New asbestos findings raise fresh questions for schools

New Zealand schools that dealt with the play sand asbestos scare last year are facing fresh questions, after new reporting found that safety assurances given to parents and schools in New Zealand and Australia were largely based on suppliers’ own assessments rather than independent verification.

The saga began in November last year, when routine testing in Australia turned up traces of asbestos in coloured children’s craft sand. The discovery triggered a wave of recalls across both countries, with more than 20 sand products pulled from our shelves and several schools temporarily closed for testing and deep cleaning while the scale of the risk was assessed.

Since then, researchers at Auckland University of Technology have gone further, finding that a striking proportion, around 90%, of the craft sand samples they tested released asbestos fibres into the air when handled in the way children would normally play with it.

That finding matters because early messaging from some retailers and regulators suggested the risk of airborne exposure was low unless the sand was mechanically crushed. The AUT research complicates that reassurance considerably, since normal play, scooping, pouring, mixing, appears sufficient to release fibres in many of the tested samples.

MBIE has acknowledged the new findings and said it is working to ensure ministers have up-to-date advice, while directly contacting businesses that issued recall notices to make sure their messaging reflects the latest research.

The underlying regulatory gap is the part schools should pay closest attention to. Current New Zealand legislation places the burden of ensuring asbestos-free products squarely on importers and suppliers, with no requirement for independent border testing overseen by a regulator.

In practice, that means the safety assurances schools relied on when initially assessing their own risk were often built on the word of the same companies that had imported the contaminated product in the first place, rather than on independent verification.

The practical advice hasn’t changed dramatically since the initial recall, any recalled coloured or craft sand products still in a school’s possession should be bagged, sealed, clearly labelled and kept away from children rather than simply put in general rubbish.

What has changed is the level of caution warranted around any supplier assurances that a product is asbestos-free. Given the gap in independent testing at the border, schools weighing up new sensory or craft sand purchases, or reassessing supplies they already hold, may be better served treating supplier claims as a starting point rather than a guarantee, and seeking independent testing where there’s any doubt at all.