IDG News Service — "An article recently published in the popular press has suggested that there may be a link between the increase in numbers of mobile phone masts and the reduction in local sparrow populations. The number of sparrows in Britain has effectively halved from 24 million approximately thirty years ago to a present day figure of 14 million, a decrease of almost 50%."
(Ken Banks, report to the Vodafone Group Foundation, December 2002)
Exactly six years ago, a research paper on lowly house sparrows launched my mobile career. Back then, rumors were circulating that the proliferation of mobile phone masts were wiping out Britain's sparrow population, and Vodafone wanted to know more. It was an interesting if not odd piece of research to do, but one far less technically challenging than a lot of the work that was to follow. It also loosely fitted in with my conservation and technology background, a theme that I've managed to continue to this day.
Although I concluded that there was no clear link, that was far from the end of it. More recently, in fact, mobile phones have been blamed for the monumental decline in many bee populations. Firstly birds, and now bees. What next?
Links between mobile phone use and human health have long been a point of study and contention, as have the many theories surrounding the mysterious and sudden decline of some bird and bee populations. Speculation about mobile phone masts affecting birds is nothing new, but blaming them for the decline of bee populations is a little more recent, and, because of the importance of bee pollination in many ecosystems, it's potentially more worrying (unless you're a sparrow, of course).
Both arguments hinge on the effect of electromagnetic fields on the ability of birds and bees to navigate, and there is evidence to suggest there might just be some truth in it. A racing pigeon fancier reportedly lost two-thirds of his birds when a mast was built next to his farm, and entire bee colonies have been known to literally abandon their hives in an event known as CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder). In the U.S., between 50 percent and 90 percent of bee colonies have been affected by CCD in the last four years, so much so that bee-laden hives are now literally driven around California in an attempt to keep the economically vital fruit-growing industry going.
Pollination is more than just economically and environmentally important, however. Estimates suggest that one-third of the human diet can be traced directly, or indirectly, to bee pollination. If our obsession with wireless technologies continues, we could very soon find ourselves in trouble. In an experiment carried out on eight bee colonies at Landau University in Germany, three hives exposed to mobile phone radiation eventually broke down. One hive saw no bees returning at all, and only six returned to another. Looking at these figures, it might come as no surprise to hear that research going back decades has regularly highlighted the phenomenal sensitivity of honeybees to electromagnetic fields.
