Health and safety advocates are aware of asbestos dangers and how exposure poses risks, but the dangerous set of minerals usually affects those in industrial industries. A report, however, shows that asbestos knows no bounds and can affect children simply playing with toys or coloring.
The Environmental Working Group’s sister organization, EWG Action Fund, completed an investigation of 28 different brands of crayons, as well as 21 different toy fingerprint kits. The investigative report was listed on AsbestosNation.org.
The investigation found that four crayon brands and two of the kits were contaminated with asbestos.
The crayons were purchased at national retail chains as well as through websites. The study found that the crime investigation toys had higher quantities of assets than the crayons, which is of great concern because the kit includes a dusting powder that can easily be inhaled.
Inhalation and ingestion of asbestos fibers are the primary source of exposure leading to eventual asbestos-related diseases. The crayons were found to each contain as much as one million or more asbestos fibers.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has indicated that “there is no safe level of asbestos exposure for any type of asbestos fiber.”
The fact that asbestos is legally in products sold in the U.S. may come as a surprise to parents, who may believe that asbestos was banned in the nation years ago. Asbestos, however, was never banned in the U.S. Its use was widely curtailed, but it is still in use.
The information on the website read in part, “EWG Action Fund purchased the crayons that tested positive for asbestos between February and May 2015 at two national chains, Party City and Dollar Tree, in a suburban county near San Francisco. The fund ordered the two crime scene toys that contained asbestos through Amazon.com and ToysRUs.com.”
The brands of crayon that were identified as containing asbestos were Amscan Crayons, Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Crayons and Saban’s Power Rangers Super Megaforce. The crime investigation kits were identified as the Inside Intelligence Secret Spy Kit and the EduScience Deluxe Forensics Lab Kit.”
