Wildlife expert fears digital TV waves are harming birds
A NORTH DEVON wildlife expert fears the new digital television signals are harming birds.
Trevor Beer has noticed many small birds perched on the ground in "a stupefied manner."
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Digital tv
And, after considering and dismissing other possible causes such as disease and pesticides, he came to the conclusion that the switchover from analogue to digital TV signals are to blame.
He has already raised his concerns with North Devon MP Nick Harvey and written a letter to Prince Charles.
However, a spokesman for the company which operates the transmitter network, said the new digital signals are not to blame. And Tony Whitehead, press officer for the RSPB, believes the cause is a parasitical disease, affecting finches and other species.
Mr Beer said he was familiar with the canker in chaffinches and the parasite harming green finches, but believes this latest development is something different.
He said: "When I was going down through Anchor Woods, I noticed a lot of birds on the ground, small species, behaving oddly."
Some were not capable of real flight so he was able to approach them.
He said: "I touched a couple and they just fell over. They were totally stupefied; I'm not exaggerating. Something is attacking their brains. In all my life as a naturalist I have never seen anything like it."
As their behaviour did not seem to fit with pesticide poisoning or disease, he started looking for a coinciding factor and the only one he could think of was the digital switchover.
He is not the only one with concerns.
A group of German doctors who believe that digital television signals have affected people as well as wildlife in their country, have written a letter to President Obama.
Mr Beer added: "We need to do something. It must be put right. We must pressure our MPs and higher powers-that-be that this is a priority.
"Birds have always been a very observable marker of our own well being."
Bruce Randall, corporate PR manager for Arqiva, which owns and operates the transmitter network, does not believe birds are being affected by the new digital signals.
He said: "The new digital signals are the same in nature as the old digital signals and the power, although higher than the old digital signals, is typically 10 times less than analogue transmissions.
"For Huntshaw Cross the total Effective Radiated Power for all analogue channels was about 400 kilowatts. The new digital services transmit a total of 90 kilowatts.
"The old digital services from Huntshaw totalled 24 kilowatts. The signal strength falls off very quickly with distance and is very small even at quite short range. Radio-frequency emissions are limited by international guidelines and the public should have no concerns about health and safety.
"In practice we operate well below permitted levels and we doubt whether birds and other animals would persist in locating themselves somewhere that made them feel uncomfortable or disorientated."
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by probeer, devonnorth
Sunday, March 14 2010, 8:39PM
“i recall not long ago bumble bees were as if doped on our streets could this be similar to the small bird mystery”
by Jan Curtis, West Devon
Monday, January 11 2010, 1:45PM
“I am sure a naturalist of the caliber of Trevor Beer, knows what the finch disease looks like.
A disease caused by a parasite, found in water,I believe.
The birds, not just finches but other small species as well, look fluffed up, around their mouth and eyes looks messy, and they try continually to feed with out success.
I understand the throat closes over, making it impossible for the bird to eat, they all die.
This sounds like something different, I wondered about pesticide.
I would ask Mr Beer if he is still finding birds In this condition?
I would be interested to know, if you removed a bird from the area it was found, if it recovered or not.
There are a myriad of questions that need asking here.
But obviously something was wrong, I can't comment on TV signals know nothing about them.”
by Martin, SW
Thursday, January 07 2010, 12:53PM
“Perhaps this so called 'expert' should take some real scientific training, so he understands what the 'scientific method' is, and starts investigating evidence rather than discounting things and deciding some other random factor MUST be the cause. Occams razor states that the simplest answer is usually the right one - the simplest answer here is that the birds are sick with a parasite or virus.
Incidentally, for the past tens of decades there have been digital transmissions all over the world, at all sorts of power levels, throughout the radio spectrum, and yet nothing like this has been reported before.
Perhaps this chap should watch out for the angry hunter who wants to know whos been pushing over his decoys?”
by Jim, Ilfracombe
Tuesday, January 05 2010, 10:42AM
“It's mobile phones, I tells you. There has been a marked increase in sparrows using mobile phones, and this is the result. Because they don't have ears, they have nowhere to clip hands-free headsets on to, you see.”
by Jonathon, South Hams
Tuesday, January 05 2010, 10:41AM
“Richard, while I applaud your sentiments, I'm 99% sure that Terry was joking about senile owls.”
by Arthur Murgatroyd, Tiverton
Monday, January 04 2010, 3:14PM
“Why would German doctors write to President Obama about digital television?
Digital television is transmitted using a completely different modulation system, 8VSB (8-level vestigial sideband modulation) in the USA to that used in Europe, QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation).
Surely German doctors if they did write a letter, would be writing a letter to Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel about their concerns?”
by Papa Reichenbach, Plymouth
Saturday, January 02 2010, 11:43AM
“Indeed he has a prime point. Just this very morning one of my Sparrows got knocked to the floor by a stray WiFi signal.
I can only assume that my wireless router must have sent out an illegal harmful signal and should therefore be disallowed.
On picking up my little sparrow I could clearly hear the episode of Autumn Watch that I was in the middle of watching on BBC Iplayer playing out from his insides.
So in conclusion, maybe WiFi should also be banned and made illegal?”
by Albert, Sussex
Saturday, January 02 2010, 9:34AM
“This story is complete and utter tripe. There is no evidence whatsoever to support this outlandish theory, which the writer has dreamed up because he is clearly incapable of thinking of a plausible explanation for his observations. The ND Journal should distance itself from this idiot by removing the story from its website and declining to accept any further material from him.”
by john sheldon, roundswell
Monday, December 21 2009, 10:23AM
“has alphachlorase been ruled out???”
by Richard, ilfracombe
Friday, December 18 2009, 3:13PM
“It's interesting that we've had digital satellite TV for years now and not noticed this mythical "nuclear cancer".
Terry, do you understand how an air-conditioner works? It's simply a pump, pumping refrigerant through an incredibly small hole. As it goes from a high pressure to a low pressure, it vapourises and due to the state change, cools down. This cooler refrigerant passes over a heat exchanger which cools the air passing over it by fans, delivering cool air to the building. The refrigerant circuit is sealed. If refrigerant were to escape, the system would fail fairly quickly. No magical "electric waves" and certainly no RF emissions come into play anywhere in the system. I wish people would get their facts straight and maybe just do a LITTLE bit of research before spouting their witchcraft-based claptrap in public and making fools of themselves. I'm particularly disappointed that people such as these are wasting our MP's time on such rubbish - time which we pay for in taxes and which could be much better spent looking into real issues rather than the imaginary ones.”