The California Senate has rocks for brains, Democrats and Republicans alike. With the State budget swirling ’round the drain, our illustrious State Senators instead waste time on debating whether to drop Serpentine (Serpentine Hematite) as the state rock. Seriously. Sen. Gloria Romero—fresh from her failed bid for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction—claims (SB 624) that Serpentine should be dropped like a hot rock rock because it “contains the deadly mineral chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen, exposure to which increases the risk of the cancer mesothelioma.”
According to the LA Times, SB 624 has backing from mesothelioma support groups. Meanwhile, exasperated critics say Serpentine is a group of 20 different minerals, and Californian Serpentine rarely contains much chrysotile, and hardly ever in its dangerous fibrous asbestos form.
WHO MAKES MONEY? WANNA BET THEY GIVE MONEY TO ROMERO?
Look for lawyers involved in asbestos compensation claims and cleanup companies to profit from the bill. Vast tracts of California where bedrock is made of Serpentine could be declared hazardous to health…even if it contains no crysotile. More than likely some developer has a hand in it to pick up the tainted land cheap instead of through the usual eminent domain hi-jinks.
The kicker is SB 624 won unanimous bi-partisan support from an Assembly committee last week. Lordy.
Kick all the bums out.
Bill Gram-Reefer is Editor & Publisher of Halfway To Concord, founded in 2004. Halfway To Concord is the leading online source for community-driven political news, events, and opinion for Contra Costa County and the San Francisco East Bay.
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Why we should care:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2010/07/18/calling-on-californians-west-coast-represent/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2010/07/15/unscientific-california-how-scientific-illiteracy-threatens-serpentine-and-biodiversity/
Make your voices heard!
ALL those serpentinophiles who celebrate this rock SHOULD join us to talk ‘real’ science behind serpentine at the next international conference on serpentine ecology in Portugal June 2011
Check out: http://www.ultramafic-ecology.org/
I am a biologist and a research biochemist specializing in natural occurring (NOA) “asbestos” in California. The legislature is a day late (meaning decades late) and a dollar short (meaning, well more) and working on the complete wrong subject. ADAO is not intentionally misleading, but they as a group are misleading. Natural occurring forms of asbestos occur in all states in the ground from soft friable easily airborne to hard rock hard to blow up with dynamite. In California communities have lived on all forms of natural occurring Chrysotile “asbestos” for well over 200 years. Intensive studies of death certificates shows no excess lung cancer or any excess mesothelioma at Chrysotile sites at all. San Francisco is the most contaminated Chrysotile city on earth. Yet small communities in California, inside El Dorado, Amador, Toulomne, who have lived on Tremolite asbestos deposits for only short periods, show large quantities of excess mesothelioma. Not just in humans but in animals too. Huge levels of death from a non serpentine NOA. This news regarding Tremolite was published in the newspapers, mostly front page news, in Sacramento for 8 years straight! What do the legislators do? Why they OK “asbestos” epidemics by refusing to address the problem, and they condemn the innocent serpentine rock without even realizing what they are doing. For those who don’t know, this exact same subject has nearly killed entire communities in the United States. Groups such as ADAO focusing on Chrysotile “asbestos” to the exclusion of the far more dangerous forms of “asbestos” have lead to the communities of Libby Montana and Jefferson Parish Louisiana having enormous non serpentine epidemics of human death. The legislators could actually do something useful here, but not while they are mislead by non scientists such as ADAO.
Let’s make fibrous Tremolite the State Rock. It is absolutely beautiful and 700 times more toxic. Or even better firbous Erionite.
Thanks for the post! It’s good to find someone that actually sees the real issues with SB 624
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