Asbestos: Unseen Parks Danger?

May 8, 2005

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif., April 6, 2005

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(CBS) In places that are supposed to be carefree, children are being

exposed to high levels of cancer causing asbestos, reports CBS News

Correspondent Blackstone.

Measurements were taken in an unusual study by the Environmental

Protection Agency in the Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills, Calif.,

one of many places in the country built on asbestos-bearing rock,

Blackstone says.

EPA workers wearing breathing masks pretended to be children. As they

stirred up the dust, they measured what children are breathing.

Playing on the baseball field increased airborne asbestos levels 22

times. Playing in the sandbox raised the levels ten times. Riding a

bike on the nature trail put 43 times more asbestos fibers into the

air.

" I was watching the dust blow across and watching my son play baseball

and I knew it was time to go, " says former resident Lance McMahan. He

moved his family away from El Dorado Hills five years ago, when he

discovered that developers were digging into asbestos that occurs

naturally in the rocks there.

Now, the EPA study has confirmed that asbestos fibers are settling all

over town. What it means for health, though, is uncertain.

Asbestos-related lung diseases take decades to develop.

Asked by Blackstone whether there's a safe level of asbestos exposure,

El Dorado County Environmental Director Jon responded, " I think

that's the $60 million question. "

A question, Blackstone points out, that's not only a concern in El

Dorado Hills: There are natural asbestos deposits from Alabama to

Maine, even under New York's Central Park.

But so far, Blackstone observes, El Dorado Hills is the only place the

EPA has measured the dangers of child's play.

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