More than 30 children's toys have been recalled in the UK after the Guardian revealed that play sand sold by Hobbycraft was contaminated with asbestos. Over the past three months, products ranging from candle-making kits to stretchy rubber toys have been recalled by retailers including Tesco, Primark, Matalan and M&S.
Asbestos can cause cancer if inhaled, and the UK prohibits its sale in any quantity. It is thought that the affected toys all contain sand from mines in China where asbestos fibres occur naturally and labelling rules are less rigorous.
In January, Hobbycraft withdrew its Giant Box of Craft kits after a customer alerted it to asbestos traces. The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) later issued an advisory note about reliable tests, leading to a surge in testing requests from stores and manufacturers.
Which? said the number of recalls pointed to a serious failure in safety checks. Sue Davies, its head of consumer protection policy, said: “The Office for Product Safety and Standards needs to take action and ensure proper checks are being carried out to keep dangerous products off the shelves.”
Campaigners criticised the UK government for failing to act after earlier recalls in Australia and New Zealand. Laurie Kazan-Allen of the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat said: “It took an article in the Guardian to force the UK authorities to engage with the potential threat to public health.”
Post-Brexit laws have removed government powers to ban products without scientific evidence, placing the onus on exporters and retailers to test goods. The government said it was up to companies to ensure safety, while minister Kate Dearden called it “staggering” that toys were being sold with asbestos.
