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California To Drop State Rock Over Asbestos Concerns
Diamonddavej writes "The LA Times reports that Californian legislators are close to dropping the translucent green rock Serpentine as the state rock of California because of its tenuous association with chrysotile asbestos. Sen. Gloria Romero declares in her bill (SB 624) that Serpentine should be dropped as California's state rock because it 'contains the deadly mineral chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen, exposure to which increases the risk of the cancer mesothelioma.' The bill has backing from mesothelioma support groups. Critics point out that Serpentine is a group of 20 different minerals, and Californian Serpentine rarely contains much chrysotile, never mind its dangerous fibrous asbestos form. Its is suspected that lawyers involved in asbestos compensation claims and cleanup companies will 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 at all! It looks like SB 624 will be passed; it won unanimous bi-partisan support from an Assembly committee last week."
Why is it that every time I read the words "Unanimous bi-partisan support", the result is always and without exception... Trouble?
Maybe I'm missing something here, but how does designating something as the state rock cause it to give people cancer? PS: The state rock of Utah is coal which has led to more than 100000 deaths and injuries due to mining (never mind the air pollution issue...).
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
There's been a lot of fraud around asbestos. Recently it's also transferred to silica dust somewhat. It is based in truth, because asbestosis and silicosis are real dangers, but lawyers have committed real fraud with it. In some lawsuits, the same people who were made sick and diagnosed with asbestosis were later diagnosed by the same doctors with silicosis for a different lawsuit. Here is that story. Here are some other lawyers who were recently convicted for fraud with asbestos cases.
Lawyers are one of the biggest areas of fraud and corruption the US right now. In a lot of states, the attorney general sets up a pay-to-play system where they get kickbacks to let certain law firms handle certain legal issues (or even pursue cases that normally would be ignored). In other cases, lawyer lobby organizations try to get laws written in vague ways that will require extra legal work, or as in this case, create potential lawsuits where there doesn't seem to even be danger.
Qxe4
For those who are unfamiliar with the style of California, ever since proposition 65, signs have been popping up everywhere warning about cancer (as this entity so eloquently points out). I'm not sure if the warning labels have achieved anything, but there have been allegations of abuse.
Qxe4
Who exactly was drunk enough to come up with the idea of a state rock in the first place?
Took the words right out of my mouth. According to Wikipedia, the following state insignia exist: amphibian, beverage, bird, butterfly, color, crustacean, dance, dinosaur, fish, flag, flower, food, fossil, grass, insect, instrument, license plate, mammal, mineral, motto, nickname, poem, poet laureate, reptile, route marker, seal, shell, ship, slogan, soil, song, sport, tartan, toy and tree.
OK, I can understand flag, license plate, motto, route marker and seal. I can understand the nickname (although why it's apparently official is beyond me). I probably could understand the slogan if I knew how it differs from a motto.
But the rest? I mean... grass? Tartan? Crustacean? I'm not from the USA, so can somebody explain to me what the point of these is?
In other news, goofy Californians fiddle with state rocks while their budget burns, note water still wet film at 11.
Of course, you cannot use that water to put out the fire because it might threaten another species of smelt or a snail somewhere...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Halite dust actually has some theurapeutic effects: http://www.salt-therapypipe.com/background-of-treatment.asp
And it's not like you can easily breathe a lethal concentration of salt.