The bill acquired bipartisan support and unanimously passed through an Assembly Committee on Natural resources.

Sen. Romero's SB 624 got the cheers and claps of mesothelioma support groups as the public ban of serpentine would mean more money sent to law firms and other cleanup companies. Atty. Joseph Belluck, a mesothelioma solicitor stated that this is a reminder to everyone concerned that any form of asbestos is lethal and has caused death and disease to many citizens.

On the other hand, Geologists are not at all happy with this development commenting that such a bill is misinformed and as they put it, ridiculous. They are driving a point that serpentine is a family of twenty or so minerals that have common composite properties, most contain zero asbestos but a few have chrysotile asbestos. Accordingly, no research has yet proven that small quantities of chrysolite asbestos have caused illnesses or death, as opposed to fibrous asbestos whose deadly properties have been apparently associated with cancer and other serious ailments.

Currently, the state of California is divided about the issue. Serpentine is mined heavily in the region of San Benito Mountains and would be effective ammo by legal firms in their fights against mining firms. One group commends the bill as championing the cause of mesothelioma victims; another group maintains that there is no need to totally ban serpentine saying that it forms part of the rich history of California which was discovered by the state's early settlers.
Serpentine is a beautiful rock; its color varies from its typical green to yellow, gray, brown or reddish brown. It is commonly used for ornamental purposes and often cut and polished for jewelry. In 1965, the mineral acquired the designation of a state rock and was seen by many as the ideal epitome of the mining progress in California which brought the state on its road to having the largest GSP (gross state product).

A group of researchers from Sydney, Australia conducted a study to assess the factors affecting the prognosis for survival of patients with peritoneal mesothelioma who are undergoing a surgery to take away as much of the tumor from the body as possible. This procedure is called cytoreductive surgery. The patients who participated in this evaluation were fourteen males and six females. After their cytoreductive surgery, they were given a heated abdominal chemotherapy wash for peritoneal mesothelioma which was administered at the St. George Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

Generally, the survival time for peritoneal mesothelioma patients is from 6 to 14 months after diagnosis. But in the study, the average survival time of the mesothelioma patients has improved to thirty months. Other factors found to have affected the improved survival of the peritoneal mesothelioma patients are the gender, non-smoking, non-consumption of alcohol and the epitheloid type of tumor. The researchers agree that nicotine (found in cigarettes) have adverse effects on survival. Meanwhile, they were not able to establish the connection between mesothelioma and alcohol.

This research has established that complete cytoreduction was a major factor for improved survival. Those who had most of the tumors removed through surgery had an average of 15-month survival rate, as compared with the seven months for patients whose tumors were not removed.