Posted on 02/03/2007 3:07:38 AM PST by MadIvan
When Frank Zappa penned the hit single "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" back in 1974, his words were meant as a warning to Eskimos to avoid the spots "where the huskies go." Yesterday Russian authorities were forced to repeat the American singer song-writer's advice for altogether different reasons after putrid smelling yellow, green and orange snow fell across a substantial swathe of Siberia.
The bizarre phenomenon caused consternation across the affected regions of Omsk and Tomsk, where government officials told locals to stay indoors, tie up their pets and avoid either consuming the snow or using it "for household or technical needs."
"The snow is oily to the touch and has a pronounced rotten smell," Anton German, an environmental official in Omsk was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Samples of the snow were flown to Moscow by the department for especially hazardous rescue operations, prompting rumours of a significant environmental disaster.
The emergency situations ministry initially said the most likely cause of the snow was "waste from metallurgical plants" but later backtracked, blaming the phenomenon - which covered an area the size of greater London - on a sandstorm in Kazakhstan.
"Preliminary results of the tests revealed the presence of sand and clay dust particles, which caused the unusual colour," the ministry said in a statement. It said toxicity levels were normal, although other officials said iron and nitrogen levels were four times higher than usual.
Discoloured snow is not unknown in Russia. In Norilsk, a closed city just outside the Arctic Circle that is home to the world's largest nickel and palladium producer, the snow is often black.
According to the Blacksmith Institute, a New York based environmental watchdog, three of the world's most polluted places — including Norilsk — are in Russia.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
eww! That's pretty gross.
I wonder how they explain the putrid smell.
"Hit single." Gimme a break.
No way, we all know that America is the biggest polluter in the world.
Iron has a funky smell as in iron supplement tablets, maybe it is the culprit?
They went with the 2nd version after a few mafia enforcers showed up the director's office to talk about his future.
Areas that researchers have declared the most polluted in the world are typically little known even in their own countries. Yet they in total afflict more than 10 million people, experts reported today.
The kinds of pollution in these areas not only lead to cancers, birth defects, mental retardation and life expectancies approaching medieval levels, but are also often found all around the globe.
"They cause an enormous amount of misery and harm, especially to children," Richard Fuller, founder and director of the Blacksmith Institute, the New York-based environmental group who released a report on these areas today, told LiveScience.
The Top 10 most polluted places for 2006, in alphabetical order by country:
Linfen, China, where residents say they literally choke on coal dust in the evenings, exemplifies many Chinese cities;
Haina, Dominican Republic, has severe lead contamination because of lead battery recycling, a problem common throughout poorer countries [image];
Ranipet, India, where leather tanning wastes contaminate groundwater with hexavalent chromium, made famous by Erin Brockovich, resulting in water that apparently stings like an insect bite [image];
Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan, home to nearly 2 million cubic meters of radioactive mining waste that threatens the entire Ferghana valley, one of the most fertile and densely populated areas in Central Asia that also experiences high rates of seismic activity;
La Oroya, Peru, where the metal processing plant, owned by the Missouri-based Doe Run Corporation, leads to toxic emissions of lead;
Dzerzinsk, Russia, one of the country's principal chemical weapons manufacturing sites until the end of the Cold War [image];
Norilsk, Russia, which houses the world's largest heavy metals smelting complex;
Rudnaya Pristan, Russia, where lead contamination resulted in child blood lead levels eight to 20 times maximum allowable U.S. levels;
Chernobyl, Ukraine, infamous site of a nuclear meltdown 20 years ago; and
Kabwe, Zambia, where child blood levels of lead are five to 10 times the allowable EPA maximum [image].
The research team analyzed 35 polluted sites, narrowed down from more than 300 nominated by local communities, non-governmental organizations and local, national and international environmental authorities. The team was made up of international environment and health experts, including faculty members from Johns Hopkins and Mt. Sinai Medical Center serving on the technical advisory board of the Blacksmith Institute.
Fuller said the institute is currently working with national and international organizations to help clean up six of these sites.
http://www.livescience.com/environment/061018_polluted_places.html
" "The snow is oily to the touch and has a pronounced rotten smell," "
Hmmmmmm....
My tinfoil is prompting me to wonder if there just might be a chem/bio facility in the neighborhood....
Wouldn't be the first "accidental" release in Russian/USSR history......
How would the iron get airborne?
Singles
Year Song Chart positions Album
US Hot 100 US Main- stream Rock UK Singles Chart
1974 "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" 86 - - Apostrophe
1980 "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted!" - - - single only
1982 "Valley Girl" 32 - - Ship Arriving Too Late To Save a Drowning Witch
1984 "In France" - - - Them Or Us
1988 "Sexual Harrasment In The Workplace" - - - single only
1988 "Zomby Woof" - - - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 1
And just think, Siberia gets extra permits that it can sell under the Kyoto protocol. Woo Hoo!!! Envirnomentalism is wonderful . . .
That's odd - I thought Disco Boy and Dancing Fool would be on that list. Maybe that's becuase it is a UK list.
I'm havin some trouble seeing, can you kindly point me to St. Alphonzo's?
O.K. Number 86. With a bullet.
There, that reads much better.
Discoloured snow is not unknown in Russia. In Norilsk, a closed city just outside the Arctic Circle that is home to the world's largest nickel and palladium producer, the snow is often black.
Time to wake up to the American way of freedom, or choke on more communism.
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