Canary bird recovers from mobile phone mast exposure
August 14, 2005
Nijkerk (The Netherlands) - The canary bird of H. in Nijkerk has not sung for almost eight months. He was pecking his skin and loosing feathers. The day after his cage was protected against the radiation of a GSM antenna mast at 50 metres distance, the bird started to make noise again and even produced some trills. Ten days after, he sits proudly on his stick and does not loose his feathers anymore.
The cage is in the living room. In this room, experts of Telecom Agency of the ministry of Economic Affairs of The Netherlands measured 1,14 V/m (ca. 3000 mikroWatt/m2) for GSM 1800 MHz. The cage has been protected by fine metal mesh and aluminium foil at the bottom. Visitors think it's pathetic, but the bird is doing better thanks to the protection. He sings many times and a few days ago he has been heard singing in the early morning as well.
The owner of the canary bird has serious health problems himself. They started when a GSM 1800 MHz mast was installed on top of a building opposite of his home. The heating, television and other devices with electronic parts gave a lot of troubles. When H. stays for a few days in a place without high frequency radiation, most of his complaints disappear and the others are reduced to a bearable level.
The experiment with the canary bird shows that health problems caused by mobile phone radiation are not psychological primarily, since a bird can not be anxious about an antenna installation. The cage is still in the same position and without draught. There has been no change in taking care of this bird.
The recovery of the canary can be explained only by the reduction of the intensity of the GSM mobile phone mast radiation (DECT telephones are removed and wireless computers absent). The intensity inside the cage is about 0,5 mikroWatt/m2 after protection.
Canary birds were once used in coal mines to check the quality of the air.
When a canary died, the workers had to escape from the mine immediately. The experiment with the canary in The Netherlands shows that birds are 'sensitive' as well for the electromagnetic radiation of mobile communication systems, including DECT-telephones and wireless networks. In fact this should not amaze anybody, since many scientific research has found biological ('non-thermal') effects of radiofrequency radiation in humans, animals and plants.
More information about the radiation of GSM, UMTS, DECT, WIFI etc.:
http://www.stopumts.nl
I received interesting & important posts in response to the Canary story,
It is interesting to note that in Osafia, the Druz village that removed antennas because of more than 200 cancer cases (15 new cancer cases were diagnosed only last month), birds disappeared from the village when the antennas were there, and now with no antennas- birds are back !!
Here are the posts - concentrated together they give quite a strong picture.
From Milt Bowling (Canada )
The National Research Council of Canada did lots of studies on the non-thermal effects of microwave radiation on birds in the 1960s, before the wireless industry took control of the science. They found that bird feathers acted as dielectric receptors. Birds that had been plucked under anesthesia showed no reaction to radiation until the 12th day, when their feathers started to grow back.
Studies also showed altered EEG patterns, escape behaviour, other signs of stress in the form of vocalization, defecation and initiation of flight. Parakeets chose an unradiated feeder over a radiated one. Domestic fowl [Leghorns] increased egg production by 13.7% under radiation. Unfortunately, the mortality rate of the radiated colony was double that of the control colony. Their exposures ranged from 0.2 uW/cm2 to 360 uW/cm2. Young chicks exposed to 25mW/cm2 collapsed on the floor of the cage and remained in that position until the radiation was turned off. Time to collapse ranged from 5 to 20 seconds.
Mike Repacholi at one time was with Health Canada and certainly would have had access to these studies. I wonder if WHO recommendations will include this science?
Milt
From Larry Blackhall, Canada, who is studying the subject, this is part of his research :
National Research Centre of Canada - (NRC)
Scientific peer reviewed and archived laboratory controlled studies done by the NRC of Canada demonstrate conclusively the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation on living systems. These studies are available through the NRC archives.
To obtain copies by telephone call 1 800 668 1222 or visit their website at
http://www.nrc.ca/cisti .
There is a nominal charge of aproximately $12 cdn.
Here are three brief relevant extracts from three of the studies;
1. Extract from LTR-CS-113 by Dr J Bigu, 1973, titled:
"Interaction of electromagnetic fields and living systems with special reference to birds."
During the initial stabilizing period the egg production of each colony was the same, but following the onset of radiation the egg production of the radiated colony increased to a higher level at which it remained essentially constant. In terms of the total number of eggs produced the diference amounts to an increase of 13.7% - an increase that could be of economic significance in raising poultry provided other, and undesired, interaction effects do not appear.
However the mortality rate of the radiated colony was almost double that of the control colony through each of phases A and B.
2. Extract from LTR-CS-18 by Dr J A Tanner, 1969, titled:
"Effects of microwave radiation on Parakeets in Flight"
Conclusion: The results obtained in this experiment indicates that microwave radiation has an aversive effect on birds in flight comparable to that previously observed in caged birds. This leads the way to a possible solution of the bird hazard problem in aviation.
3. Extract from LTR-CS-89 by Dr. J A Tanner, 1973, co-authored by Dr. Romero-Sierra, Dept of Anatomy, Queens' University, Kingston, Ont., titled;
"Bird Feathers as Dialectic Receptors of Microwave Radiation."
Depending on many factors the use of microwave radiation can be detrimental or beneficial to humans. One beneficial use of microwave radiation is to reduce the hazards of birds to aircraft. This forms part of an extensive program designed to shed some light on the complex nature of the interaction of microwave radiation with biological systems.
From Penny Hargreaves (New Zealand)
More mobiles, and sparrows take flight
Ambarish Mukherjee
New Delhi, Nov. 30
THE wireless telecom revolution is catching on at the expense of a tiny winged creature — the house sparrow. The tiny birds are fast disappearing from cities "contaminated" with electromagnetic waves arising out of increased number of mobile handsets.
According to Dr S. Vijayan, Director of the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), "A number of studies has been conducted to find out the relationship between the increase in electromagnetic waves and the decrease in the number of sparrows. A positive correlation has been found between them."
"There have been studies in Spain which showed that sparrows disappear from cities where electromagnetic contamination is very heavy," Dr Vijayan added.
A study was initiated earlier this year in London by the British Trust for Ornithology to investigate whether the explosion of electromagnetic waves from portable handsets is wiping out sparrows in London. The British study involves 30,000 birdwatchers who will examine the urban sparrow population near cell-phone masts, where electromagnetic fields are most concentrated.
London has witnessed a steep fall in its sparrow population — a 75 per cent fall since 1994, which coincides with the emergence of the cell-phone.
Electromagnetic waves travel through the air to the cell-phone masts located above tall buildings in the cities. These waves then travel to and fro between the handset and the tower while one is using the handset, and this results in increased electromagnetic contamination in the air.
The rapidly increasing number of cell-phone subscribers is resulting in higher concentration level of electromagnetic waves in the air which clashes with the earth's electromagnetic field.
Dr Vijayan also pointed out that sparrows are found to be disappearing from areas where mobile towers are installed.
SACON has also initiated a detailed study to find out how exactly these small birds are being affected.
"These are all circumstantial evidences. Now we need to prove how it is exactly affecting the sparrows. My feeling is that it probably affects their central nervous system. We are conducting studies with inputs from various cities on the falling number of sparrows in which the effect of electromagnetic contamination from mobile phones are also being examined," Dr Vijayan said.
He said increased exposure to electromagnetic waves also affects small animals. For example, in rats, it is found that the sperm count has decreased while in the case of chicken embryonic, mortality has become very high. There could be more examples, he added.
Another one from Penny :
Subject: Fw: Re caged birds -canaries etc
A farmer who was breeding ostriches about a kilometre from the radio tower found some of the chickens did not develop feathers.
Subject: EMF in the barnyard (fwd)
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 082740 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru@hotmail.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 15:11:43 +1000
From: myra kyneur
To: w-m-a@reach.net
Cc : marjlundquist@yahoo.com
Subject: EMF in the barnyard
Dear Wolfgang Scherer
We were very interested in your account of radiofrequeny radiation (RFR)effects on cattle and birds on the Bavarian farm. Of particular interest were the effects on the birds, as we have documented three cases of RFR effects on birds here in Sydney, Australia.
We thought you may find this of interest also. The exquisite sensitivity of the canary, and it would seem other birds, is obviously incompatible with the radiofrequency radiation (RFR) associated with cellular phone transmitters. A warning for the human population?
We wonder if it would be a useful exercise to survey the caged bird population within a given distance from mobile phone base stations.
Following are the cases we have documented.
Case 1.. Fairlight NSW : Unusual behaviour of flock of approx. 17 black crows that usually roosted on the roof of a high rise apartment block.
After the installation of a mobile phone base station (MBS) nearby resident noticed the birds became noisier and unsettled. This behaviour continued for about two weeks-the birds are now no longer in this neighbourhood.
Case2.. Caringbah NSW : Within 200 metres of a MBS Bantam hens and roosters died unexpectedly from unknown causes, within a short time of the installation of the MBS.
Note: On the same premises, a family of two adults and three young adults each progressively developed 'microwave hearing' and moderate to severe headaches after the same MBS installation.
The headaches diminished after alterations were made to the electricity power supply in the street. (Details available on request)
The microwave hearing associated with the MBS continues.
Case 3...Kirrawee NSW: For a number of years an exotic bird breeder had approx. 350 birds located one hundred metres distance from a radiofrequency antenna used by a paging service. Within four months of the installation being upgraded to a mobile base station (MBS) most birds refused to breed, those that did breed prematurely removed the young from the nests. Two only young birds survived the season, one only has feathers, the other none at all.
Some species became aggressive, defeathering their mates.
The owner has since moved house.
Comments to: Betty Venables, Co-ordinator, C/- Email address as above or postal address, EMR SAFETY NETWORK-INTERNATIONAL, 216 President Ave Miranda NSW 2228 Australia
fred moore
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide,
http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers,
http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html
Informant: Iris Atzmon
--------
Effects of exposing chicken eggs to a cell phone in "call" position over the entire incubation period
From the abstract: The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of exposing fertile chicken eggs to a cell phone repeatedly calling a ten-digit number at 3-min intervals over the entire period of incubation. A significantly higher percentage of embryo mortality was observed in the "exposed" compared to the "sham" group in 2 of the 4 replicates (p<.05). In comparison with control groups, additional embryo mortality in the exposed group occurred mainly between Days 9 and 12 of incubation but a causal relationship between the intensity of the electric field and embryo mortality could not be established. Bibliography: Batellier et al., Theriogenology. 2008 Feb 4 [Epub ahead of print], Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18255134?dopt=Abstract
Spanish paper on RF effects on birds
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/904106/
Micro Waves Effects on Wildlife Animals
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/micro_waves_effects_on_wildlife_animals.pdf
EMF Exposure - Animal Studies
http://members.aol.com/gotemf/emf/animals.htm
Effects of the electromagnetic fields of phone masts on a population of White Stork (Ciconia ciconia)
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/effects_of_emf_on_white_stork.pdf
Pulsed microwave radiation and wildlife - Are Cell Phones Wiping Out Sparrows?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/926007/
Electromagnetic pollution of the environment
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/2955273/
