Asbestos is a nasty old mineral. It’s known for releasing fine, microscopic fibers that can lodge in the body’s tissues and cause deadly disease over a period of decades. Originally prized for its fire resistance and insulating properties, it was widely used in all sorts of building materials. Years after the dangers became clear, many countries eventually banned its use, with strict rules around disposal to protect the public from the risk it poses to health.
Australia is one of the stricter countries when it comes to asbestos, taking great pains to limit its use and its entry into the country. This made it all the more surprising when it became apparent that schools across the nation had been contaminated with loose asbestos material. The culprit was something altogether unexpected, too—in the form of tiny little tubes of colored sand. Authorities have rushed to shut down schools as the media asked the obvious question—how could this be allowed to happen?
Hiding In Plain Sight
Australia takes asbestos very seriously. Typically, asbestos disposal is supposed to occur according to very specific rules. Most state laws generally require that the material must be collected by qualified individuals except in minor cases, and that it must be bagged in multiple layers of plastic prior to disposal to avoid release of dangerous fibers into the environment. The use, sale, and import of asbestos has been outright banned since 2003, and border officials enforce strict checks on any imports deemed a high risk to potentially contain the material.
Thus, by and large, you would expect that any item you bought in an Australian retailer would be free of asbestos. That seemed to be true, until a recent chance discovery. A laboratory running tests on some new equipment happened to accidentally find asbestos contamination in a sample of colored sand—a product typically marketed for artistic use by children. The manager of the lab happened to mention the finding in a podcast, with the matter eventually reaching New Zealand authorities who then raised the alarm with their Australian counterparts. This led to a investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which instituted a national safety recall in short order.
The response from there was swift. At least 450 schools instituted temporary shutdowns due to the presence or suspected presence of the offending material. Some began cleanup efforts in earnest, hiring professional asbestos removalists to deal with the colored sand. In many cases, the sand wasn’t just in sealed packaging—it had been used in countless student artworks or spilled in carpeted classrooms. Meanwhile, parents feared the worst after finding the offending products in their own homes. Cleanup efforts in many schools are ongoing, due in part to the massive spike in demand for the limited asbestos removal services available across the country. Authorities in various states have issued guidelines on how to handle cleanup and proper disposal of any such material found in the workplace.
At this stage, it’s unclear how asbestos came to contaminate colored sand products sold across the country, though links have been found to a quarry in China. It’s believed that the products in question have been imported into Australia since 2020, but have never faced any testing regarding asbestos content. Different batches have tested positive for both tremolite and chrysotile asbestos, both of which present health risks to the public. However, authorities have thus far stated the health risks of the colored sand are low. “The danger from asbestos comes when there are very, very fine fibres that are released and inhaled by humans,” stated ACCC deputy chair, Catriona Lowe. “We understand from expert advice that the risk of that in relation to these products is low because the asbestos is in effect naturally occurring and hasn’t been ground down as such to release those fibres.”
Investigations are ongoing as to how asbestos-containing material was distributed across the country for years, and often used by children who might inhale or ingest the material during use. The health concerns are obvious, even if the stated risks are low. The obvious reaction is to state that the material should have been tested when first imported, but such a policy would have a lot of caveats. It’s simply not possible to test every item that enters the country for every possible contaminant. At the same time, one could argue that a mined sand product is more likely to contain asbestos than a box of Hot Wheels cars or a crate of Belgian chocolates. A measured guess would say this event will be ruled out as a freak occurrence, with authorities perhaps stepping up random spot checks on these products to try and limit the damage if similar contamination occurs again in future.
Featured image and other sand product images from the Australian government’s recall page.
Here we can observe the broken telephone effect. The original source said traces were found, which usually implies there’s not a whole lot.
So while asbestos is generally a bad thing, here we have a clear moral panic with schools closing down and hiring expensive experts, throwing away stuff over traces of asbestos found in some decorative sand. One could ask the question, how much asbestos on average is brought into schools by the sand the children carry in with their shoes, and how does it compare to the amount of asbestos found in this sand, and whether this whole thing is just a huge over-reaction?
Cha-ching.
One thing to remember is that, being rich in the mineral, Australia has had more than it’s share of hi-profile asbestos pollution incidents, so there may be some heightened sensitivity at play.
Another thing to remember, asbestos being a naturally occurring silicate mineral that is liberated by the erosion and weathering of certain common types of rock, trace amounts are present in just about every shovelful of dirt you pick up. The better question is, if you really went looking for it, where wouldn’t you find it?
So there is heightened sensitivity, and public ignorance about the relative risks, and people willing to exploit it all to sell news articles, grandstand as politicians, or just sell unnecessary asbestos clean-up services to panicking parents and school administrators.
/r/lostedditors
“the asbestos is in effect naturally occurring and hasn’t been ground down as such to release those fibres.”
I wonder if vibration during shipping might not grind the sand against the asbestos, resulting in particles of the dangerous sizes — not to mention that using the product as designed could cause friction and grinding action.
Of course, there are almost no numbers available (here). The whole thing might be an over-reaction. Or not.
How is the sand colored? I would think the coloring would contain the asbestos, mostly.
This appears to be “magic sand” or “kinetic sand”, which is ultra-fine sand grains coated in some organic compound that repels water. The coated grains are then wetted with oil, which makes them stick together like wet beach sand that never dries up, and that’s what the kids play with.
Come to think of it, it doesn’t sound like a very healthy product to begin with.
Could be unhealthy in other ways too, but does sound like a quite a low risk for airborne asbestos.