Chennai, May 23, 2011: There have been several studies on bee colonies being adversely affected by electromagnetic radiation caused by cell phones and mobile phone towers (see news dated September 5, 2009 in this site). The latest in the studies on the subject is by Favre* of the Laboratory of Cellular Biotechnology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland. In his study Favre found that the active mobile phone handsets have a 'dramatic impact' on the behaviour of the bees. The bees make piping signals, characteristic of swarming behaviour or indicative of a disturbed colony. More importantly he observed "no swarming process was initiated after 20 h of exposure to mobile phone handsets, ... . It should therefore be hypothesized that although the piping signal is serving as a primer for swarm exodus other modalities and/or signals (e.g., the shaking and buzz-run signals or chemical components) may be required in the complex swarming process."
The publication of this paper once again started a spate of reactions in the internet and other media (see, for example, report dated May 13, 2011 "Study: cellphones could be contributing to the death of honey bees" in DVICE, the news dated May 13, 2011 in Daily Mail Online "Why a mobile phone ring may make bees buzz off: Insects infuriated by handset signals", or the report dated May 21, 2011 in the InHabitat "It's Official - Cell Phones are Killing Bees".
Commenting on the reactions in the media the Bug Girl's Blog post dated May 12, 2011 says of the recent studies and findings on mobile phones and honey bee deaths: 'Still no link'. Referring to the media reports the 'Bug Girl' wonders: 'I do not know why people are so determined to prove that cellphones harm bees.'
Studies in India on the effects of cell phone radiation on honey bees have received wide publicity in Indian and foreign media. For example, the Press Trust of India news reported on August 31, 2011 on the work by Sainuddin Pattazhy, who conducted the study, and found that when a cell phone was kept near a beehive, the worker bees were unable to return, leaving the hive with only the queens and eggs and resulting in the collapse of the colony within ten days.
In another study, a team of researchers at the Panjab University, Chandigarh kept two mobile phone instruments inside each of two bee hives and exposed the bees to electromotive force for 15 minutes during two active foraging periods in a day twice a week during February to April 2009. They observed brood area, rate of egg laying of the queen, flight activity of foragers before and during the radiation exposure, and colony growth. The researchers reported: "A significant (P < 0.05) decline in colony strength and in the egg laying rate of the queen was observed. The behaviour of exposed foragers was negatively influenced by the exposure, there was neither honey nor pollen in the colony at the end of the experiment."
In these studies the researchers presumed that the colony collapse disorder is as prevalent in India as in the USA or European countries. Their work on the effect of cellphone radiation on honey bees therefore received wide publicity.
A study in Turkey during 2007 showed that a 45-minute radiation exposure to free-flying foragers, trained to visit a target, did not influence return of the foragers to the target. The researchers used three makes of cell phones and the bees were exposed to the cellphone radiation kept very close them.
Finally, the above referred Daily Mail Online news on Favre's study added: "British bee expert Normal Carreck of Sussex University said: 'It's an interesting study but it doesn't prove that mobile phones are responsible for colony collapse disorder. if you physically knock a hive, or open one up to examine it, it has the same result.
'And in America many cases of colony collapse disorder have taken place in remote areas far from any mobile phone signals.'"
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* Reference cited: Favre, D. 2011. Mobile phone-induced honeybee worker piping. Apidologie, published online: DOI: 10.1007/s13592-011-0016-x