You know the saying: Don’t eat yellow snow. Unfortunately, a new study published in the journal Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, suggests that you shouldn’t actually eat any snow at all, if you can avoid it. Snow has been found to act as a rather effective sink for tiny particles that are found primarily in car exhaust fumes, so any consumption of it is effectively like eating a pollution-flavored Popsicle.
Air pollution is a killer, with 3.3 million dying each year from the inhalation of toxic, near-invisible particles, according to the United Nations. China, whose capital regularly suffers from genuinely suffocating smog, accounts for 1.4 million of these deaths. The World Health Organization is about to release a report detailing just how many have died recently from the man-made phenomenon; in previews, they are already declaring it a global “public health emergency.”
via IFLScience
photo credit: Snow around traffic becomes a pollution Popsicle, essentially. itakefotos4u/Shutterstock
