Researchers from the University of Southern Maine recently published a report that evaluated the contamination of mountain snow and soil on Mount Everest. The findings were alarming, as both cadmium and arsenic (deadly heavy metals) were found in levels considered unsafe by US standards.
Bill Yeo, the lead researcher climbed Mount Everest’s Rongbuk Glacier and Northeast Ridge in 2006 to collect samples for testing. After running the samples, he found that arsenic levels in both the snow and soil were above the US EPA’s recommendation and that cadmium levels were above the recommendation as well, but only in the snow. Other heavy metals like mercury and lead were not above the EPA standards.
Unfortunately, this snow is also the same snow that is boiled on the mountain for drinking water, and at lower elevations melts and is the water source for entire villages. The soil is the same soil that is breathed in when heavy winds blow it into the air. How did the mountain become so contaminated? Researchers say one possible answer to that question is that heavy pollution from neighboring countries like India and China has collected in the snow and soil. Winds high in the atmosphere can blow pollution thousands of miles from the source and because Everest is such a large mass, it draws those winds in.
Yeo and fellow researchers are also performing the same studies in the states, specifically among Maine’s higher peaks to compare the findings.
Via Get Outdoors and Backpacker
