Telecom Providers and Electromagnetic Radiation - The Silent Killer of Honeybees

{19:9} The fear of the LORD [is] clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD [are] true [and] righteous altogether.

{19:10} More to be desired [are they] than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Psalms 19 vs 9 to 10

It seems that our Telecom Providers may possibly be silently killing both us and members of the Honeybees (Apis Meliffera) species, as two (2) recent studies have come to my attention related to humans as stated in the video CNET Buzz Report aired Thursday May 20 2010 by Brian Cooley Executive Editor, CNET News and Honeybees as stated in the article “Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee”, published 29 May 2010 8:00AM BST by Dean Nelson in New Delhi, UK Telegraph

A story which was confirmed by the video from CNET Buzz Report, aired Thursday May 3 2010 by Molly Wood, Executive Editor, CNET News who also states the obvious running through John Public’s mind as to the long term the effect of Manmade Electromagnetic Radiation.

Specifically of the type emanating from Mobile Phone Towers owned by Telecoms Providers, Mobile Phone Handsets from the telecom Providers and even the Transmission Lines being fingered as culprits in the Honeybees’ demise as well - and possibly our own.

In the case of Honeybees, it is called Colony Collapse Disorder, a malady that affects Honeybees in which Honeybees become very lackluster and stop producing honey and eventually die, thus reducing the Bee Colony’s output as stated in the article “Bees in more trouble than ever after bad winter” published Wednesday March 24, 8:05 am ET By GARANCE BURKE and SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press Writers, Yahoo! News.

The theory is that the radiation interferes with the Honeybees ability to navigate, which Honeybees do by orientating themselves based on magnetites (small grains of ferromagnetic material in their brains).

Ironically, this is how the Apple iPhone and its magnetometer operates in terms of making mapping apps such as Google Maps and Google Latitude and Social Networking Apps such as FourSquare work. Honeybees get lost and die of starvation and the hive, starved of food and workers die off as well.

In the case of humans, it can be much worse than just being lost, as the finding from this UN (United Nations) study spanning a decade from the years 2000 to 2010 involving thirteen thousand participants (13,000) indicated that it could lead to a 40% increase in a rare brain tumour called glioma and a 15% increase in another equally rare type of brain tumour called meningioma in the top 10% of people due to prolonged heavy usage, considered to be more than thirty (30) minutes

The link to the two (2) rare forms of brain cancer is inconclusive as both types of cancer take nearly twenty five (25) years to develop, indubitably on the side of the head where closest to the ear where the Mobile Phones was most often used. Conspiracy theorists are probably grinding out trains of postings on the blogsphere intoning some sort of Rothschild Conspiracy in the work, as Telecom Providers and Mobile Phone Handset Makers paid for 25% of the UN staffed study, which was conducted by competent team of twenty one (21) researchers.

After a decade and US$24 million dollars worth of study, the scientists are only able to tell us this, plus the fact that the radiation level decreases to nearly zero if the phone is held ten (10) centimeters or four (4) inches away from the body, thus making the obvious clear, which is just to use a Bluetooth hands free connection. Talk about being empty headed……………

At this point I could launch into an explanation of the technicalities relation to radiation absorption and its penetrating power, but that would make this article at least fifty (50) pages long, a delight to me but not to the blogsphere. Thus I will make it rather simple: low frequencies such as those in the ELF (Extremely Low Frequencies) [30 Hz to 300 Hz] are used for submarine communications as they suffer less attenuation (signal weakening) due to sea water, MF (Medium Frequencies) [0.3 MHz to 3 MHz] are used in AM (Amplitude Modulation) Radio.

HF (High Frequencies) [3 MHz to 30 MHz] are use for Shortwave or Ham Radio Communications and CB (Citizen Band) Radio and can bounce around the world. VHF (Very High Frequencies) [30 MHz to 300 MHz] and UHF (Ultra High Frequencies) [300 MHz to 3 GHz] are used for Commercial FM (Frequency Modulation) Radio and NTSC Standard Television, Mobile Phones and Microwave Transmission Systems.

1GHz is generally considered to be the beginning of the Microwave Spectrum used for Terrestrial Communications. Anything higher is going further into the microwave spectrum and the Optical Spectrum which are not desirable for telecommunications due the increasingly high levels of signal attenuation.

That Honeybees could have been affected in a controlled three (3) month experiment with Mobile Handsets emitting Electromagnetic Radiation in the 900 MHz frequency seems a bit too quick of a conclusion to come to, despite the results from the controlled experiment done by the Punjab University, which albeit unscientific, does establish that Manmade Electromagnetic Radiation is one of the possible causative factors affecting Honeybees and their ability to navigate and produce honey.

This as previously mentioned above is related to Manmade Electromagnetic Radiation emanating from Mobile Towers and Mobile Handsets as suggested in the article “Mobile phones and bees: Shoddy research helps no one” published June 1st, 2010 by Ian Douglas Science, UK Telegraph

The observations of the author are indeed valid, but are also stabbing in the dark, as he is blissfully unaware of the fact that in countries that have very good coverage, such as the UK, may be in fact using frequencies with a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) Modulation and varying power levels in the 2100 MHz range, which was NOT tested in the controlled experiment.

 In Europe and in the United States of America, coverage depends largely on the technology used, be it CDMA 2000 as in the case of Telecoms Provider Verizon, which offers better coverage with fewer Mobile Phone Towers as indicated in the advertisements “Verizon Wireless "Map for That" TV Ad (Samsung Rogue)” and “Verizon Wireless "Map for That" Ad (LG Versa)”, both searchable on YouTube.

Telecom Provider AT&T has spotty coverage as accurately portrayed in the advertisements and uses a GSM network running in the 2100 MHz frequencies with a recent upgrade to a lower 850 MHz, thus raising the issue of not only frequencies, modulation schema as well as Signal Power as being issues yet to be explored, as merely assuming that these developed countries have “good coverage” is in itself an unscientific and nebulous statement.

India, despite also having at least six (6) competing Telecom Providers as stated in the article “Is AT&T trying to break into India's cell phone market?”, published June 7, 2010 11:10 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength still has poor Mobile Coverage overall.

Thus it can indeed be Manmade Electromagnetic Radiation emanating from Mobile Towers and Mobile Handsets, especially as the article “Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee”, published 29 May 2010 8:00AM BST by Dean Nelson in New Delhi, UK Telegraph.

The article “Bees in more trouble than ever after bad winter” published Wednesday March 24, 8:05 am ET By GARANCE BURKE and SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press Writers, Yahoo! News does point out that this problem has been ongoing in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America respectively for approximately the last two to four (2 to 4) years.

The best minds and scientists exploring all possible causative factors from disease, pesticides to weather, studies often spanning decades yet have made no conclusive links aside from the connection to Manmade Electromagnetic Radiation emanating from Mobile Towers and Mobile Handsets and Power Transmission Lines is a bit suspicious and may in fact be media obfuscation on the part of the Telecom Providers, reputed to be funding these studies.

The Punjab University Research can thus be regarded as preliminary findings, despite their blanket statements with regards to Mobile Phone Coverage and can conduct further controlled experiments using variations of frequencies, modulation schema as well as Signal Power mimicking a Mobile Phone Instruments, possibly using a signal generator and field antennae.

After all, it must be noted that the Punjab University researchers did cite earlier studies that indicated similar results around transmission lines and these were results noted in the wild and involving frequencies in the 50 Hz to 60 Hz range.

In concluding, albeit not supporting the obviously “unscientific” research of the Punjab University, it is obvious that further experiments in the wild as opposed to the controlled experiments based on research established from previous studies need to be conducted by the researchers to establish a definitive link in the wild.

As this is a controlled experiment with a sample size of a mere four (4) hives, and worse in such close proximity to each other, it does not even meet the basic criteria to be even considered statistically significant as per requirements stated in the article stated in “Social Methods in Social Investigation”, authors Sir Clause.A. Moser and G. Kalton, published by Heinemann Educational Books, 48 Charles Street, London, WIX 8AH (1975), p. 56-58).

This discovery may be a breakthrough, but not necessarily the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder without further long term, detailed studies involving more hives and an accounting for the possible effect of other factors. It could even be caused by the up coming solar alignment of the planets in the solar system, said to culminate on the 21^st December 2012, which may be affecting the earth magnetic field and thus confusing the bees.

A suspect that is a more plausible explanation, as previous studies have shown that in the absence of a magnetic field, bees make circular honeycombs and less honey, but by virtue of the absence of a magnetic field, not its excess present in Manmade Electromagnetic Radiation.

This is somewhat similar to the concept of “electrosmog” to quote the Punjab University researchers Ved Prakash Sharma and Neelima Kumar, the authors of the report in the Journal Current Science.  This, apparently, is just the beginning…………..

Honeybees and their importance to the food Chain in terms of being pollinators cannot be underestimated as I had opined in my blog article entitled “Bees Colony Collapse Disorder and the Jamaican opportunity” as the opportunity that I laid out in the article may be fast fading due to the possible presence of Colony Collapse Disorder among Jamaica Honeybees.

Not only can the other natural pollinators not successfully supplant their role in the Food Chain and take their place if they completely die off, but their main product, honey is not a product any scientists has taken up the challenge to synthesize.

Apparently meat can be synthesized in the lab, but does not taste like the real thing as stated in the article “Jason Matheny's Meatloaf from a Petri dish”, published May 27, 2010, 5:00PM EST By Elizabeth Lopatto, TECHNOLOGY - BusinessWeek, so why not eventually honey?

John Public surmises that albeit the ten (10) year study on the effect on humans is inconclusive, the controlled experiment by the PunJab University is of greater importance, as it deserves not only further study much as is the case of the Mobile Handset and the effect of the Manmade Electromagnetic Radiation effect on us in terms of increasing the risk of brain tumours

Potentially, if Colony Collapse Disorder continues and the Honeybees keep dying off, eventually we will be plunged into a Global Food Crisis, as already there are signs that Colony Collapse Disorder is also affecting hives here in Jamaica.

We too, like the United States of America and the United Kingdom, will have to start looking into the matter with more urgency, this time with a keen eye on the Telecom Providers and any link to the prevalence of Mobile Cell Towers and Mobile phones.

The time, we must be vigilant. Vigilant for when Colony Collapse Disorder begins to be observed in the Wild in Jamaica……………as nothing is sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb.