The placement and operation of communication towers and other communication infrastructure in the U.S. continues to grow exponentially. Unfortunately, the cumulative effects – including the cumulative biological effects – of collisions with these structures, impacts to habitats from degradation and fragmentation, and effects from radiation on migratory birds, bats, and other trust resource species remain poorly understood, generally poorly assessed, and in many cases completely unquantified…
The effects of radiation from communication towers on nesting and roosting wild birds are yet unstudied in U.S. and Canada, although in Europe, Balmori (2005) found strong negative correlations between levels of tower-emitted microwave radiation and bird breeding, nesting, and roosting in the vicinity of electromagnetic fields in Spain. He documented nest and site abandonment, plumage deterioration, locomotion problems, and death in House Sparrows, White Storks, Rock Doves, Magpies, Collared Doves, and other species. While these species had historically been documented to roost and nest in these areas, Balmori (2005) did not observe these symptoms prior to construction and operation of the cellular phone towers. Balmori and Hallberg (2007) and Everaert and Bauwens (2007) found similar strong negative correlations among male House Sparrows.
Under laboratory conditions in the U.S., T. Litovitz (pers. comm.) and DiCarlo et al. (2002) raised troubling concerns about impacts of low-level, non-thermal radiation from the standard 915 MHz cell phone frequency on domestic chicken embryos – with some lethal results (Manville 2009; www.healthandenvironment.org/wg_emf_news/6143 ). It is important to note that radiation levels in this laboratory study were far below current FCC-approved and permissible human health radiation standards (i.e., 1.6 W/kg of whole body tissue). The FCC, and most other agencies for that matter, currently lack any wildlife health radiation standards. DiCarlo et al. (2002) found that with embryo exposures of > 30 minutes of radiation per day under hypoxic conditions, embryos developed deformities including induced DNA damage at 0.0024 W/kg the current permissible level, and induced heart failure based on affected levels of calcium in the heart at 0.00015W/kg the permissible level. The controls also tested under hypoxic conditions were unaffected (Manville 2005, 2013a).
In Greece, Magras and Xenos (1997) tested laboratory mice treated with radiation to replicate conditions found close to an “antenna park.” After 5 generations of newborns, irreversible infertility occurred.
A more recent and detailed laboratory and field study and extensive meta-review of the data by Panagopoulos and Margaritis (2008) have raised serious, non-thermal biological effects from radiation to birds, insects (important food sources for many species of avifauna) and mammals. Findings included rate or gene expression changes, cell death, decrease in melatonin production, population declines in birds and insects, and small but statistically significant increases in certain types of cancer. The study focused on the radiation from mobile telephone antennas, including handsets and base stations.
Extended low doses of microwave cell-phone and mobile phone radiation are being shown to be a distinct risk to human health through enhanced probabilities of cancer (e.g., Hardell and Mild 2001, Panagopoulos and Margaritis 2008), Alzheimer’s disease (e.g., Sobel et al. 1996), and an alert 3 years ago by the World Health Organization as a “possible carcinogen” (Clegg 2014). However, their effects primarily on wild birds have only recently been studied, and only in Europe. A compendium of most of the published papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature that show possible electromagnetic radiation (EMR) effects to wildlife is currently available. It can be found at www.livingplanet.be/ then click on EM Radiation.
Given the findings of the European field studies mentioned above, similar studies should be conducted in the U.S. to validate potential impacts of communication tower radiation – including both direct and indirect effects – to birds, bats and other wildlife in North America. Such studies need to be performed by independent, third-party researchers with no vested interest in the outcomes. Research study protocols based on designs by Balmori (2005), Balmori and Bauwens (2007), Everaert and Bauwens (2007), and others should be reviewed, with attempts made to better assess causality and further tease out the dynamics of impacts (e.g., Manville 2002).
The electromagnetic radiation standards developed by the FCC in the 1980s were based on standards of thermal heating from microwave radiation, maintained by an office in the Environmental Protection Agency. That office was ultimately zero-budgeted and no longer exists. Unfortunately, FCC radiation standards continue to be based on thermal heating, a criterion now nearly 30 years out of date and inapplicable today. This is due to the development of analogue and more recent digital cellular phone technologies, and lower levels of radiation output from microwave-powered communication devices such as cellular and mobile telephones, and other sources of point-to-point communications – levels generally lower than from microwave ovens. Given the U.S. laboratory and European field study findings (e.g., www.livingplanet.be/), radiation must be included as part of a cumulative effects analysis both biologically and under NEPA review, and probably should be performed through an environmental impact statement as a part of NEPA review. It is important to note that the FCC standards are only for human exposures and that there literally are no standards to protect wildlife at virtually any agency, despite exponentially increasing exposures and disturbing research findings….
Full report: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/es/planning/pdf/USFWS2013RevisedGuidanceCommTowersSupportingInfo27Sept.pdf
Presentation by Dr Albert Manville: http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/papers/manville_wildlife_towers.pdf