Remember that beautiful snow that blanketed the East Coast in mid January? It sure did look pretty, stoked up on the cars, trees, and roads. Of course, it also meant we had to shovel…big time! Because, as I know from living in Massachusetts and Michigan, 24 to 36 inches of snow takes weeks to disappear, even if the temperature hits 60, as it has lately.
But, that pure, white snow? It was probably not very pure, after all.
You see, that wonderful, beautiful snow crystal absorbs copious quantities of our smog and airborne pollutants, as it falls ever so gracefully from the sky.
Drs. Yevgen Nazarenko, Uday Kurien, Oleg Nepotchatykh, Rodrigo B. Rangel-Alvarado and Parisa A. Ariya (McGill University) made sure we’d know that with their new article. The ‘Role of snow and cold environment in the fate and effects of nanoparticles and select organic pollutants from gasoline engine exhaust’ was just published in the Royal Society’s Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts.
Now, you should recognize from the title that their research was more focused upon gasoline exhaust (from vehicles), than the pure nature (or, at least, so we thought) of that pure white snow. And they found that the snow was simply sopping up benzene, toluene, xylene…all those wonderful chemicals that our buses and cars belch out by the mile.
Kind of destroys our concept of ‘pure as the driven snow’…
Which should not be surprising to anyone who has paid attention to our environmental issues over the past decades. You do recall the concept of acid rain, rught? Welcome to toxic snow.
Which, of course, means we would have a lot of work cleaning up those 2 to 4 inch snowfall for potable water uses. It also explains why we don’t really want to dump our snow fall into rivers or lakes, when we need space to clean our roads. Unless, of course, we want to inflict anemia, leukemia, and other diseases upon our populations. (Now, what made you think of Flint all of a sudden?)
(Years ago, we developed strains of microbes to eradicate these potential carcinogens from our waterways. Toluene and xylene, often found in our gasoline, can render our central nervous system unable to twitch, and xylenes oten leads to kidney failure to boot. But, those microbial products were aimed at treating wastewater and industrial wastes- and would not really work on snow.)
But, when we have those larger snowfalls, like Snowzilla2016, after the first few inches have fallen, the air has actually been cleaned. The first part of the snowfall sucked all the pollutants from the air. (It’s even easier for the snow to do so, because there are so few cars, buses, and trucks on the roads during that snow fall.)
That is why the air feels so clean after a substantial snow fall. It is not the white landscape getting to you. It is because the air really has been cleaned!
Okay, you saved it with a (somewhat more) happy ending! Thank you. We could put those toxin-munching microbes in the rivers and lakes, right? (Seriously, though, what happens when we ingest THOSE? If they’re harmless, maybe we should just DO THAT, and not worry… Why does my head hurt, suddenly? Isn’t this like – what is it, ferrets? – in Hawaii?)
P.S. You’d think I’d remember where your anti-spammer confirmation box IS, by now – but WHY is it off to the right like that? Is that supposed to be a test? You do know I read before coffee, right?
Holly Jahangiri recently posted..Why Is the Night Sky Not So Dark?
Yes, it IS a test, Holly….
And, those microbes ARE used to preclude getting the toxins in our rivers and lakes. Because, as many (criminal) business enterprises have found out, dilution is not the solution to pollution- it just makes it harder to effect a complete cleanup!
Pure as Driven Snow? https://t.co/XD6dAWkPoI via @RAAckerman No more snow cream for me!
Fascinating article. Thanks for sharing. I am in NY and was right in the middle of the blizzard this January too. This makes me look at the snow in a new way.
Nicole recently posted..5 Famous Authors’ Strategies for Conquering Writer’s Block
Yes, once it is brought to our attention, we recognize the concept. After all, we have been bombarded with the consequences of acid rain, Nicole. (Like the lifeless luster on our cars after a year or so…)
Here in Mexico where we live, we don’t get the snow but we are forever breathing the dust, that never really settles except in the rainy season. The whole area in and around Puerto Vallarta is over run with old buses and there is no emissions controls..These buses run up and down the streets 24/7 so people get out and water the street in front of their homes but this is only good for an hour or so….until the rainy season starts in July, we are pretty much out of luck
Chef William recently posted..Whole Foods and Paleo
Yes, Chef William. I recall my first visit to Mexico City. Woo!
The pollution was more plentiful than the oxygen.
There IS a benefit to rain, besides the water.
Pure as Driven Snow? https://t.co/OawmqQ3Ssx via @RAAckerman
I just read a lovely post about snow ice cream written by a blogger in rural Nebraska. Growing up in NYC, my Mom never would have dared make snow ice cream. Dare I break it to the Nebraska blogger?
If they live in a rural enough area, far from the ciruclation of coal plant exhaust, they may be ok. Nah, Alana, I doubt they are that remote.