Mobile phone towers threaten honey bees: study
 
 
August 31, 2009

 
Bees collect pollen from a blue thistle plant, July 26th, in a 
Vancouver backyard garden. An overnight rain supplied the much needed 
moisture.
 
Bees collect pollen from a blue thistle plant, July 26th, in a 
Vancouver backyard garden. An overnight rain supplied the much needed 
moisture.
Photograph by: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun

NEW DELHI – The electromagnetic waves emitted by mobile phone towers 
and cellphones can pose a threat to honey bees, a study published in 
India has concluded.

An experiment conducted in the southern state of Kerala found that a 
sudden fall in the bee population was caused by towers installed across 
the state by cellphone companies to increase their network.

The electromagnetic waves emitted by the towers crippled the 
"navigational skills" of the worker bees that go out to collect nectar 
from flowers to sustain bee colonies, said Dr. Sainuddin Pattazhy, who 
conducted the study, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

He found that when a cell phone was kept near a beehive, the worker 
bees were unable to return, leaving the hives with only the queens and 
eggs and resulting in the collapse of the colony within ten days.

Over 100,000 people in Kerala are engaged in apiculture and the 
dwindling worker bee population poses a threat to their livelihood. The 
bees also play a vital role in pollinating flowers to sustain 
vegetation.

If towers and mobile phones further increase, honey bees might be wiped 
out in 10 years, Pattazhy said.