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View Full Version : Snow eating now endangered kid pleasure



stephanie
03-04-2008, 06:12 PM
:poke:

By MELISSA RAYWORTH, For The Associated Press
37 minutes ago



PITTSBURGH - To the list of simple childhood pleasures whose safety has been questioned, add this: eating snow. A recent study found that snow — even in relatively pristine spots like Montana and the Yukon — contains large amounts of bacteria.


Parents who warn their kids not to eat dirty snow (especially the yellow variety) are left wondering whether to stop them from tasting the new-fallen stuff, too, because of Pseudomonas syringae, bacteria that can cause diseases in bean and tomato plants.

But experts say there's no need to banish snow-eating along with dodgeball, unchaperoned trick-or-treating and riding a bike without a helmet.

"It's a very ubiquitous bacteria that's everywhere," says Dr. Penelope Dennehy, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases. "Basically, none of the food we eat is sterile. We eat bacteria all the time."

Children practically bathe in bacteria when they go to the playground, and Dennehy says they won't get anything from snow that they wouldn't get from dirt.

"We eat stuff that's covered with bacteria all the time, and for the most part it's killed in the stomach," says Dr. Joel Forman, a member of the pediatric academy's committee on environmental health. "Your stomach is a fantastic barrier against invasive bacteria because it's a very acidic environment."

read the rest..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_on_re_us/eating_snow

hjmick
03-04-2008, 06:17 PM
Christ, how did I ever survive my youth?

manu1959
03-04-2008, 06:25 PM
Christ, how did I ever survive my youth?

no child seats or seat belts.....no helmets....used to ride my bike off the roof into the pool...:cheers2:

Yurt
03-04-2008, 09:04 PM
http://image57.webshots.com/657/5/73/42/2801573420100084141PezHoW_ph.jpg

manu1959
03-04-2008, 09:33 PM
http://image57.webshots.com/657/5/73/42/2801573420100084141PezHoW_ph.jpg

cool white square with a red x in it.......:dunno:

Yurt
03-04-2008, 10:13 PM
cool white square with a red x in it.......:dunno:

strange, it was up:

gabosaurus
03-04-2008, 11:06 PM
Frank Zappa long ago warned us not to eat the Yellow Snow...