The recalled sand products. Photo: Supplied
The Public Health Communication Centre says children exposed to asbestos contained in coloured play sands should be regularly monitored to ensure the best chance of successfully treating cancers - which could take decades to emerge later in life.
Hundreds of schools have been tested - with nearly 40 forced to temporarily close - following the discovery of naturally occurring asbestos, tremolite, in coloured play sands last month.
At least nine children's activity products containing coloured sands were recalled over the last month after testing in Australia revealed the presence of the carcinogen in products.
Illnesses could take decades to emerge
University of Canterbury toxicologist, Professor Ian Shaw, said it could be decades before any illnesses related to the exposure emerged as symptoms.
"Mesothelioma, which is the cancer which is most likely to be caused by asbestos, tends not to be diagnosed early. The reason is that you don't notice the symptoms - they're the sort of things that you might just pass off.
"In kids that we know have been exposed, we would then want to monitor them - say, yearly - for many years so that if they did contract mesothelioma we could detect it really early and have a greater chance of treatment success," Shaw said.
University of Canterbury toxicologist Professor Ian Shaw. Photo: Supplied
He said testing needed to be done to better understand the risks associated with exposure to the products.
"We need to know not only how much they're breathing in - in terms of the concentration in air - but how long they've been breathing it because the higher the concentration, the longer the exposure, the greater the risk.
"It's immensely complex but it's really important because we've got kids exposed and what we do know about chemicals that cause cancer is that they tend to have a greater effect in children than adults. The reason for that is that kids are growing, their cells are dividing more frequently and cancer-causing chemicals generally only affect cells that are dividing. So there's more chance of them affecting dividing cells in kids," Shaw said.
Shaw said not everyone who breathed in asbestos would necessarily develop cancer.
"Even if somebody breathes a whole load of it for a long period of time they might not develop cancer. We mustn't be thinking that everybody's going to get cancer in this case 'cause they're not," Shaw said.
University of Auckland professor of commercial law Alex Sims said that in order to support the monitoring of children exposed to the chemical, the voluntary Asbestos Exposure Register - which stopped accepting new entries in 2023 - should be reinstated and expanded to include people who may have suffered exposure in a wider variety of environments.
"It was mainly to do with workplaces so if employees had been exposed to potential asbestos they could be on that register and it would allow for greater monitoring.
"Australia has one and - with the coloured play sand incident - people are being told to register there.
"As we've seen - with the coloured play sand - asbestos issues are far broader than just employees so that would be really useful," Sims said.
University of Auckland professor of commercial law Alex Sims. Photo: Supplied
Enforcement of importing regulations lacking
Sims said importing regulations meant it was currently illegal to import products that contained asbestos without a permit but little was being done to back up the legislation.
"The problem is that there is no requirement to test products before they come into New Zealand so we're just relying on people to test products but there's no one checking to see whether anything has been tested.
"If people are importing things into New Zealand [and] if there's a risk that a product could contain asbestos then testing should be carried out but, as we've seen, you can't rely on importers to do this, so instead you need a government body - say, for example, MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) - to arrange for the testing and to do that at the importer's cost," Sims said.
Sims said consumers should consider choosing children's products that had simpler, more natural, elements to avoid the risks associated with chemical contamination or poor manufacturing standards.
"We have product safety laws about toys - for example [you] can't have loose batteries and other things - but we do rely on importers and suppliers following the law and they don't always.
"When it comes to enforcement, the MBIE and Commerce Commission can't be everywhere, it's only when reports are made and sometimes reports come after harm's been suffered.
"The law and the government can't protect everybody and it's very much up to people to take care and if you're looking at something, just go 'no that doesn't look safe' and don't buy it. Just because it's sitting on a shelf it does not mean to say that it's safe."
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