"TORONTO -- With birds chirping and temperatures warming , spring is finally in the air. But for University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) environmental chemist Torsten Meyer, springtime has a dark side.

'During the winter months, contaminants accumulate in the snow,' says Meyer, an expert on snow-bound organic contaminants and a post-doctoral fellow at UTSC.

'When the snow melts, these chemicals are released into the environment at high concentrations.'"

SPX had the story March 29, 2011. [2]