Is artificial snowfall harmful to human health?

Artificial snowfall will not harm human health, nor will it damage the environment. Dry ice and liquid nitrogen, which are often used in weather modification operations, can easily evaporate to form carbon dioxide and nitrogen, which are components of air and have no influence on human body. Moreover, at present, the amount of silver iodide catalyst used for weather modification is small and widely distributed, and the silver ion concentration per unit volume is far lower than the international and domestic water environment quality standards, which will not have adverse effects on the environment.

In winter, in many cities, artificial snowfall is usually achieved by sowing catalyst (silver iodide) in the middle and low cloud systems with relatively thick clouds. First, it can increase the number of condensation nuclei in the cloud, which is beneficial to the collision and increase of water vapor particles; Second, it can change the temperature in the cloud, which is beneficial to disturb the cloud system and produce convection. The disturbance and convection in the cloud will be more conducive to the collision and increase of water vapor. When the updraft in the air can't bear the floating of water vapor particles, snowfall will occur.

Then, will artificial snowfall have a negative impact on human health? Although chemical substances are used to artificially influence the weather, artificial snow increase is a microphysical process, not a chemical change that produces new substances. Dry ice and liquid nitrogen, which are often used in weather modification operations, can easily evaporate to form carbon dioxide and nitrogen, which are components of air and have no influence on human body. Although the silver ion in silver iodide is a heavy metal, the amount of silver iodide is very small, scattered in a large area, and the content per unit area is very small. Taking the process of artificial snow increase in Hebei Province in February as an example, Wu Zhihui, deputy director of the Office of Weather Modification in Hebei Province, said that only 0.08g of silver iodide was scattered per square kilometer. Even if all the snow falls to the ground, every liter of melted snow water only contains 0.029 micrograms of silver iodide, which is far below the national standard of 50 micrograms of silver ions in water and can hardly be detected. Therefore, funa will not bring harm to people's health.

Artificial snow will not affect the environment. In 20 18, the National Advisory and Evaluation Committee on Weather Modification organized experts from environmental protection, related universities, military units, meteorology and other industries to demonstrate whether catalysts such as silver iodide would cause environmental pollution again. The expert group believes that, based on the relevant research results at home and abroad, the amount of silver iodide catalyst used for weather modification is small and widely distributed, and the silver ion concentration per unit volume is far lower than the international and domestic water environment quality standards, which will not have adverse effects on the environment. At present, there is no evidence that weather modification will have long-term and cumulative adverse effects on the ecological environment.