Will Fallbrook become 'Silicosis Valley?'

The area around San Jose is famously known as Silicon Valley. The Fallbrook-Temecula area could become Silicosis Valley if Granite Construction is allowed to construct its proposed industrial complex bordering Fallbrook. This will be much more than a gigantic open-pit mine: as the county of Riverside’s notice, dated July 20, 2005, indicates, Granite Construction, Inc. plans to build a huge industrial complex on this 311-acre site.

“Associated with the quarry will be an aggregate-processing facility consisting of a series of crushers, screens, conveyors, wash equipment, two hot-mix asphalt batch or drum plants, a ready mix concrete plant, a concrete and asphalt recycling facility, an administration building, an employee facility building, a maintenance facility with diesel fuel, propane, and water tanks, natural gas fueled engines or micro-turbines, an electric substation, water and gas lines, a reservoir, settling ponds, truck scales, and truck and equipment parking areas.”

Such an operation will endanger people down-wind with fine silica dust, which causes silicosis, a terrible respiratory disease. Inhaling silica causes inflammation of the lung tissue, which leads to scar tissue formation on the lungs, also known as nodules. This obstructs the flow of oxygen into the lungs and the bloodstream. Early stages of the disease may go unnoticed but long exposure can result in very serious respiratory illness. Progression of silicosis leads to fatigue, extreme shortness of breath, pain in the chest and respiratory failure, which may cause death. Silica is believed to interfere with the body’s immune response to the bacteria that causes TB.

Only workers in close proximity to the mining would be in danger of developing acute silicosis, but chronic silicosis could afflict nearby residents over a period of 10 or more years of exposure to lower levels of silica/quartz. People who suffer from asthma, emphysema and lung diseases would be most affected.

In the old days silicosis was known as miner’s asthma, potter’s rot, rock tuberculosis and stonemason’s disease. More is known about silicosis today, but there is no cure. Building such an industrial operation adjacent to a residential community is inviting disaster.

Joe Howard Crews