Back in 1965, when asbestos was a profitable industry in California, serpentine, since it was the host rock for asbestos, was designated as the state rock. This was in response to pressure from the asbestos lobby. The designation was intended to call attention to the lucrative asbestos industry. Today, there is no asbestos industry. Asbestos [...]
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Much has been said about SB 624, the recent effort to rescind the designation of Serpentine as the California state rock. Here are the facts: According to the AB 265 bill Memorandum dated April 16, 1965, Serpentine was designated as the state rock precisely because of its relationship to the asbestos mining industry in California. To quote [...]
California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey, Facts about Serpentine Rock: http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/information/publications/cgs_notes/note_14/Documents/note_14.pdf Facts about Serpentine Rock and Soil Containing Asbestos in California. University of California: Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources: http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/8399.pdf World Health Organization International Agency on Cancer Research (asbestos is a known human carcinogen): http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/suppl7/suppl7.pdf Chrysotile Asbestos in a California Recreational Area (1979) [...]
“You have picked the wrong nerds to mess with”... that’s a good line to end your article, but you should be aware that the Professional Geologists that have specifically been studying the mineral in question (like myself) are aware that there is still significant debate over the health effects of chrysotile (serpentine-derived) and amphibole-sourced asbestos [...]