Asbestos: Unseen Parks Danger?

In places that are supposed to be carefree, children are being exposed to high levels of cancer causing asbestos, reports CBS News Correspondent John 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 Morgan 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.

To read the EPA report, click here.