08/18/2026
Asbestos has been found in children's art sand products. NOT Kinetic Sand, but children's loose colored sands. Magic sand, colored craft sand, art sand, etc.
They found that becomes airborne during normal play in 9 out of 10 dry craft sands tested.
Name brands are NOT more likely to be safe.
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Studies, articles and lists of brands are within the comments below. I’ll also link a post I have about outdoor play sand, which isn’t part of the study mentioned in this post.
“A man in a full hazmat suit knelt at a child's table and pushed a toy car through green sand. That was the experiment.
Researchers at Auckland University of Technology took 14 sand products that had already tested positive for asbestos, sealed them in a containment chamber, and had a licensed asbestos removalist play with them the way a kid does. Drawing in it. Scooping it. Running cars through it. Air samplers ran the whole time, two of them clipped to the suit at breathing height.
Nine of the ten dry craft sands sent cancer-causing fibres into that air. Gentle play or wild play made no difference. The four moist moulding sands came back clean, and the researchers still would not call them safe.
Stiftung Warentest published its interview with them today. Its own lab has found asbestos in 10 of 22 sand products, and Woolworth started a nationwide recall on August 6 for four sand toys, refund without a receipt. The study is a preprint, so other scientists are still checking it.
Be clear on one thing. Outdoor sandbox sand is not part of this. That is quartz and it is fine. This is the coloured indoor stuff for crafts and play.
Asked what she tells parents, the lead researcher said that as a mother, just knowing it might be in there would be enough for her.
Send this to a parent who has a tub of coloured play sand sitting in the house.”
