Value chain · CLM-1009
In plain terms
The 1980 programme tested bees because of pollination. Early results showed no effect at the beam's strength, and one preliminary report found no effect on bees finding their way home at more than twice the beam's peak. None of this was finished or published at the time.
The claim as recorded
The DOE 1980 assessments report the honey bee as one of two "highest priority" airborne-biota subjects, a three-part DOE study (orientation, navigation and memory; immature survival and development; adult longevity) of which "the initial results of the first two studies show no effect of SPS microwave power densities" and the third was incomplete, and a preliminary report to EPA by Gary and Westerdahl that "brief exposures to microwaves at power densities ranging up to 50 mW/cm2 had no significant effect on the ability of honey bees to return to their hives".
Evidence behind this: T3-programme assessments reporting preliminary and unpublished 1980 results.
Scope and limits
"Initial results" and "preliminary report", 1980; no exposure duration, sample size or frequency is stated for the 50 mW/cm2 result, and "brief" is undefined. Neither the DOE study nor the Gary and Westerdahl report is held. A null result on hive return is not a null result on colony survival or pollination.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
p.31 / 21: "Specific studies of the impact on bees and birds are of the highest priority ... Bees are important because of their impact on the pollination process, which is important to humans' food supply ... The initial results of the first two studies show no effect of SPS microwave power densities. The third study is not yet completed." p.33 / 23: "Initial experiments on honey bee behavior and survival show no effects of exposure to SPS-level microwaves." SRC-086 p.7-2, TRANSCRIBED from the rendered page because the text layer is degraded: "More recently, in a preliminary report submitted to EPA, they noted that brief exposures to microwaves at power densities ranging up to 50 mW/cm2 had no significant effect on the ability of honey bees to return to their hives."
Basis: mW/cm2; behavioural endpoint (return to hive)
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-001 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1009
CLM-1009, Energy Aperture, as of 1980.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-086
- CLM-0020The original 1978 design set the beam at 230 watts per square metre in the middle of the receiving site, about one twenty-third of that at...CLM-0024The American standard of the day allowed 100 watts per square metre averaged over six minutes. The US had no separate limit for the public...CLM-0036The 1980 American assessment said people living or working near the receiving site, outside its exclusion boundary, would generally be...CLM-0153A 1980 US government environmental assessment argues, without a formal calculation or test, that an aeroplane's metal body would shield...CLM-1005The 1980 assessment explains where the 10 milliwatt limit came from: a heating threshold of 100 divided by a safety factor of ten. It also...CLM-1006In 1980, by the US assessment's figures, the Soviet limit for the general public was two thousand times lower than the American 10...CLM-1007The 1980 assessment worked out that a full American deployment would raise the microwave background everywhere in the country to about...CLM-1008The 1980 documents give the beam's strength at the satellite, on failure, and above and below the receiving panels. The summary and the...More on the source page.
- Also from SRC-529
- CLM-1005The 1980 assessment explains where the 10 milliwatt limit came from: a heating threshold of 100 divided by a safety factor of ten. It also...CLM-1006In 1980, by the US assessment's figures, the Soviet limit for the general public was two thousand times lower than the American 10...CLM-1007The 1980 assessment worked out that a full American deployment would raise the microwave background everywhere in the country to about...CLM-1008The 1980 documents give the beam's strength at the satellite, on failure, and above and below the receiving panels. The summary and the...CLM-1010In the US Department of Energy's 1980 assessments the only bird numbers were from quail eggs at a fifth of the beam's peak, which hatched...CLM-1011In 1980 the programme used two different rules to translate its low-frequency experiments to the real beam, one for heating and one for the...CLM-1012In the DOE's 1980 summary the Platteville heating tests showed no effect on the navigation and broadcast radio it listed at the beam's...CLM-1013By 1980 the programme had made the upper ionosphere ripple with a heater running at what it reckoned was four to twelve times the beam's...More on the source page.