Understanding the Impacts of Wireless Radiation on Birds and Wildlife
Wireless technological advancement has outpaced our awareness of its impacts on birds, pollinators, wildlife, and the delicate ecosystems they form.
Biologists are speaking up as growing scientific evidence shows that wireless and cellular exposures are harmful to a broad range of animals and plants.
Negative health effects have been documented in honeybees, migratory birds, turtles, frogs, and other wildlife.
As wireless continues to penetrate the planet's parks, forests, nature preserves and wilderness habitats, the damaging impacts become more evident.
Because of the diverse species harmed, wireless may be a contributing factor in the dramatic declines seen recently across diverse ecosystems.
A Stressor on the Ecosystems of the Earth
"We may be damaging non-human species at ecosystem and biosphere levels across all taxa."
Levitt, Lai and Manville, 2022, on rising background levels of wireless and other man-made EMFs
The Science on
Wireless Radiation
Biologists Speak
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Major Scientific Reviews
Flora and Fauna: A Three-Part Review Series
This comprehensive series reviews over 1,200 scientific studies on the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on flora and fauna. It found that, taken together, there is evidence that the planet’s ecosystems are seriously threatened by increasing wireless radiation levels and other man-made EMFs. The authors concluded that current levels may act in a synergistic manner with adverse effects on bird and wildlife migration, food attainment, mating, reproduction, nest and den building, and even survivorship. "Due to the continuous rising ambient levels of nonionizing electromagnetic fields (EMFs) used in modern societies - primarily from wireless technologies - that have now become a ubiquitous biologically active environmental pollutant, a new vision on how to regulate such exposures for non-human species at the ecosystem level is needed."
Part 1. Rising ambient EMF levels in the environment.
Provides background on the exponential increases in EMF levels seen across nearly all environments in recent decades, describes data on wildlife and habitat exposure to EMF, and reviews the biological effects seen across all taxa and frequencies, including orientation and migration, food finding, reproduction, longevity and survivorship.
Part 2. Impacts: How Species Interact with Natural and Man-made EMF
Describes the impacts of EMF exposures on species, including extensive supplemental tables of documented harmful effects in animals, even at vanishingly low intensities that are commonplace today. The tables match rising ambient EMF levels to health effects in the environment.
Part 3. Exposure Standards, Public Policy, Laws, and Future Directions
Calls for the protection of non-human species through the regulation of wireless and other EMF exposures at the ecosystem level. Finds that there are no regulatory standards for the protection of birds and wildlife from wireless radiation, despite the fact that wireless technologies are widely biologically active and have become ubiquitous as an environmental pollutant. The authors recommend a new vision for legal protections given the ongoing growth in wireless exposures.
Wildlife Orientation and Cell Tower Radiofrequencies
Biologist Alfonso Balmori documents man-made radiofrequency (RF) fields as an emerging threat to wildlife orientation. He describes the scientific evidence showing that exposure at levels currently found near cell towers may alter the receptor organs to orient in the magnetic field of the earth. These results could have important implications for migratory birds and insects, posing a threat to wildlife not only in urban areas but also natural and protected areas where powerful cell towers have become increasingly dense. Given the remarkable expansion of RF radiation over the past 20 years, Balmori notes the relevance of the topic to ecology, conservation and experimental biology due to its documented effects on animals and plants.
"At the present time, there are reasonable grounds based on scientific evidence for believing that microwave radiation constitutes an environmental and health hazard."
Alfonso Balmori, 2015
Insects and Wireless: A Meta-Analysis
In 2023 biologists Thill and colleagues reviewed 185 papers on the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on insects, and 145 studies on insect magnetic sensing. Insects were harmed even at commonly used HF strengths that fall within current regulatory thresholds for humans. Observed findings included decreased reproductive capacity, oxidative stress, DNA damage and impaired development among studies of high frequency (HF) range fields. The human threshold for HF field strength is less than 6 V/m (~100mW/m2), set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Statistically significant toxic effects in insects were found in 31 of the 36 studies at these allowable strengths. Because these field strengths are permitted under the current regulatory framework, they are ubiquitous in the environment today, meaning that insects are exposed regularly across varied landscapes and habitats. The review also found significant effects among low frequency (LF) range experiments (n=133) including behavioral, metabolic and reproductive effects.
"Toxic effects on insects may occur at radiation levels that are considered safe for humans, particularly in the higher frequency bands."
- Alain Thill, Marie-Claire Cammaerts and Alfonso Balmori, 2023
Low-Level EMF Effects on Wildlife and Plants
This critical overview of scientific research concluded that wildlife and plants in all species studied are likely adversely affected by man-made electromagnetic fields (EMF) in the non-ionizing spectrum, which includes the frequencies used by all wireless and cellular technologies. Due to differing physiologies and sensitivity levels among non-human species, existing exposure standards for humans are inappropriate for trans-species protection. "Any existing exposure standards are for humans only; wildlife is unprotected." This review concludes that non-human species clearly experience EMF as environmental stressors, and that this largely unrecognized pollutant can conceivably alter delicate ecosystems — and that this may already be happening at biosphere scale. "Electroreception mechanisms, including magneto/electroreceptors, magnetite, and cryptochrome/radical-pairs, enable vast living organisms in all environments to detect the presence of, and immediate changes, in non-ionizing electromagnetic fields at very low intensities across a range of frequencies. Such heightened sensitivities function far beyond human perception and create unique vulnerabilities that can easily be disturbed by novel man-made fields."
We may already be overwhelming some species' natural biological sensors that evolved over eons.
Scientist Testimony and Letters
U.S. Department of Interior on Birds and Cell Towers
The U.S. Department of the Interior raised concerns about cell tower radiation negatively impacting the health of migratory birds in a 2014 letter addressing the FCC. "Nesting migratory birds and their offspring have apparently been affected by the radiation from cellular phone towers in the 900 and 1800 MHz frequency ranges - 915 MHz is the standard cellular phone frequency used in the United States." The letter urges the FCC to address "cumulative impacts on those 241 species for which the incremental impact of tower mortality… is most likely significant,” documenting radiation studies on wild nesting birds showing harmful impacts. The Department also describes the radiation standards set by the FCC as "outdated" and not protective of non-human species against the adverse effects of cell tower radiation. Excerpts: “The second significant issue associated with communication towers involves impacts from nonionizing electromagnetic radiation emitted by these structures. Radiation studies at cellular communication towers were begun circa 2000 in Europe and continue today on wild nesting birds. Study results have documented nest and site abandonment, plumage deterioration, locomotion problems, reduced survivorship, and death (e.g., Balmori 2005, Balmori and Hallberg 2007, and Everaert and Bauwens 2007). Nesting migratory birds and their offspring have apparently been affected by the radiation from cellular phone towers in the 900 and 1800 MHz frequency ranges- 915 MHz is the standard cellular phone frequency used in the United States. However, the electromagnetic radiation standards used by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) continue to be based on thermal heating, a criterion now nearly 30 years out of date and inapplicable today. This is primarily due to the lower levels of radiation output from microwave-powered communication devices such as cellular telephones and other sources of point-to-point communications; levels typically lower than from microwave ovens. The problem, however, appears to focus on very low levels of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation. For example, in laboratory studies, T. Litovitz (personal communication) and DiCarlo et al. (2002) raised concerns about impacts oflow-level, non-thermal electromagnetic radiation from the standard 915 MHz cell phone frequency on domestic chicken embryos- with some lethal results (Manville 2009, 2013a). Radiation at extremely low levels (0.0001 the level emitted by the average digital cellular telephone) caused heart attacks and the deaths of some chicken embryos subjected to hypoxic conditions in the laboratory while controls subjected to hypoxia were unaffected (DiCarlo et al. 2002). To date, no independent, third-party field studies have been conducted in North America on impacts of tower electromagnetic radiation on migratory birds. With the European field and U.S. laboratory evidence already available, independent, third-party peer-reviewed studies need to be conducted in the U.S. to begin examining the effects from radiation on migratory birds and other trust species.”
"Radiation studies at cellular communication towers have documented nest and site abandonment, plumage deterioration, reduced survivorship."
U.S. Department of the Interior, 2014
Bee Colony Collapse
Bioscientist Ulrich Warnke explains how factors such as pesticides, mites, monocultures, severe winters, and genetically modified seeds fail to explain “the fairly sudden and country-spanning appearance two to three years ago of the dying bees phenomenon." He documents the body of research showing that man-made wireless technologies produce electromagnetic oscillations and magnetic impulses that disturb the natural navigation mechanisms of bees. He describes how bees and birds use the Earth’s magnetic field and naturally occurring high frequency electromagnetic energy to orient themselves for effective navigation, and how this can be disrupted by man-made high frequencies. The mechanisms of bee and bird orientation are described, including the roles of free radicals and magnetite conglomerates.
Technically produced electromagnetic oscillations in the MHz range and magnetic impulses in the low frequency range persistently disturb the natural orientation and navigation mechanisms created by evolution.”
- Ulrich Warnke
Birds and Bats: A Scientist's Testimony, 2023
Retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service senior wildlife biologist Albert Manville describes the effects of man-made radiofrequency radiation on bird and bat species, the ecological importance of birds and bats to the planet, and his scientific research in pursuit of their protection.
Federal Court Admonishes FCC
over Wildlife and Environment
In a historic decision the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found in favor of environmental health groups and petitioners in 2021, ordering the FCC to explain why it ignored scientific evidence showing harm from wireless radiation.
In Environmental Health Trust et al. v. FCC, the court held that the FCC failed to address "impacts to wildlife and the environment" and multiple other issues including impacts of long term wireless exposure and impacts to children. The court ordered the FCC to “(i) provide a reasoned explanation for its decision to retain its testing procedures for determining whether cell phones and other portable electronic devices comply with its guidelines, (ii) address the impacts of RF radiation on children, the health implications of long-term exposure to RF radiation, the ubiquity of wireless devices, and other technological developments that have occurred since the Commission last updated its guidelines, and (iii) address the impacts of RF radiation on the environment.”
See the full FCC document here.
"A complete failure to respond to comments concerning environmental harm caused by RF radiation"
US Court of Appeals for DC Circuit on FCC lack of response, Environmental Health Trust v. FCC 2021
Species Decline Following 4G Expansion
In his report to UNESCO on the Disappearance of Species, Australian botanist Mark Broomhall documents the impact of increased electromagnetic radiation (EMR) resulting from the expansion of 4G telecommunications in the Nightcap National Park, a World Heritage Site. This report refers to cell tower complex positioned in the Mount Nardi area of the park.
The disappearance of large numbers of species from the area is documented over the 15-year period from 2000 to 2015, amid corresponding increases in levels of electromagnetic radiation from the tower complex.
Following deployment of the 4G tower complex, Broomhall documents the exodus of 49 bird species, as well as other wildlife and insect declines.
"From 70 to 90 percent of the wildlife has become rare or has disappeared from the Nightcap National Park within a 2-3 km radius of the Mt. Nardi tower complex.”
Mark Broomhall, UNESCO report
Declaration of Wildlife Biologist Alfonso Balmori
In his 2023 declaration biologist Balmori summarizes three decades of his own research and that of other biologists studying wildlife and wireless radiation.
Excerpt:
The increase in the density of base stations across the world has greatly increased electromagnetic pollution or “electrosmog,” especially in urban centers. These devices produce microwave radiation at a variety of frequencies, including 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1700 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, and 2100 MHz pulsed waves that interfere with the nervous systems of living beings. Prolonged exposure has also been shown to have negative effects on sperm motility characteristics and reproductive capacity. There exist thousands of scientific studies that indicate danger for the health and humans and other living beings from this kind of microwave radiation.
5G wireless technology will add much higher frequencies, in the GHz spectrum, and a much greater density of antennas is being planned, as many as one base station every one hundred meters for each wireless carrier. Not only in the United States, but in Spain and everywhere in the world, telecommunications companies are beginning to install these antennas on the streets and sidewalks of cities in front of people’s homes, and anecdotal reports of damage to birds and illness in humans are beginning to emerge. Based on my own research and my familiarity with the literature, it is my opinion that such a high density of cellular base stations close to where people live, and throughout cities, will cause irreversible harm not only to the people who live in the cities but to the birds, wildlife and trees.
"Any existing exposure standards are for humans only; wildlife is unprotected."
Levitt 2022