The California legislature is about to strike an unfortunate blow at education, and apparently not one of the legislators, Democratic or Republican, seems aware of it. Senate Bill 624 would remove serpentine as the state rock of California, and furthermore would declare the rock to be dangerous to the health of state residents.
The bill, short as it is, contains several factual errors, and instead of being "uncontroversial" as one assemblyperson put it, may open up the state and residents to litigation. Serpentine is not a toxic rock. It sometimes contains the fibrous mineral chrysotile asbestos, but chrysotile asbestos is not the form of asbestos that is proven to cause mesothelioma and lung cancer.
Serpentine (or more properly, serpentinite) was a great choice for the state rock, although the backers of the choice back in 1965 were almost surely unaware of its real value at the time...they wanted to promote asbestos mining, and serpentine sometimes hosts one of the six varieties of asbestos. The fascination with the rock as an educational tool runs deep. Deep, as in the earth's mantle...
continued at Daily Kos....
