Much to our surprise, yellow snow isn’t toxic. No, we’re not talking about the snow bank that the dogs in your neighborhood frequent after a storm, but the snow that fell in the Omsk region of Siberia recently. According to a Reuters article:

"Yellow snow that fell on Omsk region two days ago poses no threat to people's health," Vladimir Gurzhei, a regional emergency official, told Interfax news agency.

He went on to describe the snow as "yellow, with oily marks and a distinctive smell." If nasty, funky smelling snow started falling on us here in New York City, you can bet that we would be a tad suspicious, especially if we lived in an area that had oil and gas refineries nearby. One expert speculated that the substance was from a more harmful cause.

Alexei Yablokov of the Russian Academy of Science told Ekho Mosvky radio station it may have been polluted by a chemical accident in Siberia.

Toxic or not, there is only one thing that we know for sure: Don’t eat yellow snow.

-Susan Cosier 

Posted by Alisa Opar on Feb 5, 2007 at 4:09 PM
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