Tech News
Mobile phones massacring honeybees?
By Stevie Smith
Apr 18, 2007, 14:31 GMT

In a time when concerned activists and ecologists continually point to mankind’s progressively selfish destruction of the planet, the thoughtless eradication of countless species, and the decadent waste of vital resources, it would now appear that mobile phone users have shifted into the spotlight of criticism where impending doom is concerned.

More specifically, certain scientific quarters are suggesting that the proliferation of the mobile phone could pave the way to huge food shortages caused by failing harvests around the world, reports the Belfast Telegraph.

Although April 01 has already passed, the worrying theory offered up by scientists is no prank, and it points out that the levels of radiation emitted by mobile phones could well be a defining influence in the sudden decline of crop-pollinating honeybees. Odd as it may sound, the swift disappearance of the honeybee has spread from the U.S. through to mainland Europe, and is now also said to be having an impact on the United Kingdom.

Scientists, armed with compelling evidence, are now implying that the massive amounts of radiation produced by mobile phone use is actually frying the usually razor-sharp navigational skills of the honeybees and preventing them from returning back to their hives.

The result of the condition, which has been labelled as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), sees normally thriving hives suddenly left with only queens, eggs, and hive-bound immature worker bees when the honeybee workforce never returns home. The scientists also claim that other creatures that would naturally reap the rich reward of an abandoned hive following the death of a colony, strangely show no signs of salvage interest in this particular instance.

Originally uncovered in the U.S. as a worrying phenomenon in the autumn of 2006, the West Coast of the country has now been inflicted with around a 60 percent plunge in its commercial bee population, while the East Coast has apparently lost closer to 70 percent. With CDD spreading across Europe and into the U.K. – although the U.K. government claims there’s no evidence of the condition in the country’s bee population – the ramifications could prove hugely significant, especially as the majority of the world’s food crops rely heavily on bee pollination.

In terms of consequences of technological influence, German-led research studies have already revealed that the behavioural patterns of bees alters when they are in close proximity to overhead power lines; and now another study performed by Dr. Jochen Kuhn at the Landau University has also shown that bees will not return to their hives if a mobile device is placed in the directly surrounding area.

Considering the ongoing investigation into the physical and mental effects linking humans and excessive mobile phone use and the consequence of its related radiation (i.e., brain tumours, cancer, premature senility, repetitive strain injury (RSI), brain cell deterioration, and reduced sperm count), the scientists looking into declining bee populations are certainly concerned about the possible occurrence of a global food catastrophe.

“I am convinced the possibility is real,” commented Dr. George Carlo on the subject of mobile phones diminishing the navigational attributes of worker bees. Carlo has himself carried out an exhaustive study in the 1990s for the U.S. government and the mobile phone industry concerning the dangers of mobile phone use.