Between this Tuesday and Wednesday, France will experience a new snowy episode. A good number of departments will be covered in an immaculate white coat, sure to cause chaos on the roads, slipping on the sidewalks and the making of proud snowmen. In all the territories concerned, we will also hear many parents cheering their kids when they have the good idea to throw a snowball in the cone. On TikTok, some people even have fun filming themselves having sex a dish of coke-flavored powder Mr Freeze style. So, is eating snow really bad? We take stock.
“We have to be right, there is no mortal danger in eating snow in small quantities,” immediately tempers Doctor Philippe Beaulieu, head of the health and quality department of the Water Information Center (CI Water). This doesn’t mean you have to jump on it as soon as it falls. “We know that, like rain, snow picks up everything in the atmosphere before falling to the ground,” explains 20 minutes an analyst from the Flandres analyzes laboratory, in the North. “If the snow shower is short-lived, the concentration will be high, if the episode lasts, the last layers will be less loaded,” continues our interlocutor. The analyst adds that the pollution contained in snow is also conditioned by the environment. “Snow collected near an industrial zone or at the top of a mountain will certainly not contain the same pollutants,” he admits.
“Snow is rainwater and rainwater is not drinkable”
For these reasons, it would not occur to anyone to drink rainwater when the snow, and its pure white, seems harmless. “Snow is rainwater and rainwater is not drinkable,” insists Dr Beaulieu. It is not for nothing that this gift from heaven is filtered and seasoned with chlorine many times before flowing from your tap. For the CI Water expert, untreated water, therefore snow, is loaded with lots of nasty things: “First there is the microbiological aspect which can reveal the presence of viruses, bacteria or fungi . But there are also chemical pollutants, such as heavy metals, pesticides, fine particles, etc.,” he explains.
However, these pollutants will not affect your health if you only consume a few grams of snow very occasionally. This is the overall meaning of a study carried out in 2017 by scientists from Hungarian Sapientia University, In Romania. After collecting snow in two places in the country and at different temperatures (–1° and –17°), the researchers found that the fresher and more recent the snow, the fewer bacteria there were. “I don’t recommend anyone to eat snow. I’m just saying that you won’t get sick if you eat a little,” concluded Istvan Mathe, the professor who led this study.
Except that beyond pollution and microbiology, snow has another particularity that should make you colder about eating it: its temperature. “The body is not made to absorb something so cold, it can create a thermal shock and cause transit disorders or even diarrhea,” warns Dr. Beaulieu. The specialist also points out that snow contains few minerals: “Eating snow is like drinking demineralized water, whereas it is precisely the presence of minerals in the water that promotes hydration,” explains he.
In other words, eating snow when you are thirsty is rather counterproductive. So let’s choose a good beer for hydration (in moderation) and let’s save the snow to make balls to throw at the neighbor.