RF EMF biological effects on wildlife and domestic animals

  • Scientific Reports: Shifting RF-EMF power to frequencies higher than 3 GHz – without changing the incident field strength – results in relative increases in absorbed power by factors of 24–48 for the honey bee models studied. Such a shift in frequencies is expected in future (i.e., 5G) networks.
  • Practical Veterinary Surgeon (German): Dairy cows in close proximity to new TV and radio antennas (87 MHz to 18.7 GHz) had significantly reduced milk production, reduced their grazing time to a few minutes before “taking cover” from the antennas, and suffered conjunctivitis. An afflicted cow was moved 20 km from the antennas, the cow returned to normal, but problems quickly recurred when the cow was returned to the new antennas. After publicizing this case, other farmers reported similar results.
  • Science of the Total Environment: 900 MHz mobile phone radiation significantly reduced the hatching ratio of queen honey bees.
  • Science of the Total Environment: RF EMF exposure near cell phone towers alters insect/bird receptor organs that orient them with the earth’s magnetic field. Wildlife implications near cell phone towers in urban, natural, and protected areas.
  • Science of the Total Environment: Effects of radio transmitters on animals include reduced survival, decreased productivity, changes in behavior and movement patterns and a biased sex ratio. Electromagnetic radiation produced by radio transmitters has not been considered so far in research.
  • Physiological and Biochemical Zoology: EMF exposure affected reproductive success of kestrels nesting near power lines, reducing hatching success, while increasing fertility, egg size, embryonic development, and fledging success.
  • Apidologie (Biology of Insects): Increased mortality among 8 day old honey bees when exposed to 13.56 MHz and 868 MHz.Recommend limiting honeybees to 2 hours per day exposure to radio waves.
  • Journal of Apicultural Research: DNA damage increased significantly in honey bee larvae exposed to RF-EMF at 900 MHz a with modulating field level (80% AM 1 kHz sinus) at 23 V/m.
  • Journal of Research in Agriculture and Animal Science: Two working cell phones kept in test colonies caused significant decrease in colony strength, honey stores, pollen reserves, number of foragers returning to their hives, egg laying capacity of queens, and disturbed the navigational skills of foragers.
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: Ants exposed to 900 MHz at 1.6 mW/m² had significantly deteriorated responses to trail/area-marking/alarm pheromones, and ability for social food collection.
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: GSM 900 MHz radiation may have a disastrous impact on a wide range of insects relying on olfactory and/or visual memory – especially bees.·     
  • Journal of Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: Protozoan exposed to a GSM 900 MHz 2 watt cell phone had defective cellular membranes, moving more slowly. Altered physiology included problems with cytopharynx, pulse vesicles, cilia, and trichocysts.
  • Toxicology International: Cell phone in talk mode placed in beehives initially reduces motor activity of the worker bees, followed by mass migration of bees toward the “talk mode” cell phone. There was an initial rise in the concentration of biomolecules including proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids.
  • Journal of Public Administration and Policy Research (India): The behavioral pattern of honey bees alters when they are in close proximity to mobile phones and towers. Electromagnetic radiation exposure provides a better explanation for colony collapse disorder than other theories.
  • International Journal of Radiation Biology: GSM 900 MHz and 1.8 GHz mobile phone antennas decreased fruit fly reproductive capacity due to cell death induction. Cell phone bioactivity was evident at exposure intensities down to 1 μW/cm2, with maximum bioactivity at 10 μW/cm2, about 20-30 cm from the mobile phone antenna.
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: Common frog tadpoles had 90% mortality at exposure levels from cell phone tower radiation 140 meters away, with 1.8 to 3.5 V/m. Tadpole mortality was 4.2% for those protected from cell tower radiation by a Faraday cage.
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: Growth and heat-shock response occurs in worms, induced by microwave exposure (750 MHz, 0.5 W) through non-thermal routes.·     
  • Science of the Total Environment: Documented effects of radio transmitters on animals include reduced survival, decreased productivity, changes in behavior and movement patterns and a biased sex ratio. Laboratory scientists investigating the orientation of animals know they have to shield the place where experiments are performed to prevent interference from man-made radiation, as anthropogenic signals may distort the results. 
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: Significant declines observed in the mean House Sparrow density of Valladolid, Spain, correlating with the areas having the highest electric field strength.
  • Journal of Physics and Engineering: Wide variety of non-thermal effects of electromagnetic radiation on amphibians.
  • Journal of Biomedical Physics and Engineering: Frogs exposed to 900 MHz radiation from a Nokia 1616 cellular phone, 15 cm from the receiver, experience altered patterns of muscle extraction.
  • Toxicology: Newts exposed to pulsed electromagnetic field had abnormal regeneration of limbs after amputation. Problems include loss of a digit, fused carpals, and long bone defects.
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: GSM 900 MHz and 1.8 GHz mobile phones decreased biological activity in fruit flies. Both types of radiation were found to decrease significantly and non thermally the insect’s reproductive capacity, but GSM 900 MHz seems to be even more bioactive than DCS 1800 MHz.
  • Pathophysiology: Rat blood-brain barrier has increased permeability at 7 and 14 days after 2 hours of exposure to non-thermal radiation from 900 MHz cell phones.
  • Systematic and Applied Acarology: Ticks exposed to 900 MHz RF-EMF below the proposed limit for public exposure to mobile phone base stations induces and immediate tick locomotor response, and significantly greater movement in the presence of the RF-EMF.
  • Experimental Oncology: Exposure of developing quail embryos to extremely low intensity RF-EMR from GSM 900 MHz leads to a significant oxidative damage to DNA in embryo cells. Oxidative changes may lead to pathologies up to oncogenic transformation of cells.
  • Clinical and Investigative Medicine: Inner ear problems correlate with 1800 MHz, simulated cell phone signal, applied to adult rabbits for 15 min daily for 7 days. Recommend preventing potential hazardous effects of RF EMF in humans.
  • International Journal of Science, Environment: Higher mortality and altered development of chicken embryos exposed to 900 MHz cell phone radiation.
  • General Physiology and Biophysics: Pregnant and non-pregnant rabbits exposed to RF EMF have elevated DNA and lipid damage.    
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: Abundance of house sparrows reduced by long-term exposure to increasing radiation from 900 MHz and 1.8 GHz cell phone base stations.
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: Significant house sparrow population declines in European urban centers correlate with EMF field strengths at frequencies between 1 MHz and 3 GHz.
  • Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine: Microwaves from cell phone towers interfere with white stork reproduction.
  • International Research Journal: Gauriya sparrow population declines correlate with increasing RF EMF exposure to cell phone towers in Bhopal, Nagpur, Jablpur, Ujjain, Gwaliar, Chhindwara, Indore, and Betul (India).
  • Journal of Insect Behavior: At a cell phone exposure of 1.5 V/m, i.e., the legally allowed level in Brussels: a) Trail following ability of ants became less efficient, b) Alarm pheromone response had lower quality, and c) Their locomotion slightly changed. Ants can be considered “bioindicators”.
  • Biomedical Research: Exposure to 900 MHz from 2 Watt cell phones increased the mortality in chicken embryos. Mortality correlates with power density at the egg location and duration of exposure.
  • FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau: FCC mitigation of bird deaths associated with communication towers limited to bird/tower collisions. Biological effects of electromagnetic fields not considered.
  • Biotelemetry: Bird feathers are receptors of microwave fields. Microwave power radiation patterns indicate a substantial increase in the microwave power collected in the forward direction. Effect potentially influences bird behavior.
  • Journal of the Royal Society – Interface: Avian magnetic compass works only in a narrow functional window. Radio-frequency fields in the MHz range disrupt the birds’ orientation. Birds were not able to adjust to radio-frequency fields.
  • Bioelectromagnetics: The thermal preference of squirrel monkeys exposed to HF EMF (2,450 MHz, for 10 minutes, at 6 to 8 mW/cm2 power density) shifted towards significantly cooler ambient temperatures.
  • Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience: Weak broadband fields at 2 kHz to 9 MHz disrupts the orientation of European robins
  • Journal of the Royal Society Publishing Interface: Garden warbler navigation disrupted by weak oscillating magnetic field at 1.403 MHz
  • Radiation Research: Abnormal chromosomal division observed in human-hamster hybrid cells after exposure to radiation in the terahertz frequency band (0.106 THz; 0.043 to 4.3 mW/cm2; 30 minute exposure)
  • Journal of Cellular Biochemistry: Heat shock proteins appear in fruit flies after exposure to non-thermal radiation (900 and 1,900 MHz; 1.4 W/kg) from a multi-band cell phone. Study provides biomarkers that provide a basis for realistic mobile phone safety guidelines.
  • Scientific Reports:  At constant power densities, the absorbed RF EMF at 2–120 GHz increases as exposure shifts to higher frequencies, in honey bees, locust, beetles, and Australian stingless bees.
  • Journal of Insect Conservation: Wild pollinators on Greek islands exposed to 800 MHz to 2.6 GHZ cell phone towers experienced: a) Decreasing abundance of wild pollinators living above ground, and b) Increasing abundance for underground-nesting wild bees/bee flies.
  • Open Ophthalmology Journal: Exposure of bovine eye lenses to 1.1 GHz, 2.22 mW microwaves caused a reversible decrease in lens optical quality accompanied by irreversible morphological and biochemical damage to the lens epithelial cell layer.
  • Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology: Albino rabbits exposed to WIFI had an elevated heart rate (+22%), and blood pressure (+14%).