Betreff: Sparrows
Von: Alfonso Balmori
Datum: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:45:04 +0200

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a777382766~db=all~order=page

A Possible Effect of Electromagnetic Radiation from Mobile Phone Base Stations on the Number of Breeding House Sparrows (Passer domesticus)

Authors: Joris Everaert a; Dirk Bauwens a
Affiliation:   a Research Institute for Nature and Forest. Brussels. Belgium
DOI: 10.1080/15368370701205693
Publication Frequency: 4 issues per year
Published in: journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, Volume 26, Issue 1 January 2007 , pages 63 - 72
Subjects: Cell Biology; Molecular Biology;
Formats available: HTML (English) : PDF (English)

Abstract

A possible effect of long-term exposure to low-intensity electromagnetic radiation from mobile phone (GSM) base stations on the number of House Sparrows during the breeding season was studied in six residential districts in Belgium. We sampled 150 point locations within the 6 areas to examine small-scale geographic variation in the number of House Sparrow males and the strength of electromagnetic radiation from base stations. Spatial variation in the number of House Sparrow males was negatively and highly significantly related to the strength of electric fields from both the 900 and 1800 MHz downlink frequency bands and from the sum of these bands (Chi2-tests and AIC-criteria, P < 0.001). This negative relationship was highly similar within each of the six study areas, despite differences among areas in both the number of birds and radiation levels. Thus, our data show that fewer House Sparrow males were seen at locations with relatively high electric field strength values of GSM base stations and therefore support the notion that long-term exposure to higher levels of radiation negatively affects the abundance or behavior of House Sparrows in the wild.
Keywords: Antenna; Bird; Electromagnetic radiation; GSM base station; Non thermal effect
 
 
With best Regards
Alfonso Balmori