2012-12-28 15:29:48
Artificial snowmaking is a strategy adopted for many years by ski resort managers to cope, particularly in the Alps, with the phenomenon of increasing night-time temperatures in winter and the regular decrease in precipitation and its consequences in terms of snow cover.
The use of additives for the production of artificial snow is a technology used by ski resort operators to ensure sufficient snow cover in the ski area in unfavorable weather conditions for natural snow cover. This practice is not regulated.
The Snomax® additive was used in France between 1992 and 2005 for the manufacture of artificial snow by 23 of some 300 French ski resorts. Considering that this is a biological product containing inactivated Pseudomonas syringae bacteria, strain 31a, and for which the health impacts of its use are not known, the Agency was asked to carry out:
- an assessment of the international regulatory status of the Snomax® product;
- a scientific review of available studies on the health risks linked to its use;
- an overall assessment of the health risk of the Snomax® product with respect to slope users and professionals, and in particular to the sensitive population represented by children.
ANSES’s assessment
The qualitative assessment of the health risk linked to the use of Snomax® concludes, depending on the exposure scenarios and the populations concerned at a level of risk:
- “none to negligible”, or even “negligible” for the majority of populations concerned, with the exception of professional snow growers, who therefore do not call for any particular recommendation;
- “negligible to low” for the professional population of snow growers, which therefore calls for recommendations in terms of precautionary use and monitoring.
The Agency wishes to draw the attention of ski resort managers to:
- the need to monitor the microbiological quality of water used for the manufacture of artificial snow, water of poor microbiological quality can in fact represent a health risk for users of the slopes and professional populations, given the routes of exposure identified in artificial snow. In this respect, the Agency highlights the potential benefit of a campaign to analyze the quality of the water used;
- the use of additives other than Snomax®, particularly for the maintenance of the snowpack, which is likely, under certain conditions, to degrade the quality of the soil and water resources, via snowmelt water . The catchments used for the supply of drinking water, in particular because of their immediate proximity to the slopes, appear to be particularly vulnerable to the possible risks linked to these additives as well as to the microbiological quality of the water used for artificial snowmaking.
Furthermore, the assessment of the risks linked to the use of Snomax® for the environment was the subject of an expert assessment by the Research Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (Cemagref ), which became the National Research Institute of Science and Technology for the Environment and Agriculture (Irstea).
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