Key facts
- Assurances about the low risk of asbestos in contaminated play sand were based on a supplier's unverified assessment.
- The assessment by Educational Colours was not independently tested or publicly released.
- Regulators in Australia and New Zealand adopted the supplier's safety claims despite lacking independent evidence.
- New testing revealed that 90% of craft sand samples released asbestos into the air when played with.
- New Zealand regulators privately challenged Australian safety statements from the outset.
- Recall notices are being amended to reflect potential health risks.
Assurances that asbestos-contaminated play sand posed a low risk to children in Australia and New Zealand were based on a supplier's own assessment that was not independently verified, The Guardian has revealed. Tens of thousands of boxes of potentially contaminated sand from brands like Educational Colours were sold over at least five years and used in hundreds of schools and childcare centres.
Until recently, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) advised that toxic asbestos fibres were "unlikely" to be released unless the sand was mechanically processed. This advice stemmed from a risk assessment commissioned by Educational Colours itself, which involved no independent testing or visual inspection of the contaminated products and was never made public. This claim became the official position of both governments.
However, testing by Auckland University of Technology found that 90% of craft sand samples released asbestos into the air when played with. Privately, New Zealand's workplace regulator, WorkSafe NZ, had challenged the Australian recall statements from the beginning, stating its own testing showed the asbestos fibres were of a respirable size. WorkSafe NZ consistently advised that affected sand products must be managed as friable asbestos-containing material until proven otherwise.
Despite these concerns, the "low risk" claim was widely adopted. Retailers like Kmart and Officeworks used similar wording to reassure consumers, with Kmart stating its recalled products did not contain friable asbestos and were "low risk" unless mechanically processed. Asbestos has been banned in Australia since 2003.
The Educational Colours risk assessment, published in October 2025, concluded the risk to children was "negligible" because fibre release was unlikely without mechanical processing. This conclusion was based solely on a discussion with a company representative and a review of lab results provided by the company, with a warning against extrapolating its findings. The asbestos was initially found by chance by an Australian laboratory. Subsequent testing commissioned by Educational Colours found non-respirable tremolite asbestos in six of 14 samples, with the laboratory again warning against assuming similar safety for other products.
Parents, such as Elle Chrisp and David Dingwall, uncovered documents through freedom of information laws, expressing shock at the reliance on the risk assessment for public messaging. Following the Guardian's inquiry, the ACCC announced that Kmart and Officeworks had agreed to amend their recall notices to remove claims that respirable asbestos had not been detected. The ACCC stated it continues to engage with suppliers on their recall notice wording.