I’m another nerd geologist with 26+ years of experience principally studying the asbestos issue; I’ve published widely and have spoken on this topic extensively in the US and abroad. What is obvious here is that many here do not know is that there are significant portions of CA that have soils that are inundated with asbestos from the serpentine rock that is common throughout that state. This is not a new issue and has gotten the attention of the press, the EPA, and many CA residents for years now. EPA and private research has clearly shown that there are asbestos risks to CA residents from the asbestos in the soil. This is not just in mines. It’s in neighborhoods (search El Dorado CA), road beds, nature trails and many other publicly accessible locations where it is disturbed and becomes airborne. When many thousands of people in CA live in areas of increased asbestos risk compared to the rest of the US population it seems inappropriate to maintain an asbestos-host mineral as a state icon. This is not one of those asbestos issues is where we endlessly debate the possibility of actual risk from sources like asbestos in soil, in major sections of CA there IS a risk. Because of competing interests I’m not sure we’ll ever know how to quantify the number of increased deaths due the natural occurrences of asbestos in CA soil (as from serpentine deposits). But if CA residents feel as though they would like to see an icon of worker safety exploitation and public health risk removed from the state lists, they certainly have that right and I support their right to do so…and agree with them. This isn’t just about some rock; it’s about what its history means and the public health legacy costs in dollars and lives.
Tom Laubenthal