Sparrows ring the alarm bell against EM-radiation

The sparrows are our neighbour birds those usually sit on the window and balcony. I cannot remember seeing them in recent past. They are no longer seen flitting on window sills, pecking at grain or chirping in the backyard. The friendly house sparrow has all but disappeared from our city[1]. Sparrows are shy, elusive creatures. They feed only in the morning hours and are then mostly invisible during the day after 8 am [2]. The sparrows are an essential part of our eco-system as they eat the worms and insects. It was shocking to find that the common house sparrow is fighting against extinction[3]. Although no one in India considered sparrow as pests like in China [4] still they are a dying breed. Professor Girish Kumar's revealing report on cell tower radiation showed a cause for dwindling population of the bird [5]. A house sparrow is associated with human habitation . Being very sensitive to changes in the  environment, it is one of the most preferred indicator species of urban ecosystems. Stability in the sparrow population indicates a healthy ecosystem for human beings in terms of air and water quality, vegetation and other parameters of habitat quality. Whereas, a declining population of the bird provides a warning that the urban ecosystem is experiencing some environmental changes unsuitable for human health in the immediate future. Several million birds of 230 species die each year from collisions with telecommunications masts in the United States during migration. When the birds might be using the earth's magnetic field for navigation, and could be seriously disoriented by the microwave radiation from telecommunication masts. Studies show that the disappearance of the sparrow and the introduction of mobile phone towers correlate closely in terms of time. Electromagnetic(EM) radiation from mobile phone towers  also interfere with reproductive success of birds. In an experiment, 75% of chicken embryos that were exposed to a GSM mobile phone during incubation died compared to 16%, who were not exposed to any radiation. IARC has classified radio-frequency EM fields as possibly carcinogenic(Group 2B) to humans, a category used when a causal association is considered credible, but when chance, bias or confounding cannot be ruled out with reasonable confidence[6]. We need to be more cautious in our approach to befriend new technologies.

References:

1. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-05-31/hyderabad/27879589_1_sparrows-bird-watchers-trees
2. http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/wginn/Sparrows.pdf
3. http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-saving-the-sparrow/20130225.htm
4. http://www.speedwell-trust.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Activity-4-Pests.pdf
5. http://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/~mwave/GK-cell-tower-rad-report-DOT-Dec2010.pdf .
6. http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2011/pdfs/pr208_E.pdf