The acceleration of wireless technological advancement in the twenty first century has outpaced society's awareness of its impacts on birds, wildlife, and ecosystems.
Along with the proliferation of wireless in our homes and communities, wireless infrastructure has reached into parks, forests, nature preserves, and other regions where birds and wildlife are exposed. Cell towers and modern digital devices emit man-made radiofrequency radiation (RFR) which was virtually nonexistent in the natural environment prior to the 19th century, but have increased exponentially in recent decades. Man-made RFR emissions now saturate rural and remote areas, even reaching habitats less frequented by humans.
A rapidly growing body of scientific literature suggests that exposure to cell tower and other wireless emissions is harmful to a broad range of flora and fauna. Biologists have documented damaging effects in migratory birds, frogs and other amphibians, bees and other insects, small and large mammals, marine animals, trees, plants and fungi.
Wireless RFR has become a form of electrical pollution, adding to other environmental stressors such as pesticides, habitat destruction, deforestation, and climate change. The negative effects include problems with reproduction, navigation, foraging and food attainment.
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 migratory bird declines, honeybee colony collapse, insect population loss, and the deterioration of diverse tree and plant species.
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.
Three-Part Scientific Review on the
Effects of Radiofrequency Radiation
on Wildlife, the Environment and
Ecosystems
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.
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Series includes extensive scientific references.
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Includes extensive tables matching rising ambient EMF levels to health and other effects in the environment, even at intensities commonplace today.
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Offers policy recommendations based on existing environmental laws.
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
UNESCO Report on the Disappearance of Species
from Mt. Nardia Park's World Heritage Area
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.
A Scientist's Testimony, 2023:
My Life for the Birds & Bats
Retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Senior Wildlife Biologist, Albert Manville, PhD
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, the effects of radiofrequency radiation on bird and bat species, and his scientific research in pursuit of their protection.
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 the placement of cell towers 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, June 2010: Study links bee decline to cell phones. by Herriman, Sasha.
Fox News, 2011: Cell Phones Caused Mysterious Worldwide Bee Deaths, Study Finds. Describes research by Dr. Daniel Favre, a former biologist with the Swiss Federal institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, whose research suggests that signals from mobile phones may be contributing to honeybee decline. https://www.foxnews.com/tech/cell-phones-caused-mysterious-worldwide-bee-deaths-study-finds
The Atlantic, June 2010, If Cell Phones Are Behind the Bee Decline, What Are They Doing to Humans? by Chokshi, Niraj.
“...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
-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, September 17, 2020: 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. By Derbyshire, David.
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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.