic charge of a bee used to gather pollen. There maybe some discharge occurring causing bees to not gather enough pollen to induce a 'reward' response, leading to them look for other sources.

Hehe I'm not a bee expert of any sort, but I do have some understanding of EM fields. Just throwing ideas around hoping the right person might see something as a starting point.