Cell phones and bees, oh please!

ABC News launched a rumor this week. On Good Morning America, Diane Sawyer suggested that cell phones could be deadly weapons—for bees. The newscast used an “expert” to advance the idea that cell phones are implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder, a malady that is wiping out hives across this country and in Germany. The story was picked up by Yahoo News and other online journals.

Unfortunately, the “expert” is not an expert on bees or agriculture, but a proponent of the idea that cell phones cause cancer in people. He has overseen studies of that issue, but medical research reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association disagrees with his opinion. (He is not a real doctor, but he plays one on TV.) Whether or not he is right about cancer, he has no apparent basis for making any claims about apiary issues.

The down and dirty from those studying CCD at the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (which is spearheading research on the problem) is that they looked into the cell phone allegations a while ago. “The distribution of both affected and non-affected CCD apiaries does not make this a likely cause. Also cell phone service is not available in some areas where affected commercial apiaries are located in the west,” according to MAAREC.