California May Drop Its Official State Rock

The lawmaker and others who would like to see serpentine stripped of its title say the olive green rock found all over the state is a grim symbol of the deadly cancers associated with asbestos, which can be found in the rock. Geologists, who have taken to Twitter on behalf of the rock, assert that serpentine is harmless and is being demonized by advocates for people with asbestos-related diseases and possibly their trial lawyers, too.

The bill to defrock the rock — which recently passed the full State Senate and is awaiting a vote in the Assembly — is sponsored by Senator Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, with the strong support of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.

Declaring that serpentine “has known health effects,” the bill would leave California — one of roughly half the states in the nation with an official rock or mineral — without an official rock. (According to the bill, California was the first state, in 1965, to name an official rock.) Asbestos occurs naturally in many minerals, and indeed some serpentine rocks do serve as a host for chrysotile, a form of asbestos. But geologists say chrysotile is less harmful than some other forms of asbestos, and would be a danger — like scores of other rocks — only if a person were to breathe its dust repeatedly.

“There is no way anyone is going to get bothered by casual exposure to that kind of rock,” said Malcolm Ross, a geologist who retired from the United States Geological Survey in 1995. “Unless they were breaking it up with a sledgehammer year after year.”

Dr. Ross and other opponents of the bill are concerned that removing serpentine, which is occasionally used in jewelry, as the state’s rock would demonize it and thus inspire litigation against museums, property owners and other sites where the rocks sit; they cite the inclusion of a letter of support from the Consumer Attorneys of California with the bill as evidence.

“If they keep the asbestos issue bubbling,” Dr. Ross said, “it means money for politicians, more money for lawyers and money for scientists to investigate.”

J. D. Preston, a spokesman from the consumer lawyers group, said the group had nothing to do with drafting the legislation and was just responding to a request from the awareness organization for a support letter. “We just thought this was a good fit in our mission of consumer safety,” Mr. Preston said. “It is certainly not the intent, and we don’t even see where it opens the avenue for litigation.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has indicated no position.

Linda Reinstein, president of the awareness organization, whose husband died of mesothelioma, pointed out that the bill had numerous letters of support, including ones from the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and groups that represent people with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of many internal organs associated with asbestos.

“It doesn’t do anything legally,” Ms. Reinstein said of the proposed legislation. “This bill is all about education and awareness. We never expected such a stir.”

Under the hashtag — a Twitter identifying phrase that allows easy searching of similarly themed messages — #CASerpentine, scientists and other opponents of the bill are debating the bill’s merits and offering fighting words. One read, “Dear gloria romero, you have picked the wrong nerds to mess with!”

Senator Romero said she didn't believe it was appropriate for California to have a state rock that is linked to asbestos. "California is health conscious," she said. "This is not about being anti-rock. But why do we need a rock?"

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California May Drop Its Official State Rock

The lawmaker and others who would like to see serpentine stripped of its title say the olive green rock found all over the state is a grim symbol of the deadly cancers associated with asbestos, which can be found in the rock. Geologists, who have taken to Twitter on behalf of the rock, assert that serpentine is harmless and is being demonized by advocates for people with asbestos-related diseases and possibly their trial lawyers, too.

The bill to defrock the rock — which recently passed the full State Senate and is awaiting a vote in the Assembly — is sponsored by Senator Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, with the strong support of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.

Declaring that serpentine “has known health effects,” the bill would leave California — one of roughly half the states in the nation with an official rock or mineral — without an official rock. (According to the bill, California was the first state, in 1965, to name an official rock.) Asbestos occurs naturally in many minerals, and indeed some serpentine rocks do serve as a host for chrysotile, a form of asbestos. But geologists say chrysotile is less harmful than some other forms of asbestos, and would be a danger — like scores of other rocks — only if a person were to breathe its dust repeatedly.

“There is no way anyone is going to get bothered by casual exposure to that kind of rock,” said Malcolm Ross, a geologist who retired from the United States Geological Survey in 1995. “Unless they were breaking it up with a sledgehammer year after year.”

Dr. Ross and other opponents of the bill are concerned that removing serpentine, which is occasionally used in jewelry, as the state’s rock would demonize it and thus inspire litigation against museums, property owners and other sites where the rocks sit; they cite the inclusion of a letter of support from the Consumer Attorneys of California with the bill as evidence.

“If they keep the asbestos issue bubbling,” Dr. Ross said, “it means money for politicians, more money for lawyers and money for scientists to investigate.”

J. D. Preston, a spokesman from the consumer lawyers group, said the group had nothing to do with drafting the legislation and was just responding to a request from the awareness organization for a support letter. “We just thought this was a good fit in our mission of consumer safety,” Mr. Preston said. “It is certainly not the intent, and we don’t even see where it opens the avenue for litigation.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has indicated no position.

Linda Reinstein, president of the awareness organization, whose husband died of mesothelioma, pointed out that the bill had numerous letters of support, including ones from the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and groups that represent people with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of many internal organs associated with asbestos.

“It doesn’t do anything legally,” Ms. Reinstein said of the proposed legislation. “This bill is all about education and awareness. We never expected such a stir.”

Under the hashtag — a Twitter identifying phrase that allows easy searching of similarly themed messages — #CASerpentine, scientists and other opponents of the bill are debating the bill’s merits and offering fighting words. One read, “Dear gloria romero, you have picked the wrong nerds to mess with!”

Senator Romero said she didn't believe it was appropriate for California to have a state rock that is linked to asbestos. "California is health conscious," she said. "This is not about being anti-rock. But why do we need a rock?"

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 16, 2010

Because of an editing error, an article on Wednesday about a dispute in California over removing serpentine as the state’s official rock because it contains asbestos misstated the cause of death for the husband of Linda Reinstein, the president of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. Her husband died of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs and other organs that is closely tied to asbestos exposure; he did not die from lung cancer.

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Jeffrey Asbestos Mine in Canada Seeks State Aid to Restart Production

Mr. Coulombe, 69, says he believes that you can recapture the past. At a time when Canada, like many countries, is spending millions of dollars to remove asbestos from buildings, to say nothing of covering asbestos-related disability claims, Mr. Coulombe wants a $58 million loan guarantee from the province of Quebec. He is hoping to attract investors and revitalize the mine that gave rise to the town in 1879 and for more than a century has swallowed chunks of it into its ever-expanding pit.

Adding to the controversy over the plan, Mr. Coulombe’s strategy is to sell to countries like India, Pakistan and Vietnam, where enthusiasm for cheap asbestos often comes with a lax approach to workplace health and safety.

It would seem a quixotic venture. Mr. Coulombe’s proposal has been widely condemned by the medical and public health community both in Canada and abroad. The mineral’s dangers have largely eliminated the market for it in Canada as well as the United States, where the last asbestos mine closed in 2002.

But while many Canadians outside Quebec view the mine’s survival as something of an international embarrassment, history suggests it would be unwise to dismiss Mr. Coulombe. The asbestos industry was once a prominent symbol of Quebec’s might in natural resources, and the mine — now known as Mine Jeffrey — played an outsize role in the province’s political history.

“The whole asbestos debate is purely emotional,” said Paul Lapierre, the vice president for cancer control at the Canadian Cancer Society and an opponent of Mr. Coulombe’s proposal. “As Quebeckers we were once so proud of our mining industry, including asbestos.”

The political strength of asbestos will be tested this month when the province is expected to announce a decision on the loan guarantee.

Jeffrey was once a key operation of Johns Manville, the American building materials company, and at one time provided most of the world’s supply of one type of asbestos. But over time a large body of scientific evidence linked it to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a fast-acting cancer of major organs, and asbestosis, a hardening of the lungs that ultimately suffocates its victims.

In 1982, health-related lawsuits forced Johns Manville into bankruptcy; the Jeffrey mine was sold to its managers a year later.

The fortunes of asbestos have continued to sink. After peaking at 4.79 million metric tons in 1977, worldwide production reached only 1.97 million metric tons last year. Some countries, including the members of the European Union, now ban the mineral’s general use. Synthetic fibers have assumed most of the tasks it once handled, if at a higher cost. Asbestos’s remaining markets are mainly less developed nations as well as China and the countries of the former Soviet Union and China, some of which have mines. Its one remaining attraction is its low cost.

Once it reaches developing countries, asbestos from the Jeffrey mine is usually mixed with cement and formed into inexpensive pipes and roof sheeting.

The town of Asbestos, once prosperous, has tracked the mineral’s decline. The former town hall sits abandoned. When repairs to the building proved unaffordable, the local government moved into a church it purchased for $1. The mine pit, which is about a mile wide and 1.2 miles long, and its two huge mills are currently inactive.

As he rapped on a wall in his shabby office, Mr. Coulombe, an engineer who joined the mine 42 years ago, lamented that its asbestos-based wallboard was no longer available.

Mr. Coulombe readily acknowledges the mineral’s dangers and the harm it has done. But he asserted that the trouble mainly resulted from other forms of asbestos and not the variety, known as chrysotile, produced at Jeffrey as well as operations in nearby Thetford Mines. “The people against us in the medical community, they know nothing about chrysotile,” Mr. Coulombe said. “We show our opponents all sorts of studies done over the last 25 years all around the world that demonstrate that there is no problem working with chrysotile. But they don’t take that into account. They say ‘It’s a carcinogen, it’s a carcinogen, it’s a carcinogen.’ ”

View the original article here

Jeffrey Asbestos Mine in Canada Seeks State Aid to Restart Production

Mr. Coulombe, 69, says he believes that you can recapture the past. At a time when Canada, like many countries, is spending millions of dollars to remove asbestos from buildings, to say nothing of covering asbestos-related disability claims, Mr. Coulombe wants a $58 million loan guarantee from the province of Quebec. He is hoping to attract investors and revitalize the mine that gave rise to the town in 1879 and for more than a century has swallowed chunks of it into its ever-expanding pit.

Adding to the controversy over the plan, Mr. Coulombe’s strategy is to sell to countries like India, Pakistan and Vietnam, where enthusiasm for cheap asbestos often comes with a lax approach to workplace health and safety.

It would seem a quixotic venture. Mr. Coulombe’s proposal has been widely condemned by the medical and public health community both in Canada and abroad. The mineral’s dangers have largely eliminated the market for it in Canada as well as the United States, where the last asbestos mine closed in 2002.

But while many Canadians outside Quebec view the mine’s survival as something of an international embarrassment, history suggests it would be unwise to dismiss Mr. Coulombe. The asbestos industry was once a prominent symbol of Quebec’s might in natural resources, and the mine — now known as Mine Jeffrey — played an outsize role in the province’s political history.

“The whole asbestos debate is purely emotional,” said Paul Lapierre, the vice president for cancer control at the Canadian Cancer Society and an opponent of Mr. Coulombe’s proposal. “As Quebeckers we were once so proud of our mining industry, including asbestos.”

The political strength of asbestos will be tested this month when the province is expected to announce a decision on the loan guarantee.

Jeffrey was once a key operation of Johns Manville, the American building materials company, and at one time provided most of the world’s supply of one type of asbestos. But over time a large body of scientific evidence linked it to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a fast-acting cancer of major organs, and asbestosis, a hardening of the lungs that ultimately suffocates its victims.

In 1982, health-related lawsuits forced Johns Manville into bankruptcy; the Jeffrey mine was sold to its managers a year later.

The fortunes of asbestos have continued to sink. After peaking at 4.79 million metric tons in 1977, worldwide production reached only 1.97 million metric tons last year. Some countries, including the members of the European Union, now ban the mineral’s general use. Synthetic fibers have assumed most of the tasks it once handled, if at a higher cost. Asbestos’s remaining markets are mainly less developed nations as well as China and the countries of the former Soviet Union and China, some of which have mines. Its one remaining attraction is its low cost.

Once it reaches developing countries, asbestos from the Jeffrey mine is usually mixed with cement and formed into inexpensive pipes and roof sheeting.

The town of Asbestos, once prosperous, has tracked the mineral’s decline. The former town hall sits abandoned. When repairs to the building proved unaffordable, the local government moved into a church it purchased for $1. The mine pit, which is about a mile wide and 1.2 miles long, and its two huge mills are currently inactive.

As he rapped on a wall in his shabby office, Mr. Coulombe, an engineer who joined the mine 42 years ago, lamented that its asbestos-based wallboard was no longer available.

Mr. Coulombe readily acknowledges the mineral’s dangers and the harm it has done. But he asserted that the trouble mainly resulted from other forms of asbestos and not the variety, known as chrysotile, produced at Jeffrey as well as operations in nearby Thetford Mines. “The people against us in the medical community, they know nothing about chrysotile,” Mr. Coulombe said. “We show our opponents all sorts of studies done over the last 25 years all around the world that demonstrate that there is no problem working with chrysotile. But they don’t take that into account. They say ‘It’s a carcinogen, it’s a carcinogen, it’s a carcinogen.’ ”

View the original article here