zoo med excavator clay burrowing substrate?

seems dangerous to me. Seen it at my local herp store and like to know if anyone has used it or heard anything about it.

It depends what you are using it for. For a burrowing herp it is great, although a bit expensive as it is sold in fairly small quantities. Not dangerous if used properly.

It is used at the Naples Zoo in the gift shop exhibits. Seems to hold up pretty well. They did not only use that though, it was formed around some plastic pieces, just to make sure it held shape

I have 30 pounds here sitting in the bags that I never used.
30 pounds is not much at all. It would be enough for a 10 gallon or maybe a 20 gallon tank but not nearly enough for the 40 breeder I thought it was good for.
Very expensive to buy enough to use so it just sits here now.

I used some for a Leopard Gecko housing (10 gal tank). Molded, patted, followed directions, and later after it dried..found bugs crawling around in the tank.

I removed the Gecko, and sprayed the tank liberally with PAM waited a couple days for it to dry and air out and then put the gecko back. Approximately a week later, bugs were back. I dumped the tank, got another and used tile, have not looked back.