Cell phones could kill us after all

[AndrewB]

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece

Let's piece together this headline.

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

[Dr. Zin]

We aren't limited to just bees. We could cultivate yellow jackets.

[darknation]

we need to breed bees with microwave shielding.

Or invent little lead suits of bee-armour.

[Zaldron]

It's an interesting theory but lung mites causing inmunodepression is the strongest lead so far.

[Dr. Zin]

Oh, I almost forgot that most of our grains are pollinated by the wind and would not be effected by a beeocalypse.

[AndrewB]

darknation said:

we need to breed bees with microwave shielding.

Or invent little lead suits of bee-armour.

I suppose if someone asked you to install a wireless network, you would put the WAP in a shielded room isolated from all the clients. Or perhaps you would wrap all the wireless adapters in tin foil so that "the radiation can't get in."

Contrary to popular belief, the correct way to deal with RFI is NOT to kill all communications.

[darknation]

I'm wearing my anri-retard communications cloak, so I can't hear what you are saying.

[GGG]

It's time to rethink how to run cellphones. I'm for hydrogen, but we'll likely have to start with hybrids.

[Inferno]

Shit... And I was happy that the solution to vehicle fuel was solved.

Well I don't know what to think of this. The whole news with the bees is recent, but cells have been around for a little while now. So why is it so sudden now that the production of honey is in danger? They don't make it sound like it's been happening over a period of time.

[Johnatone]

I'm not losing any sleep over it. With the rate of technological advancements these days, even if there is validity to this, we'll adapt, and I'll probably be dead decades before it even matters.

[Csonicgo]

This is absolute bullshit. If this theory was true, this surely should've happened a decade ago. Besides, Europe and US run completely different frequencies So if it happened here, why is it happening there? And if it's specific to mobile phones, why? Why not Wireless Access points? why not Radio? why not the sun? it gives off radiation too!

First it was Thinkofthechildren, , now it's Thinkofthebees. That evil radiation!

[Sharessa]

And that T-Mobile salesman told me cellphones are the bee's knees. :(

[Gokuma]

Keeping a cell phone in your pocket causes nad or cervical cancer.

[Csonicgo]

I hope you're not serious

[Inferno]

Well this sucks for just about everyone. I'm sure the probability of this isn't high. But then again..

[AndrewB]

I still have not seen a single rebuttal to this story other than "yeah, suuuure." Bees ARE dying mysteriously throughout NA and Europe. They haven't identified a virus or anything of the nature.

[Csonicgo]

AndrewB said:

I still have not seen a single rebuttal to this story other than "yeah, suuuure." Bees ARE dying mysteriously throughout NA and Europe. They haven't identified a virus or anything of the nature.

When the killer bees come the best way to defend yourself is to whip out your cell, make a ringing sound, then pass it to the bee and say "Its for you"!


Cell phones were commmon in Europe for many years before they became known in the US, so the fact that the bee problem started in the US and spread to Europe argues against this whole "cell phone bee killer" thing. If a bee decline were related to cellphone use the problem would have started in Europe, right?

Beesides (lol), UHF would have wiped out the bees a long time ago if this was the case.

[Aleaver]

Hmm Cell phones kills bees...Never thought about how harmful cell phones can be.

[Csonicgo]

Aleaver said:

Hmm Cell phones kills bees...Never thought about how harmful cell phones can be.

You forgot your sarcasm tag.

Besides, the article is completely false, it's probably blood mites, Foulbrood, or possibly a new disease.

It's not cellphones. It pisses me off that bullshit like this gets attention from the media.

[Aleaver]

Csonicgo said:

You forgot your sarcasm tag.

Besides, the article is completely false, it's probably blood mites, Foulbrood, or possibly a new disease.

It's not cellphones. It pisses me off that bullshit like this gets attention from the media.

Oh yes..I did forget the sarcasm tag..And I also believe its false.
What hasn't been evented (like cell phones) that someone hasn't clamied is harmful to nature in someway? Im sick of hearing it really. But thats just me I guess.

[Csonicgo]

Kinda like how everything causes cancer?


Seriously, think about it. What HAS NOT been blamed for cancer? Even our old pal Solar has been blamed.

[Aleaver]

Yep..Everyday I hear something on the news about a how a new drug or whatever cause this or that. Makes one think that almost nothing is safe to use. Everything is made out to be so negative.

[Kirby]

You're all fools. Carpenter bees are the answer to everything

[CODOR]

Maybe it's microbial mushrooms...

[Quasar]

Many things have been "blamed" for cancer because cancer is pretty easy to cause. Anything that can damage DNA can cause cancer. Chemicals, viruses, radiation (ultra-violet, X, gamma, etc). It's such a problem for all life that we've evolved some basic defenses against it. Besides genetic redundancy and error correction mechanisms, the immune system seems to play a major role in fighting cancer, at least in humans. People with immunodeficiencies have higher cancer rates. Funny thing is, we don't understand the mechanism through which it does this.

[fodders]

OhmyGoditsaterroristplot

[fraggle]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder

In April 2007, news of a University of Landau study appeared in major media, beginning with an article in The Independent that stated that the subject of the study was "mobile phones" (a term usually used to refer to cellular phones) and had related them to CCD[58]. Cellular phones were in fact not covered in the study, and the researchers have since emphatically disavowed any connection between their research, cell phones, and CCD, specifically indicating that the Independent article had misinterpreted their results and created "a horror story"[59][60][61].

The 2006 University of Landau pilot study was looking for non-thermal effects of RF on honey bees (Apis mellifera carnica) and suggested that when bee hives have DECT cordless phone base stations embedded in them, the close-range EMF emissions may reduce the ability of bees to return to their hive; they also noticed a slight reduction in honeycomb weight in treated colonies. [62] In the course of their study, one half of their colonies broke down, including some of their controls which did not have DECT base stations embedded in them.

The team's 2004 exploratory study on non-thermal effects on learning did not find any change in behavior due to RF exposure from the DECT base station operating at 1880-1900 MHz.[63]

Many possible biological effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields have been postulated but it is generally accepted that the most significant effects are thermal.[64]. The amount of RF radiation routinely encountered by the general public is too low to produce significant heating or increased body temperature.[65]

For clarification: "DECT cordless phones" are the kind of phone that you have in your home that operate wirelessly, not mobile phones. Even then, they did not find any change in behaviour. This is poor quality reporting in the extreme.

[darknation]

Csonicgo said:

Kinda like how everything causes cancer?


Seriously, think about it. What HAS NOT been blamed for cancer? Even our old pal Solar has been blamed.

reading your posts has given me eye and brain cancer.

[Xaechireon]

We're gonna die anyways man. Global warming, poaching, terrorism, a retarded new generation (lets hope none of us are), deforestation, pollution due to landfills, oilspills, I could go on forever.

[Fletcher`]

BEES ARE DYING