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 Over the past three months, products including candle-making kits and stretchy rubber toys have been withdrawn by retailers such as Tesco, Primark, Matalan and M&S.
Asbestos, which can cause cancer if inhaled, is banned in the UK in any quantity. The affected toys are thought to contain sand from Chinese mines 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) then issued an advisory note on testing, leading to a surge in lab requests from stores and manufacturers.
Consumer group Which? called the recalls 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.'
Traders have questioned common lab testing methods that failed to detect small asbestos quantities. Products certified safe were found contaminated under more reliable tests. Contaminated play sand had already prompted recalls in Australia and New Zealand in November, but similar products remained on UK shelves until the Guardian's report.
Campaigners criticised the UK government for not acting sooner. 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.
