Note added by EMFSA: This study is about power-line ELF-EMF

Extract

There is a growing concern that the decline in pollinators spells problems for humans. However, there is debate as to what causes decline in e.g. bee populations. What modifications to environment, introduced by humans, cause death and misbehavior of bees. Many claim that pesticides are to blame. Many, afraid to be called foil-hats, are afraid to say that EMF might be involved too.

Just published study from Italy has demonstrated that pesticides alone are not good for bees but that pesticides combined with ELF-EMF from power line is even worse, the multi-stressors environment:

Lupi et al., Combined Effects of Pesticides and Electromagnetic-Fields on Honeybees: Multi-Stress Exposure, Insects 2021, 12(8), 716; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12080716

In simple terms, it looks like pesticides kill bees whereas pesticides + EMF cause behavioral changes.

Not good news for humans and for the rest of fauna kingdom that eats what plants produce…

The post A nifty study showing that pesticides + EMF are more unhealthy for the bees than pesticides alone… appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

The amount of artificial electromagnetic fields of various parameters in the honey bee’s environment increases globally. So far, it had been proven that exposure to an E-field at 50 Hz can cause changes in bee’s behavior, alter the activity of proteases, and enzymatic antioxidants. Due to the potentially harmful effect of this factor on honey bees, we decided to investigate the activity of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and the concentration of albumin and creatinine in bee’s hemolymph after exposure to 50 Hz E-field. Honey bee workers were placed in wooden cages (200 × 150 × 70 mm) and exposed to the 50 Hz E-field with the intensity of <1, 5.0, 11.5, 23.0, or 34.5 kV/m for 1, 3, 6, or 12h. A homogeneous 50 Hz E-field was generated in the form of a plate capacitor. Hemolymph samples for analysis were taken immediately after the end of exposure to the E-field from 100 bees from each group. According to our study, the activity of AST, ALT, and ALP in honey bees’ hemolymph decreased after exposure to 50 Hz E-field with various intensities. The decrease in AST, ALT, and ALP activity intensified with prolonged exposure time. 50 Hz E-field may cause the impairment of crucial metabolic cycles in the honey bees’ organism (such as the citric acid cycle, ATP synthesis, oxidative phosphorylation, β-oxidation). Moreover, exposure to E-Field altered the concentration of creatinine and albumin, which are important non-enzymatic antioxidants. Such changes may indicate a disturbance in protein metabolism and increased muscle activity.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0252858

The post Effect of the electric field at 50 Hz and variable intensities on biochemical markers in the honey bee’s hemolymph appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

It is known that animals are sensitive to the geomagnetic field. In the case of insects, magnetoreception has been reported in several ant species and in some bees and wasps. One study showed that the stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula is able to sense the modification of the magnetic field inclination. The aim of the present manuscript is to continue that study in T. angustula, analyzing the nest arrival and departure angles in the presence of magnetic fields generated by magnets. The bees flying to and from the nest were recorded and the flying trajectories were obtained by analyzing the video frame by frame. The magnetic field was generated by 6, 9, or 12 magnets contained inside an Eppendorf tube and fixed near the nest. Our results show that T. angustula bees are sensitive to magnetic fields because the departure angles are influenced by the magnets. It was observed that these bees are sensitive to the polarization of the magnetic field vector that influences the choice of flying up or down, and this sensitivity has a window until about 80 μT (about four times the local geomagnetic field), with the magnetic field information for higher magnetic field intensities being ignored by the bees. © 2020 Bioelectromagnetics Society.

© 2020 Bioelectromagnetics Society.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33326627/

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Abstract

The post Effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation (RF-EMF) on honey bee queen development and mating success. appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

Extremely low frequency electromagnetic field (ELF EMF) pollution from overhead powerlines is known to cause biological effects across many phyla, but these effects are poorly understood. Honey bees are important pollinators across the globe and due to their foraging flights are exposed to relatively high levels of ELF EMF in proximity to powerlines. Here we ask how acute exposure to 50 Hz ELF EMFs at levels ranging from 20–100 µT, found at ground level below powerline conductors, to 1000–7000 µT, found within 1 m of the conductors, affects honey bee olfactory learning, flight, foraging activity and feeding. ELF EMF exposure was found to reduce learning, alter flight dynamics, reduce the success of foraging flights towards food sources, and feeding. The results suggest that 50 Hz ELF EMFs emitted from powerlines may represent a prominent environmental stressor for honey bees, with the potential to impact on their cognitive and motor abilities, which could in turn reduce their ability to pollinate crops.

Excerpt:

The impact of these high EMFs on flying insects in general, whose biomass is in significant decline⁴¹, and pollinators in particular, has been overlooked throughout the debate about the effects of low level EMFs on human health. It is clear that we now need to understand the effects of EMFs on pollinator species in general, the mechanisms underlying these cognitive and motor effects, and the ecological implications of EMF pollution in the field, including impacts on ecosystem services that bees and other insects provide.

Electromagnetic fields (EMF) around transmission lines and experimental coils. (A) 50 Hz EMF distribution around a 400 kV Larger L6 pylon modelled using Maxwell SV modelling software. (B) Photograph showing the double-wound copper coils used to generate EMF. (Ci) The distribution of 50 Hz EMF around the coils with the voltage set to produce a 1000 μT field at the centre, and (Cii) a 7000 μT field at the centre, measured using an Alphalab magnetometer.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-26185-y

The post Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields impair the Cognitive and Motor Abilities of Honey Bees appeared first on EMFSA.

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Abstract

Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are present throughout the modern world and are derived from many man-made sources including overhead transmission lines. The risks of extremely-low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields are particularly poorly understood especially at high field strengths as they are rarely encountered at ground level. Flying insects, however, can approach close to high field strength transmission lines prompting the question as to how these high levels of exposure affect behaviour and physiology. Here we utilise the accessible nervous system of the locust to ask how exposure to high levels of ELF EMF impact at multiple levels. We show that exposure to ELF EMFs above 4 mT leads to reduced walking. Moreover, intracellular recordings from an identified motor neuron, the fast extensor tibiae motor neuron, show increased spike latency and a broadening of its spike in exposed animals. In addition, hind leg kick force, produced by stimulating the extensor tibiae muscle, was reduced following exposure, while stress-protein levels (Hsp70) increased. Together these results suggest that ELF EMF exposure has the capacity to cause dramatic effects from behaviour to physiology and protein expression, and this study lays the foundation to explore the ecological significance of these effects in other flying insects.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27808167/

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