Despite the common expression “bats in the belfry”, used of individuals
whose modes of thought are at least eccentric, if not disjointed, it is true
to say that belfries are less attractive to our bat population than other sequestered
corners where they may roost in peace. Certainly bats keep well away from those
belfries where peals are frequently rung, probably because the noise impinges
on their nervous system, just as it does on that of some dwellers adjacent to
churches where enthusiastic campanologists operate regularly. Admirers of the
works of Dorothy L. Sayers will recollect an adventure of Lord Peter Wimsey
in which an unfortunate individual, locked into a bell chamber and subjected
to a nine-hour peal, was discovered dead in the morning. If bells can have that
effect on humans, they can have it on other mammals, including bats.
Bat experts believe that another menace faces these creatures, in addition to
loss of habitat, pesticide treatments and reduced food supplies. With the alarming
craze for installing many hundreds of transmission masts to serve the mobile
telephone industry, our church spires and towers are being dragooned into use
as suitable sites for transmitters.
In an article in the October issue of the Countryman, Roy Lipscombe discusses
the possible hazard which close contact with sources of electromagnetic radiation
may pose to our already depleted bat population. It is probably safe to dismiss
any interference with bat echolocation systems, which operate in the region
of 50kHz, but that does not mean that other deleterious effects can be ruled
out on tissues or biological systems. We already see many objections from worried
parents to the siting of transmission masts adjacent to schools, since the possibility
of
long-term tissue damage cannot be definitely ruled out. Biological effects,
especially in growing organisms, which include children and bats, are known
to occur if exposure to some frequencies is sufficiently intense, and at the
moment we are merely guessing where many competent judges consider that the
precautionary principle should be applied.
So far as church structures are concerned, a complicating factor is that permission
to attach a transmission mast is associated with a payment, which is attractive.
We seem to be straying into the God versus Mammon argument again.