While it may seem a bit frivolous, I joined the "California Serpentine Awareness! Keep our Rock! Fight SB 624" Facebook group, because I think the Trial Lawyers are being ridiculous and imperious with their heavy-handed attempt to defrock California's official state rock.

The lawmaker (Senator Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles) 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.

But because some self-appointed moralizers from the Trial Lawyer coalition think it sends the wrong message (by reminding people that asbestos occurs naturally), they want it removed as the State Rock.

Must every last thing be politicized? Fortunately, geologists are getting into the debate; the Times article quotes a retired geologist who worked for the U.S. Geological Survey.

"There is no way anyone is going to get bothered by casual exposure to that kind of rock...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."

The text of the legislation states that the rock is "toxic":

"California should not designate a rock known to be toxic to the health of its residents as the state's official rock"

And a state which faces bankruptcy can fritter away valuable time and resources on the Trial Lawyers' rock demonization campaign. According to Michael Fumento, the risks have been seriously overstated (the "one single fiber can kill you" campaign), and few people realize that asbestos is everywhere:

The "single fiber" and "no threshold" assertions rest on the premise that asbestos fibers are some sort of alien substance that the body simply can't handle-like the plastic in a landfill that will stay there forever because nature is incapable of breaking it down. "Inhaled asbestos fibers," wrote Medical Self Care magazine, "bypass the body's respiratory defenses and settle deep in the lungs."

In fact, as the Encyclopedia Britannica's Medical and Health Annual explains, in most instances inhaled asbestos fibers never reach the lower respiratory tract but are removed from the lung by the continuously moving mucous lining. If they get past that point, other defense systems will usually remove them or isolate them so they can do no harm.

And a good thing, too, for asbestos -- far from being a microbe brought back to earth by a falling satellite or some sinister substance concocted in a Defense Department laboratory -- is as natural a pollutant as house dust. It has been around longer than man. Because it occurs in rock formations, everyone is exposed to it: in the air, in water, in food.

In some areas asbestos concentrations exceeding those permitted by government workplace regulations have been recorded in natural dustfall along roads. Regardless of where we work or attend school, all of us are exposed to some level of the mineral every day.

The crucial question is how much.

Overload, obviously, is unacceptable: a miner or shipyard worker, breathing in large amounts of asbestos each day for decades, may have large amounts of asbestos getting past his body's defense system or even causing that system to break down. On the other hand, analyses of normal healthy adult lung tissues of persons who have not been exposed in the workplace have found that they contain millions of asbestos fibers.

the research data indicates that although chrysotile asbestos can produce mesothelioma in man, the total number of such cases is small and the required doses extremely large. Another important factor is that while in general, amphiboles have been shown to cause lung disease and cancer after short but intense exposures, chrysotile-related illness is associated with very high, long-term exposures only.

But that will be the law! And in California there will be no state rock!

Romero's legislation would leave California without an official state rock.

But Californians might not notice because the state has nearly three dozen other titleholders -- including an official state fish (golden trout), an official state grass (purple needlegrass) and an official state fossil (the saber-toothed cat).

THE GRATEFUL DEAD!

Why shouldn't my favorite rock be the official state rock? And don't anyone try telling me it's toxic or that it "sends the wrong message," either. Or I'll make you listen!

And while we're on the subject of renaming official state treasures, I think it's "high" time we changed the official state grass! Purple needlegrass, my ass! Come on! Everyone knows what the official state grass is:

MEDICAL MARIJUANA!

And as to the official state fossil, while I have always been partial to the saber-toothed cat, I would be willing to consider substituting a much more vicious animal.

NANCY PELOSI FOR OFFICIAL STATE FOSSIL!

Time for a change!