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Heavy metals paint snow yellow
12 March 2010 | 16:19 | Source: Tanjug
SOFIA -- The yellow snow that was falling in Bulgaria and south Romania several days ago contained heavy metals.

In Sofia, authorities previously thought the color came from African sand.

Bulgarian media are quoting Romanian meteorologists who rejected claims of their Bulgarian colleagues that the snow turned yellow due to the Saharan sand.

Their research discovered that the reddish powder found in the snow contained copper, iron, zinc, chrome, lead, nickel, arsenic and cadmium – metals usually found in the ground.

Ion Paun of Romania's Center of Meteorology said that their charts showed that the yellow snow "had nothing to do with Africa".

Doctors, meanwhile, explained that heavy metals, in higher concentrations, can have adverse effect on people’s health, and can affect their livers, the Bulgarian media reported.