“Watch out where the huskies go, and don’t you eat that yellow snow,” recommends Frank Zappa in his not-so-hit song ‘Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow.’ However in a recent study completed as a part of a new book titled Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, some scientists are claiming that snow has the ability to serve as a pollutant sponge, absorbing toxic particles in the air before falling to the ground.
That study’s concludes, “the alteration of exhaust aerosol size distributions at freezing temperatures and in the presence of snow, accompanied by changes of the organic pollutant content in snow, has potential to alter health effects of human exposure to vehicle exhaust.”
In laymen terms, snow that has been exposed to pollutants could have negative effects on individuals if they are exposed (through eating) to the polluted snow.
So for future reference, yellow snow is not the only snow people should avoid eating.