http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007

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.

Huh?

So suddenly, last October, Bees became effected by cell phone radiation? Hmm... for some reason I'm not buying this. First off, the phenomena was first described in Germany and then confirmed to be wide spread across coastal regions in the US. Secondly, the majority of other studies have so far alluded to collapsed immune systems in Bees, not the navigation problems that resulted from one study that simulated power line’s near a hive.

It's more likely that newer generation pesticides or something similar to the varroa mite, which was already devastating bee populations, is the cause.*


*or project 863.

"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."
...
"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."

Is that all the evidence this article is based on?

bees suck anyway. I could do without honey.

wow. thanks for that.

They won't be happy until man is back in the caves, scraping his food from the dirt.

eh, I can do without almonds or the lack of the others with high percentages. I stick by my screw the bees comments.

This article has nothing to do with bees, and everything to do with advocating the end of cell phones in particular, and technology and human advancement in general. I think this might be the most disgusting thing I've read in a long, long time.

What's so great about human 'advancement' and an increased standard of living anyway?

Well, I've long opined that any female who also has a valid driver's license should be prohibited from owning/using/carrying a cellular telephone. Perhaps this is the kind of thing that will get the ball rolling on a possible ban.

They've gotta do something to get their grant money, right?

i don't want to completely dismiss this out of hand without doing some research, but why would bees suddenly be so affected now when mobile phones have been around for ages?

im with james on this one

"Bees?!?"

I don't need bees to tell me that the cell phone is the lamest invention in human history.

*takes another sip of disaronno*

Oh my fucking god that's right SAVE THE ALMONDS.

but what about the BEES?

Stereotypes are never true. Although this one is.