Snow contains bacteria, but it's still OK to eat a little

Snow contains bacteria, but it’s still OK to eat a little

I have a friend named Barbara who grew up in Vermont during the depression. She once told me that during those lean years her family would sometimes make a winter meal of snow balls drizzled with maple syrup.

Maple sno-cones for dinner? My inner child says, “Okay!”

But there’s just one problem with a meal-sized portion of snow: bacteria.

When researchers at Louisiana State University examined snow samples from Montana, the Yukon, Antarctica, and France, they discovered fairly high levels of bacteria.

But Dr. Penelope Dennehy of the American Academy of Pediatrics told the Associated Press not to worry about kids eating a little snow. She notes that we ingest bacteria all the time, most of which is easily handled by stomach acids.

Another pediatrician points out, however, that ordinary air pollution in snow is a good reason to avoid making a “meal” of it.

So we’d best go easy on the depression-era treat. And of course, the time-honored adage still applies: Don’t eat yellow snow.

Sources:
“Ubiquity of Biological Ice Nucleators in Snowfall” Science, Vol. 319, No. 5867, 2/29/08, sciencemag.org
“Snow Eating Now Endangered Kid Pleasure” Melissa Rayworth, The Associated Press, 3/5/08, ap.org