The acceleration of wireless technological advancement in the twenty first century has outpaced society's awareness of its impacts on birds, wildlife, and the environment.
Along with the proliferation of wireless devices in our homes and communities, our wireless world now reaches into parks, forests, nature preserves, and other regions where birds and wildlife previously were unexposed.
Man-made radio-frequency (RF) radiation from cell towers and modern devices has now penetrated rural and remote landscapes, even reaching wilderness habitats less frequented by humans.
A growing body of scientific literature suggests that exposure to cell tower and other RF radiation is harmful to a broad range of flora and fauna. Negative health effects have been documented among honey bees, birds, and wildlife including reproduction problems, foraging and food attainment issues, and navigation disruption. Wireless radio-frequency emissions have become a form of electrical pollution, adding to other environmental stressors such as pesticides, habitat destruction, deforestation, and climate change.
Because of the great diversity of species impacted, ecosystem-wide effects are now being seen.
Modern wireless pollution is increasingly acknowledged as an emerging contributing factor in dramatic declines across diverse species seen in recent years.
For more information on the impacts of wireless RFR on wildlife and ecosystems,
please see EcoUnplug.org.
Scientific Reviews and Summaries
Low-level EMF Effects on
Wildlife and Plants:
What Research Tells Us About an Ecosystem Approach
Levitt BB, Lai HC, Manville AM. Frontiers in Public Health, 25 November 2022. Sec. Radiation and Health. Link
Abstract:
There is enough evidence to indicate we may be damaging non-human species at ecosystem and biosphere levels across all taxa from rising background levels of anthropogenic non-ionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) from 0 Hz to 300 GHz. The focus of this Perspective paper is on the unique physiology of non-human species, their extraordinary sensitivity to both natural and anthropogenic EMF, and the likelihood that artificial EMF in the static, extremely low frequency (ELF) and radiofrequency (RF) ranges of the non-ionizing electromagnetic spectrum are capable at very low intensities of adversely affecting both fauna and flora in all species studied. Any existing exposure standards are for humans only; wildlife is unprotected, including within the safety margins of existing guidelines, which are inappropriate for trans-species sensitivities and different non-human physiology. Mechanistic, genotoxic, and potential ecosystem effects are discussed.
Photograph by Elizabeth Foley
Three-Part Scientific Review:
The Effects of Radiofrequency Radiation
on Wildlife, the Environment
and Ecosystems
This three-part series covers the effects of radiofrequency radiation on birds, wildlife, and insects as well as effects on trees, plants, and other flora. It includes a vast library of documentation, with extensive scientific references as well as detailed tables showing trends of rising man-made radiation levels in parallel with rising negative environmental effects including health effects seen in bees, bird, wildlife, and fauna.
Part 1: Effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields on flora and fauna, Part 1. Rising ambient EMF levels in the environment. (2021) Levitt BB et al. Rev Environ Health. 2021 May 27. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34047144/
Part 2: Effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields on flora and fauna, Part 2. Impacts: how species interact with natural and man-made EMF. Rev Environ Health, 2021 July 8. Levitt, Lai, Manville
Part 3: Effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields on flora and fauna, Part 3. Exposure standards, public policy, laws, and future directions. (2021) Levitt, Lai, Manville. Rev Environ Health. 2021 Sep.
Bees, Birds, and Mankind:
Destroying Nature by 'Electrosmog'
Effects of Wireless Communication Technologies
Ulrich Warnke, 2009: Internationally renowned Saarland University bioscientist Ulrich Warnke explains how factors such as pesticides, mites, monocultures, severe winters, and genetically modified seeds fail to explain “the fairly sudden and country-spanning appearance two to three years ago of the dying bees phenomenon."
Excerpts:
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“Bees and other insects, just as birds, use the Earth’s magnetic field and high frequency electromagnetic energy such as light. They accomplish orientation and navigation by means of free radicals as well as a simultaneously reacting magnetite conglomerate. Technically produced electromagnetic oscillations in the MHz range and magnetic impulses in the low frequency range persistently disturb the natural orientation and navigation mechanisms created by evolution.”
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"Should the bees simply be too weak or ill, they should also die in or near the hive. But no ill bees were found in research into this phenomenon.”
https://www.bemri.org/publications/wildlife-and-plants/1-birds-bees-and-mankind/file.html
Report to UNESCO on Mt. Nardia Park World Heritage Area:
Disappearance of Species with Expansion of Telecommunications Antenna
2000-2015
Australian botanist Mark Broomhall documents the impact of increased
electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in the Mount Nardi area of the Nightcap National Park
World Heritage Site,
due to expansion
of telecommunications
antenna.
The disappearance of
large numbers of
species from the area
is documented over
the 15-year period
from 2000 to 2015, amid corresponding increased levels of electromagnetic radiation from the Mount Nardi telecommunications tower complex.
Following the construction of a new cell tower deploying 4G technology in 2012 to early 2013, Broomhall documents the exodus of 49 bird species, among other wildlife and insect declines.
Excerpt: "...From 70 to 90 percent of the wildlife has become rare or has disappeared from the Nightcap National Park within a 2-3 km radius of the Mt. Nardi tower complex.”
https://ehtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/Mt-Nardi-Wildlife-Report-to-UNESCO-FINAL.pdf.
Birds and Radiofrequency Radiation
Field studies at cell towers have documented the negative health and behavioral effects of radiofrequency radiation on wild birds, including issues with navigation, migration, nesting, eyesight, mating and reproduction.
The peer reviewed scientific research below describes nest abandonment, plumage deterioration, locomotion problems, reduced post-fledging survivorship, and even death among birds of diverse species.
Bird conservation efforts should include protection from the radiation emitted from cell towers into bird habitats, both during daytime activities and night migratory activities. Conservation measures should be adopted to minimize the deaths and injuries of birds due to wireless radiation exposure.
Night-Migratory Songbirds:
Unable to Use Their Magnetic Compass When Exposed to Broadband
Often unnoticed by humans, billions of songbirds migrate at night every spring and fall. This 2022 study looked at night-migrating songbirds and concluded that they were unable to use their magnetic compass when exposed to man-made broadband.
Excerpts:
"Here, we show that broadband 75–85 MHz radiofrequency fields prevent a night-migratory songbird from using its magnetic compass in behavioural experiments."
"Our results are in line with previous research (Ritz et al. 2004; Engels et al. 2014; Schwarze et al. 2016) showing that a broadband RF noise can disturb magnetic compass orientation of night-migratory songbirds."
Leberecht, B., Kobylkov, D., Karwinkel, T. et al. Broadband 75–85 MHz radiofrequency fields disrupt magnetic compass orientation in night-migratory songbirds consistent with a flavin-based radical pair magnetoreceptor. J Comp Physiol A 208, 97–106 (2022).
Northern Bald Ibis:
Eye Problems in Birds Tagged With Wireless Transmitters
The Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita) is an endangered species in Europe. In well-meaning efforts to reintroduce the birds, conservationists have attached wireless radio transmitters to their backs for monitoring. However, many of the tagged birds developed unilateral corneal opacity, in which the eye appears white or clouded, impairing the bird's vision.
In this 2022 study, biologists examined possible explanations for the increased cases of corneal opacity in the radio tagged birds. They found the most likely explanation to be a repetitive slight rise in temperature in the eye tissue of the birds, caused by the GSM modules which emitted electromagnetic radiation.
The larger implication of this study is that non-thermal effects of wireless devices were found to cause serious and measurable negative health effects. The effects were not thermal in nature. To date, regulation of wireless technology has been limited to consideration of thermal effects, without consideration of potential non-thermal effects.
Balmori A. (2022). Corneal opacity in Northern Bald Ibises (Geronticus eremita) equipped with radio transmitters. Electromagnetic biology and medicine, 41(2), 174–176. Link
"When European robins, Erithacus rubecula, were exposed to the background electromagnetic noise present ... at the University of Oldenburg campus, they could not orient using their magnetic compass.
"These fully double-blinded tests document a reproducible effect of anthropogenic electromagnetic noise on the behavior of an intact vertebrate."
European Robins:
Could Not Orient When Exposed to Electromagnetic Noise from College Campus; Regained Orientation Once Protected by Screening
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13290
In this double-blind study, researchers placed European robins in wooden huts on a university campus in Germany, to study the effects of the background levels of electromagnetic noise on the birds. This study documents the effect of man-made electromagnetic noise on the robins' behavior, and documents the ability of scientists to reproduce the effect repeatedly. When the robins were
exposed to the background electrosmog
without any special screening on their
wooden huts, they were unable to orient
normally. Once their huts were protected
by aluminum screening, which blocked
out the electromagnetic noise, the robins regained their magnetic orientation capabilities. This could be repeated over and over again by removing the grounding on the aluminum screening, or by deliberately generating broadband noise inside the huts.
Excerpt: "Here we show that migratory birds are unable to use their magnetic compass in the presence of urban electromagnetic noise. When European robins, Erithacus rubecula, were exposed to the background electromagnetic noise present in unscreened wooden huts at the University of Oldenburg campus, they could not orient using their magnetic compass. Their magnetic orientation capabilities reappeared in electrically grounded, aluminium-screened huts, which attenuated electromagnetic noise in the frequency range from 50kHz to 5MHz. When the grounding was removed... the birds again lost their magnetic orientation capabilities."
Engels S, Schneider NL, Lefeldt N, Hein CM, Zapka M, Michalik A, Elbers D, Kittel A, Hore PJ, Mouritsen H (2014) Anthropogenic electromagnetic noise disrupts magnetic compass orientation in a migratory bird. Nature 509(7500):353–356.
Bees and Radiofrequency Radiation
In addition to pesticides, air pollution, and climate change, biologists report that bees and bee colony health are suffering negative impacts from the lesser-known environmental pollutant, man-made radiofrequency (RF) radiation from modern digital technologies.
Although greatly expanded in scope over recent decades, the electromagnetic frequencies of man-made wireless radiation are invisible to the human eye, meaning that the density of radiation remains unperceived until the harmful effects begin to impact nearby bee colony health and survival.
Scientists have now documented negative impacts in honey bees, as well as other bee species and other insect species, including problems with bee navigation, hive abandonment, and declines in bee reproduction following placement of cell towers and related infrastructure near bee colonies and habitats.
Biologists have long known that bees have magnetite granules present in their abdomens, which have enabled them to use the Earth's natural magnetic field for navigation. However, in recent decades the naturally occurring magnetic field has become clouded by man-made magnetic fields created by wireless technologies.
As bee populations have tumbled worldwide, remote and protected areas untouched by pesticides or habitat destruction have still seen dramatic bee declines. Bees and insects in these areas are not untouched by wireless radiation, given the expansion of cellular infrastructure into wilderness areas, national parks, and other rural and remote areas. Biologists have begun examining man-made RF radiation and related magnetic field disruptions in their search for causes of ongoing bee losses in otherwise protected areas.
A Cell Phone in the Hive:
Bees Disappear
To test the hypothesis that wireless technology could be connected with bee colony collapse, Sharma and Kumar observed four honeybee hives -- two with cell phones placed inside, and two without. They turned on the cell phones for 15 minutes, twice a day. Oviposition rates (the queen's rate of egg laying) dropped significantly. The number of incoming foragers declined, with worker bees observed having difficulty returning to their hives and large losses in worker bee numbers following. After three months, the honey and the bees had disappeared.
Sharma, V.P. & Kumar, Neelima R. (2010). Changes in honey bee behaviour and biology under the influence of cell phone radiations. Current science. 98. 1376-1378. Link: https://scinapse.io/papers/102067909
Excerpt: We have compared the performance of honeybees in cellphone radiation exposed and unexposed colonies... The behaviour of exposed foragers was negatively influenced by the exposure, there was neither honey nor pollen in the colony at the end of the experiment.
Bees Initiate Piping Sound in Response to Cell Phone: Communication of Danger
Favre and colleagues placed mobile phones in 5 different honeybee hives and then took more than 80 sound recordings during the next five months (February through June 2009). When the cell phone was off, the bees remained undisturbed. When the cell phone was turned on, the impact was dramatic: The sounds made by the bees increased in intensity and frequency within 25 to 40 minutes of turning the phone on, resulting in a "worker piping signal." The worker piping sound is usually produced by bees as a signal to swarm and leave the hive sue to danger or other disruption. If the cell phone was turned off immediately, the bees calmed down within 2 or 3 minutes. If the cell phone was left on for 20 hours and then turned off, the bees continued their piping signal for up to an 12 hours. The effect was consistent and repeatable. This study demonstrated distinct adverse effects after exposure to cell phone radiofrequency radiation.
Favre, Daniel. April 2011. Mobile phone-induced honeybee worker piping
Link: https://www.jscimedcentral.com/Behavior/Articles/behavior-2-1010.pdf
Excerpt: "The present data strongly suggest that honeybee colonies are affected and disturbed by electromagnetic waves (RF-EMF)."
Dect Phone Exposure:
Delays in Honeybees Return to the Hive
Grölle et al. performed experimental research using Dect cordless phones for irradiating honeybees. They observed that irradiated bees were far less able to come back to their hives within ordinary time frames.
Colony Collapse Timeline Does Not Correlate with Pesticide Timeline
Although not discounting the possible role of pesticide use in contributing to declines in honeybees, biologist Cammaerts finds that radiofrequency radiation from wireless technologies could also impact hives. by locating these in a low EMF environment or placing them in a Faraday cage or enclosure. Colony Collapse Disorder started After the Use of Pesticides
Cammaerts: The onset of steep declines in bee populations does not line up with the onset of pesticide use; bee declines began much later. Similarly, the removal of insecticides has not resulted in a rise in bee populations as might have been expected.
Cammaerts M (2017) Is electromagnetism one of the causes of the CCD? A work plan for testing this hypothesis. J Behav 2(1): 1006
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wifi and Bee Colony Collapse
In May, 2009, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service urged Congress to investigate the potential relationship between wireless devices and bee colony collapse.
Domestic Pets
March 2024: Biologists Urge "More Caution in the Wildlife and Veterinarian Communities"
A pet can be a beloved member of the family. When we open our homes and hearts to a pet, protecting them from harm is a powerful and positive instinct.
A clean living space, flea and tick prevention, and proper medical care are some of the ways we protect our pets from the environment around them.
Recent scientific research draws attention to another environmental stressor that can impact pets: Constant exposure to man-made wireless emissions. Our wireless devices emit radio frequency radiation that can cause a number of adverse health effects in animals.
In March 2024, biologists in the academic journal Frontiers in Veterinary Medicine characterized radio-tracking and related wireless technologies as a form of “environmental radiation pollution.” They described “negative physiological effects” to both wildlife and domestic pets, and urged “more caution in the wildlife and veterinarian communities before such technologies are used.”
Albert Manville et al. "Health and Environmental Effects to Wildlife from Radio Telemetry and Tracking Devices. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2024 March.
Testimonies and Presentations
My Life for the Birds & Bats: 2023
Presentation by retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Senior Wildlife Biologist, Albert Manville.
Presented at the Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s (FOMB) 26th annual Winter Speaker Series.
Manville describes the ecological importance of birds and bats to the planet, and discusses his scientific research in pursuit of protecting birds and bats, as well as the effects of radiofrequency radiation on bird and bat species.
Legal Challenges:
Protecting Animals and Ecosystems from Wireless Radiation
Cows and Court: Turn Off Cellular Antenna
French Court Orders a 4G Antenna Deactivated Over Concerns About Serious Health Issues in Nearby Cow Herds
A farmer in central-east France said that milk production had dropped by 15-20 percent in the days following the installation of a 4G cellular antenna near his herd of cows. He reported that 40 of his 200 cows had died.
The French court listened: In May 2022, the administrative court of Clermont-Ferrand, in the south-central Haute-Loire area of France, ordered the wireless antenna switched off after hearing evidence of the health deterioration in cows grazing nearby.
The court cited "a significant drop in the quality and quantity of milk produced, a serious disruption in the behavior of the herd and its voluntary denutrition and abnormally high deaths."
Huntington Beach Park: Ninth Circuit Court Upholds City Requirement That Cellular Carrier Get Voter Approval
California's Huntington Beach City Park:
Let Citizens Vote Before Erecting Cell Tower
The City of Huntington Beach, California, informed the cellular carrier that before leasing them the rights to city park property for placement of a new cell tower, the company must first obtain approval from city voters. This approval requirement was within the city charter known as "Measure C."
The cellular carrier refused to obtain approval from city voters, arguing that the voter approval requirement was preempted by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The disagreement was decided by the Ninth Circuit court, which ruled against the carrier in favor of the City of Huntington Beach. The court found that voter approval was, in fact, required prior to constructing a cell tower on city-owned park property, under the city's Measure C requirement.
Excerpt: "...The panel held that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 did not preempt the City of Huntington Beach’s decision to require a company to obtain voter approval before constructing a mobile telephone antenna on city-owned park property."
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2013/12/11/10-56877%20web_a.pdf
No Right to Consider Environmental Effects?
A Challenge to 47 U.S. Code § 332
Does the public have the right to raise
concerns about the environmental
impacts of cell towers?
What about when decisions are being made about cell tower proliferation, including placement near natural habitats, parks, and forests?
Here is an excerpt from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Santa Fe Alliance for Public Health and Safety vs. City of Santa Fe:
"The questions presented are as follows:
1. Whether Section 704 violates petitioners’ First Amendment right to petition the government by pursuing claims in court.
2. Whether the term “environmental effects” in Section 704 includes effects on human health."
Santa Fe Alliance for Public Health and Safety v. City of Santa Fe
Community Blocks Cell Tower Installation on Next to a Protected Nature Area
Eugene, Oregon: Citizens Oppose Cell Tower Near Amazon Creek
The Friends of Amazon Creek Oppose a "Stealth" Cell Tower Application
With Testimony from Albert Manville Before the City of Eugene City Planning Department
In 2013, local citizens in Eugene, Oregon opposed the installation of a 75-foot cell tower on a church property next to a protected nature area known as Amazon Creek. Residents living within 500 feet of the proposed tower reported that they did not receive the legally required notification of the proposed tower. "To our knowledge, no notices were mailed. We did see an 8.5 x 11 inch poster on one utility pole." A nearby resident helped organize the small community in opposition to the tower, after putting fliers under the doormats of 200 of her neighbors' houses. A meeting was planned at the church and filled.
Posted by ksinger at: https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/amazon-creek/
Media and Headlines
CNN:
Study Links Bee Decline to Cell Phones
June 2010, by Sasha Herriman
The reason could hinge on a pigment in bees called cryptochrome. "Animals, including insects, use cryptochrome for navigation," Andrew Goldsworthy, a biologist from the UK's Imperial College, London, told CNN.
They use it to sense the earth's magnetic field "and their ability to do this is compromised by radiation from [cell] phones and their base stations. So basically bees do not find their way back to the hive."
Fox News:
Cell Phones Caused Mysterious Worldwide Bee Deaths, Study Finds
Published 2011, updated 2015
The Atlantic:
If Cell Phones Are Behind the Bee Decline, What Are They Doing to Humans?
June 2010
“...Researchers fitted cell phones to a hive and powered them up for two fifteen-minute periods each day. After three months, they found the bees stopped producing honey, egg production by the queen bee halved, and the size of the hive dramatically reduced.”
“...The reason may have to do with radiation from cell phones and cell towers disturbing the molecules of the chemical cryptochrome, which bees and other animals use for navigation.”
Environment, 2022:
Environmental Procedures at the FCC: A Case Study in Corporate Capture.
Erica Rosenberg. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development. Vol 64, 2022.
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/1222046629894/7
"The FCC fails to fulfill its mandatory duties under the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in multiple
and significant ways."
-Erica Rosenberg, former FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Assistant Chief of Competition and Infrastructure Policy Division
https://www.saferemr.com/2023/07/environmental-procedures-at-fcc-case.html
AFP (Agence France Presse)/Barron's
Mobile Phone Radiation May Be Killing Insects: German Study
NY Times
1998:
When Homing Pigeons Don’t Go Home Again
Soon after the first cell towers were installed in Pennsylvania in 1998, pigeon races ended in catastrophe when nearly 90 percent of the pigeon became disoriented and unable to navigate. The proliferation of cell towers and wireless smart meters across the country creates"a fluctuating blanket of continuous pulsating artificial radiofrequency wave mixtures" that alter naturally occurring magnetic fields. These man-made alterations "thus impair migration and orientation of birds in addition to effects on pollinators."
Daily Mail
2011:
Why a mobile phone ring may make bees buzz off: Insects infuriated by handset signals.
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Describes research conducted by Dr. Favre, a retired biologist with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Dr. Favre stated: ‘This study shows that the presence of an active mobile phone disturbs bees – and has a dramatic effect.’
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Two mobile phones were placed under a beehive, and recordings were made of the high pitched calls made by the bees. Three sets of recordings were made: (1) when the handsets were switched off, (2) when they were placed on stand-by mode, and (3) when the handsets were activated. Approximately 20 to 40 minutes after the phones were activated, the bees began to emit “piping” calls – a series of high pitched squeaks that announce possible danger and preparation for swarming.