> 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.