Asbestos in Children's Play Sand Triggers Recalls in at Least a Dozen Countries
The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it's monitoring the problem. Recalls have not yet hit the U.S.
At least 12 countries have issued at least 80 recalls or warnings about toys and craft kits made with sand that regulators suspect contain asbestos.
The scrutiny seemingly began with one specific brand of colored craft sand where contamination was discovered by accident in Australia in November 2025. But the craft sand crisis has now gone global, with new government alerts released roughly weekly in the five months since then. The U.S. is notably absent from the list of countries that have issued recalls, even though some of the brands and retailers involved also operate here.
There’s a wide range of recalled products affected by this issue, all of which contain (or are suspected to contain) asbestos-tainted sand. They include colored sand that’s meant to be poured into display bottles (sometimes marketed for use in “unity ceremonies”), crafty “sand painting” kits, so-called “Montessori-style” writing trays, sand-filled “dig” kits with prizes inside, “magic” or “sticky” sand, and even squishy squeeze toys that use the sand as a filler material.
Asbestos is a group of fibrous minerals that occur naturally in rock formations, frequently appearing alongside other commonly mined materials, like talc, which led to a crisis in the baby powder market, for instance. Asbestos is a carcinogen that’s particularly harmful when inhaled.
In New Zealand, 50 schools and day care centers temporarily closed for cleaning and remediation because many classrooms had arts and crafts kits that contained the affected sand.
How the Crisis Unfolded
The first recall of this kind was announced in Australia and New Zealand on Nov. 12, 2025. It involved a particular brand of colored sand made by a company called Educational Colours and sold in multiple colors by the Australian retailer Officeworks and other stores. The safety regulators in both countries said anyone who bought this product should stop using it immediately. Their press releases stated that lab testing had found that the sand was contaminated with a naturally occurring asbestos called tremolite.
People with this colored sand in their home were told to dispose of it carefully, with protective equipment on, and by way of licensed asbestos-collection professionals rather than in the regular trash.
New Zealand’s release also indicated that schools that identified this sand in their buildings should notify the country’s education department for help. Within days, schools in both countries had temporarily closed for cleaning and remediation—50 schools and day cares in New Zealand alone.
Over the following weeks, product safety agencies in Australia and New Zealand recalled over 40 more sand-toy and sand-art products that they also suspected of asbestos contamination.
Catriona Lowe, deputy chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview in November 2025 that an Australian lab had actually discovered the asbestos by accident. It had been testing a new machine and was surprised to find asbestos present. It immediately alerted the authorities, she said.
Lowe also said that the agency’s investigation into the contamination’s origin was ongoing at that time, but that at least some of the tainted sand had come from one common quarry in China. Ian Caplin, a consumer protection spokesperson at New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, told CR that the regulators were still monitoring testing results and international recalls to learn more.
“Due to the scope and breadth of products that have been found to contain asbestos, we aren’t able to determine a single source of origin for the asbestos,” Caplin said. “The form of asbestos, tremolite, is a naturally occurring fiber and is found in crushed quartz, which the same products are made from.”
By early this year, the sand recalls had spread to Europe. In the U.K., according to reporting by The Guardian, a parent happened to see a news article from Australia about the recall and recognized some colored sand that her child had recently played with. Curious and concerned, she had several samples of the sand independently tested, and some of the colors came back positive for asbestos, according to The Guardian. The parent alerted the retailer, which recalled the sand in January 2026, triggering a wider investigation. (The U.K.’s Department of Business and Trade declined to comment on this account of the investigation’s origins.) The U.K. announced at least 30 more recalls over the next four months.
“It is staggering toys are being sold with asbestos, and I know how concerning this will be for parents,” said Kate Dearden, the U.K.’s Minister for Product Safety, in a statement to CR. “We’re taking action with new measures to strengthen consumer protection and clamp down on irresponsible sellers.”
Throughout January, February, March, and April, the recalls rippled across Europe, with new products tested and new contamination discovered by multiple countries. Press releases popped up in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, France, and Malta. The Netherlands recalled a “sand painting” set, a craft kit that involved painting glue onto different parts of a picture and then pouring colored sand onto the glue, revealing a design when the excess sand was shaken off. Finland did its own testing of sand products and discovered asbestos in a sand-based writing pad, which was then recalled. The Irish government worked with schools to remove and remediate all of their sandy “Worm World” sets designed to house live earthworms.
One of the most recent recall announcements, published April 23 out of the Netherlands, said that the colored sand in one sand-painting kit was found to contain 4.6 percent asbestos by weight.
In February, Manuela Ripa, a German member of the European Parliament, sent a set of questions about the unfolding crisis to the European Commission, which develops and enforces EU regulations. “The fact that such a hazardous substance was detected in a product intended specifically for children raises serious questions as to the effectiveness of import controls and EU market surveillance,” the letter read, and asked for more information about how this could happen, and what the commission was doing to prevent it from happening again. The European Commission responded on April 8, stating that it was aware of the situation and in the process of tightening controls.
The frequency and quantity of the recall announcements, and the wide range of products apparently affected by the same issue, have surprised safety advocates.
“It’s ongoing, and I think still picking up speed, actually,” says Hannah Walsh, a senior researcher and writer at Which, a consumer testing and advocacy group in the U.K. that has been watching the situation unfold. “I don’t think it’s anywhere near the end yet, of how many products are going to be recalled.”
What About the U.S.?
There have been no warnings or communications from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) about asbestos in sand up to this point. If the agency is testing or investigating sand products for asbestos, it has not made that information public—though a spokesperson said in response to CR’s questions this week that staff members are reviewing all available information on the issue.
Some public health and safety advocates have found the agency’s silence up to this point concerning. On April 1, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), a nonprofit organization in the U.S., sent a letter to CPSC chair Peter Feldman and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin, citing some of the countries that have already removed the sand products from the market.
“Asbestos is a known carcinogen that causes more than 200,000 deaths worldwide each year, including approximately 40,000 in the U.S., and there is no safe level of exposure,” Linda Reinstein, ADAO’s president and co-founder, wrote to the two agencies. “Because children frequently pour, shake, and handle sand during craft and sensory activities, regulators in these countries have determined that any detectable level of asbestos in children’s products is unacceptable.”
The letter requested that the CPSC and EPA review the data and methodology from the countries that have issued recalls, and conduct targeted testing of their own on similar products available in the U.S. The EPA press office told CR that it was aware of the recalls overseas but that product safety was in the CPSC’s jurisdiction. The agency also said it would be responding to the ADAO.
Toy Manufacturers and Retailers Respond
Regulators overseas have made it clear that, given the scope of this problem, toy manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers would do well to be proactive about it.
“We would expect any suppliers or retailers that have creative sand products in their product lines to be taking a very active approach in examining their products,” Australia’s Catriona Lowe told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “We would suggest removing such products as a precautionary step from shelves, and undertaking appropriate testing.”
In the U.K., for instance, Hannah Walsh of Which reported that sand-related toys and craft kits were increasingly difficult to come by on her country’s version of several major retail platforms.
Not so on the U.S. side. Colored craft sand and related toys are still plentiful on many major retailers’ websites here. In most cases, there’s no way for consumers to know whether that’s because the sand for sale has been vetted and is free of asbestos contamination or retailers aren’t aware of the potential issue. (One exception to that, however, is the appropriately named The Colored Sand Company, whose website declares that its products are asbestos-free at the top of its home page.)
CR contacted many major online retail platforms as well as art and office supply companies to ask if they were aware of the asbestos issue and whether they had tested their colored sand products to ensure that they were safe.
Ali Express—which previously sold a sand writing pad made by a company called Wooden Qiyi that was recently recalled in the U.K. and Finland—told CR that, in addition to removing certain sand products affected by recalls in other parts of the world, it had removed them for sale from the U.S. market, even though it had not yet received any word about them from U.S. regulators.
When asked whether it was aware of the recalls, the Oriental Trading Company responded that it was, and that it had made sure that the colored sand it is selling is safe. Temu told CR that it requires all of its sand-containing products to undergo lab testing for asbestos before they can be sold on its platform, and that it doesn’t sell play sand.
Blick Art Materials told CR that it was not aware of the issue but that it would be taking immediate action by removing all colored sand from sale while it confirmed with the manufacturers and distributors that the products were safe.
As of this writing, Amazon is still selling a Melissa & Doug sand art kit that was recalled in Australia in January. (The recall only applied to certain lots of the product, but they were sold as far back as 2020.) The company didn’t answer CR’s questions about whether the kit that’s currently for sale encompasses the lots or batches that were part of Australia’s recall. But it said that it has no indication that the craft sand kits or toys for sale on its platform are unsafe or noncompliant.
The Melissa & Doug website shows that the sand art kit is out of stock, and the brand’s parent company, Spin Master, told CR that it’s “no longer being produced or distributed.” When asked why it was still for sale via Amazon, or whether it would be issuing an alert or a recall for consumers who had bought the sand art kit in the past, Spin Master said that the kits met all regulatory requirements at the time they were distributed for sale and were not subject to any recalls in the U.S.
Spin Master also owns another hugely popular sand-toy brand, Kinetic Sand, which was not part of any recalls or safety alerts in any country. The company told CR that Kinetic Sand is routinely tested for asbestos and is safe. Many of the recalls overseas applied to other brands of similar products with such descriptions as “creative sand” or “magic sand,” but these shouldn’t be confused with the brand Kinetic Sand.
The Toy Association (an industry trade group), Target, and Walmart didn’t respond to CR’s questions about this issue.
Tips for Parents
While many companies told CR that their specific products were safe or regularly tested for asbestos, it’s difficult to know whether this issue, which has triggered many recalls, exists in the U.S. or not. But CR safety experts say if you’re concerned about the risks that may be related to play sand, you can look for alternatives for sensory play, like uncooked rice, oatmeal, or pea gravel.
Generally speaking, buying from larger, more recognizable brands can help to increase the chances that the toys you buy, and their supply chains, have been vetted for safety. You can also always contact toy manufacturers directly to ask them questions about their safety testing.