The word "asbestos" is a vernacular name given to six types of naturally occurring fibrous amphibole and serpentine minerals. Asbestos paranoia began in the 1970s soon after Dr. Irving Selikoff, of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, found that some workers, occupationally exposed to certain amphibole (non-serpentine) type asbestos fibers, were at increased risk of lung disease. While Dr. Selikoff's work played a key role in removing amphibole asbestos from industry, the nescient media, driven by the need for hysteria headlines, created public panic and a billion dollar industry associated with "evil" asbestos. The issue is further exasperated by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) unwillingness to accurately represent the facts. Generally the media and the EPA fail to differentiate between amphibole and chrysotile (serpentine) fibers used for asbestos, and that failure has cost billions in unnecessary expense, the loss of many lives and endangered thousands of people.
Without exception, every human study in the United States showing asbestos etiology is associated with amphibole fiber asbestos, and there is not a single study showing chrysotile etiology. In fact, every study of chrysotile fiber has shown it to be harmless, even in cases of excessive exposure. The EPA, purposefully ignoring the scientific evidence, has created dangerous policy base solely on pseudoscience, that has cause the death of thousand of people whose lives could have been protected had harmless chrysotile asbestos not been removed from industry. For example, many leading professional blamed the rapid structural failure of the World Trade Center on the asbestos ban that stopped the use of (chrysotile) asbestos insulation above the 64th floor (James Glanz and Andrew C. Revkin. "A Nation Challenged; Haunting Question: Did the Ban on Asbestos Lead to Loss of Life?" New York Times. September 18, 2001). Even the loss of the Columbia Space Shuttle can be traced back to the removal of chrysotile asbestos fiber from the failed o-ring that caused the disaster ("Did risk reduction backfire in space?" The Washington Times. January 28, 1996).
The official California State Rock is serpentine, the major source of chrysotile asbestos. Millions of acres of the California Coast Ranges and western slope of the Sierra Nevada are underlain by chrysotile asbestos bearing rock and soil which have been there for millions of years. Most of the San Francisco Bay area is underlain by these same rock formations. Were it as dangerous as some government agencies such as the EPA imply, thousands of Californians would be dead and dying from it .. but no one is ill or dying from exposure to chrysotile asbestos.
Of course, mainstream media, the EPA and other pseudoscientist would never permit truth to interfere with their dedication to purpose ... whatever that "propose" might be. They have successfully demonized "asbestos" causing many people to believe that it is one of the world's great evils. They conveniently - no, they purposely and neglectfully ignored the fact that not all asbestos is dangerous and the natural occurring asbestos found in the Clear Creek Management Area is chrysotile, a harmless serpentine mineral.
Chrysotile is not an amphibole fiber and according to all scientific studies, Chrysotile is harmless to humans. In fact a recent study published in Inhalation Toxicology (Volume 15, Number 14/Dec 2003) "Comparison of Calidria Chrysotile Asbestos to Pure Tremolite: Inhalation Biopersistence and Histopathology Following Short-Term Exposure" concluded that chrysotile "fiber is not associated with lung disease."
Tremolite, another mineral used to produce asbestos, is an amphibole mineral. However, not all temolite, such as Jade, is harmful asbestos. Only asbestos tremolite is harmful. The hard, needle-like fibers of asbestos tremolite penetrate into the lung tissue by piercing the walls of the alveoli. Since your body cannot dissolve or dispose of the amphibole fibers they cause a scarring of the lungs, called asbestosis, or cause a cancer of the lining (pleura) of the lung, called mesothelioma. No naturally occurring tremolite has been found in the Clear Creek Management Area. There is a rumor of finding tremolite in the Clear Creek Management Area. However, this so-called "discovery" is based upon finding one microfiber during an electronmicroscopy examination of a filter from a personal air-sampler associated with human activity. This was a contaminated sample collected through inaccurate nonscientific methods which a real scientist or technologist would immediately disqualify. Regrettably, there are a few people who would like to use this as "scientific evidence" that tremolite has been found in the Clear Creek Management Area chrysotile deposit.
Summary:
Most scientific studies show that chrysotile asbestos is not harmful
There is no natural amphibole asbestos danger in the Clear Creek Management Area