Posted on 12/10/2009 8:59:21 AM PST by NormsRevenge
The pure white snow atop the Andes Mountains may not be so pure after all. Scientists have found traces of toxic pollutants called PCBs in snow samples taken from Aconcagua Mountain, the highest peak in the Americas.
While the overall PCB levels were quite low, the results show that these long-lasting contaminants, notorious for causing myriad health problems, can end up at altitudes as high as 20,340 feet (6,200 meters), making their way through the atmosphere to these remote areas.
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, break down slowly, and as a result, can last for many years in the environment. They can be transported through the air long distances, and have been found in mountain ranges in Europe and Canada, as well as the Arctic.
PCB traps
The researchers say that mountain ranges may act as "traps" for PCBs. In addition, they figure climate change could lead to the spread of such pollutants.
"The shrinking of the glaciers could lead to the pollutants stored in the glacier snow being carried down with the meltwater," said Roberto Quiroz, now at the EULA Chile Environmental Sciences Center. (He completed the work while at IIQAB, the Spanish research institute for environmental chemistry, in Barcelona, Spain.)
Since the meltwater is used for agriculture and drinking, contaminants in the water could pose a health risk.
PCBs are man-made organic chemicals that contain chlorine atoms, and are part of a larger group of compounds known as chlorinated hydrocarbons. Before being banned in the United States in 1979 (and around the world in 2001), these chemicals were found in a variety of products, including electrical equipment, paints, plastics and carbonless copy paper, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
You first.
After you...
The first rule of mountaineering still applies...”don’t eat the yellow snow.” ;-)
D O O M E D
“no longer” implies it has been pure until recently.
I highly doubt that. I am sure they had it since 1910, probably earlier.
That's what they tell us anyway...What do their emails to each other indicate?
You just noticed this?
LOL!!
Now that the “global warming” scam has been exposed, I guess the nuts are going back to the old “acid rain” boogeyman.
Instrumentation today is much more sensitive than years ago.
What is detectable now as ‘trace’ would not have even been detectable in recently passed years.
“They found the snow contained low concentrations of PCBs, less than half a nanogram per liter (a nanogram is one billionth of a gram).”
One half, of one billionth, of a gram per liter! We’re all gonna die!
This comes as a surprise?
Dead on... They’ll say anything that keeps the grant money rolling. Scientific inquiry has been replaced with “cargo cult” science. Just go through the motions of investigation, plot some graphs, tell an alarming story, and conclude with “therefore, give me money or you’re all gonna die.”
A telling omission in the article is concentration. If the number is in parts per billion or trillion, then it is only a case of showing widespread and high altidude atmospheric distribution. The ominous tone makes it seem like we’re in imminent danger, but that would be akin to telling all ofus to stay put in the hen house with chicken-little.
When are people going to get fed up with these psuedo-scientists and psuedo-journalists who either have an ideology to promote or a chalet at Aspen they need to support, and call them on their BS?
No doubt they also found abundant carbon dioxide... wonder what tipped them off to release this story just today?
Beware of blue ice at high (and low) elevations was always on my list of things to watch out for.
Now , one more reason to do so. ‘-]
Cursed cavemen and their smoky campfires!
Me too.
I’m not walking up there to look, but a little lower, from the icy confines of my deck, it is looking a little yellow.
They will sample snow all over the place until they find the results they want.
Then there are the testing standards to fudge around.
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