{"id":137627,"date":"2025-11-16T08:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T08:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/137627\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T08:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T08:51:07","slug":"rollestons-clearview-primary-and-waitaha-school-announce-closure-after-asbestos-found-in-kmart-magic-sand-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/137627\/","title":{"rendered":"Rolleston\u2019s Clearview Primary and Waitaha School, announce closure after asbestos found in Kmart Magic Sand products"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe board understands that this will be distressing and inconvenient for our school community, however our primary concern is keeping our staff and students safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Kmart NZ Magic Sands products are being recalled after asbestos was detected. They are, from left, the 14-piece sandcastle building set, and the blue, green and pink Magic Sand sets. Photo \/ Screengrab via Kmart recall notice<\/p>\n

Waitaha School has also announced it will be closed on Monday tomorrow, after becoming aware of the product recall. <\/p>\n

Principal Bernie Mulcahy-Bouwman said the Ministry of Education advised the board to investigate and call in professional asbestos cleaners. <\/p>\n

He said no students or staff are to travel to the school until he advised that it\u2019s \u201csafe to return to the satellite or base site\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he was working to organise a professional cleaner for all exposed rooms. <\/p>\n

An Auckland mum and NZME employee, Tyra Ward, has booked her 2-year-old son for a medical check after the product recall. <\/a><\/p>\n

He \u201cabsolutely loved\u201d building castles with his magic sand from Kmart.<\/p>\n

Ward understood that a lot of people were angry about the asbestos discovery. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re pretty angry that it could somehow get into a children\u2019s product without being noticed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that it was in there and we don\u2019t know how long it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four Kmart<\/a> Magic Sand products have tested positive for tremolite asbestos, prompting yesterday\u2019s urgent recall notice from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).<\/p>\n

Other coloured sand products, used by more than 60 schools and early childhood centres, were recalled this week.<\/p>\n

\"AucklandAuckland Mum, Tyra Ward’s son “adored” his magic sand \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

That recall notice was for EC Rainbow Sand and Creatistics \u2013 Coloured Sand, which had been sold at retailers including Paper Plus, Hobby Land, NZ School Shop, Office Products Depot, Discount Office, Acquire and Qizzle.<\/p>\n

MBIE understood the presence of asbestos in products used by children would be concerning, its product safety spokesman Ian Caplin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge families who have purchased these products to stop using them immediately, secure them safely, and contact your local council for advice on where and how to dispose of the contaminated material safely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe board understands that this will be distressing and inconvenient for our school community, however our primary concern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2840,74,95,25429,93875,3596,138,8126,93873,5201,17163,10709,1874,71,305,78,20465,29540,1906,111,139,69,6177,3383,93872,2751,4062,6649,11408,25444,13797,93874,80],"class_list":["post-137627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-across","tag-after","tag-and","tag-announce","tag-arise","tag-asbestos","tag-business","tag-canterbury","tag-clearview","tag-closed","tag-closure","tag-concerns","tag-found","tag-from","tag-have","tag-in","tag-kinetic","tag-kmart","tag-magic","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-primary","tag-products","tag-rollestons","tag-sand","tag-school","tag-schools","tag-testing","tag-urgent","tag-used","tag-waitaha","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}