“And it’s not just pigeons — have you seen any sparrows or parrots around, since these towers started springing up?”  K. Pazhaniappan, Secretary, New Madras Racing Pigeon Association

Wireless Radiofrequency Affects Navigation of Birds and Bees

It is well known that magnetite, a form of iron ore, is found in a wide variety of organisms. It has been shown that this substance is used to sense the earth’s low energy magnetic field as a directional reference. Magnetite acts as an internal compass. For over 50 years, scientists have known that migratory birds use the earth’s magnetic field to navigate. As it turns out, a diverse array of animal life also relies upon this geomagnetic field as their GPS for breeding, feeding, migration and survival.

Biologists have unexpectedly discovered that wireless radiofrequency radiation (RFR) disturbs internal magneto-receptors used for orientation. In addition, this non ionizing radiation can have profound impacts on the natural environment by disruption of other complex cellular and biologic processes in mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, insects, trees, plants, seeds and bacteria. Reported adverse effects from radiofrequency radiation that have been identified include abnormal behavior, developmental abnormalities, diminished reproduction and increased mortality. The effects of this radiation may not be immediately apparent with a slow decline in the health of wildlife seen over time with cumulative exposure, adding a new environmental toxin contributing to silent springs in cities, orchards and farms. The more towers, the more additive mix of radiation frequencies saturating the environment, creating an increasingly toxic air space. Non thermal biological effects are not considered in current guidelines. Appropriate safety testing and regulation of this technology is lacking, however, invention, commercialization and deployment of cell towers marches on – 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G.

The Skrunda Radio Location Case

Firstenberg (2017) in his fascinating and well-referenced book, The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life, describes both observations and biological controlled experiments performed, mostly in Europe, where a high power early warning Radio Location Station tower was in place for over 25 years. Studies performed during and after the tower was removed demonstrated that it caused not only human symptoms including documented memory, attention and motor deficits in children but also affected widespread forest health with loss of birds, thinner growth rings on trees, poor seed germination, loss of duckweed, among other effects. When these towers were removed, not only did the health of the local residents improve, the forest recovered.

Bird Migration Disrupted More by Weak Magnetic Fields

Biologists have discovered that birds’ magnetic compass orientation appears more vulnerable to weak broadband electromagnetic fields. A German scientist, Svenja Engles (2014) lead the research project to confirm this effect. He and his German graduate students exposed migratory European robins to the background electromagnetic noise present in unscreened wooden huts at the University of Oldenburg city campus and found the birds were confused and could not orient using their magnetic compass. If grounded or screened with aluminium their orientation reappeared, but disappeared again if broadband radiofrequencies were generated inside the huts. He did not believe the effects at first and repeated the same double-blinded experiment many times in 7 years and with different graduate students to confirm the effect before publishing his results.

Cindy Russell, M.D.
To read the full article, go to pages 8-17,  SCCMA Bulletin (September/October 2018).

Colour PDF version of Wireless Silent Spring available here.
Monochrome PDF version of Wireless Silent Spring available here.