All,
Thanks Diana for putting the text of this news item in your
email. Its really not far-fetched that the electomagnetic
radiation from cell phones--actually I suspect the cell
tower may be more of a factor--and other devices could
disrupt something so delicate and unprotected as the
navigation systems of bees which of course depends on an
electrochemically-based nervous system. There is plenty of
scientific data from decades ago showing that even human
brain activity as measured by EEG is affected by standing
near high power electric lines. It'll be an important story
to follow and I think I better get an earplug for my cell
phone pronto.
Jim Fleming (M.D.)
 
--- Diana Krystofiak <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ARE MOBILE PHONES WIPING OUT OUR BEES?
> By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
> The Independent
> April 15, 2007
> 
> HYPERLINK
>
"http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece"http:
>
//news.-independent.-co.uk/environmen-t/wildlife/-article2449968.-ece
> 
> 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.
> 
>  
> 
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