Don't eat snow!

Dear Tom,
I've seen neighborhood children eating snow. Is that safe?
James Anderson
Dear James,
It's not a good idea because snow contains potentially harmful airborne
pollutants. It's not that snow is immediately toxic, but it can contain
chemicals that you don't want to put into your body.
Here are the opinions of two experts. University of Toronto environmental
chemist Dr. Frank Wania reports that the atmosphere is exceedingly efficient
at transporting pollutants -- so efficient, in fact, that industrial
pollutants released into the atmosphere in India could be found in snow in
northern Canada only five days later. Argonne National Laboratory's Dr. Jeff
Gaffney is more specific. He says snowflakes can contain anything that
floats in the air: the chemicals that fall in acid rain, bacteria, sulfates,
nitrates and even lead from areas in the world that still burn leaded
gasoline.