BBC NEWS: Russia probes smelly orange snow (large area)

Oily yellow and orange snowflakes fell over an area of more than 1,500sq km (570sq miles) in the Omsk region on Wednesday, Russian officials said.

Chemical tests were under way to determine the cause, they said.

Residents have been advised not to use the snow for household tasks or let animals graze on it.

"So far we cannot explain the snow, which is oily to the touch and has a pronounced rotten smell," said Omsk environmental prosecutor Anton German, quoted by the Russian news agency Itar-Tass on Thursday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6323611.stm

Watch out where the huskies go

involved (urine turns orange).

An oil refinery blow up?

Chemical factory explosion?

I shudder to think.

People called 911 to report white powder falling in their yards and asking whether something had blown up.

But had it been orange, they probably would have dismissed it as some advertising stunt.

I'd blow everything but nuts and bolts out of my nose at the end of every day. Dug some out of my ears too. Filthy.

It looks like oil companies are at fault here.
The scary thing is, it has happened in the past
and the cause of it was never fixed!

But she came back from Bangalore even sicker in December 2005.

OMG, we've well and truly fucked ourselves now.

Cute.:D

It generally was one of the old coke plants producing some odd chemical that mixed with the snow to give ti some "Color". So it happens even in the good old USA.

Maybe he's had a recent bladder infection ..(What IS the name of that darned med that turns pee orange?)

I've been looking and still nothing.

Fri Feb 2, 2007 9:10 PM GMT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Mysterious yellow snow that fell on parts of Siberia earlier this week is not toxic, Russian emergency officials said on Friday.

The emergency ministry has flown a chemical laboratory to the Omsk region in Siberia to investigate the matter.

"Yellow snow that fell on Omsk region two days ago poses no threat to people's health," Vladimir Gurzhei, a regional emergency official, told Interfax news agency. He said the snow was "yellow, with oily marks and a distinctive smell."

Omsk region is home to a number of oil and gas refineries. Domestic media debated what might have caused the anomaly.

Russia's weather watchdog said it may have been caused by a rare dust hurricane in neighboring Kazakhstan.

Alexei Yablokov of the Russian Academy of Science told Ekho Mosvky radio station it may have been polluted by a chemical accident in Siberia.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2007-02-02T211043Z_01_PAR276158_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-SNOW-TOXIC-DC.XML&WTmodLoc=SciHealth-C3-Science-5

somehow - I would feel better if they had in fact disclosed the actual chemical data - instead of just a proclamation....

It's been ages since I took it :)