{"id":505467,"date":"2026-07-02T02:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/505467\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T02:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:38:08","slug":"new-zealand-play-sand-asbestos-finding-prompts-urgent-minister-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/505467\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand play sand asbestos finding prompts urgent minister meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Urgent meetings to be held <\/p>\n

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer said he was taking the matter \u201cseriously\u201d and acknowledged the concerns of parents and caregivers. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am meeting with officials today to work through this new research and what it means for the steps we are taking to keep New Zealanders safe,\u201d Brewer said. <\/p>\n

Since the issue was identified in November last year, he said the Government has taken a proactive approach. <\/p>\n

\u201cMBIE has been actively engaging with suppliers, securing recalls of affected products, and putting clear guidance in front of consumers and businesses.\u201d <\/p>\n

Globally, at least 16 countries have issued 135 recalls or warnings about toys and craft kits made with sand that officials suspected contained asbestos. <\/p>\n

So far in New Zealand, Brewer said 24 recall notices have been issued. The study said 20 different brands have been recalled. <\/p>\n

\"AA study in Auckland confirmed \u201cairborne asbestos fibres\u201d could be released from samples of children\u2019s play sand. Photo \/ 123RF<\/p>\n

The minister said businesses were responsible for the safety of the products they sold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect them to act quickly when a risk is identified. Every supplier MBIE has engaged with has moved to recall affected products, which is exactly what should happen,\u201d Brewer said. <\/p>\n

Importing asbestos-containing products is already prohibited in New Zealand unless authorised by a permit from the Environmental Protection Authority. <\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealanders should be able to trust that the products they buy are safe for them and their families, and this Government will keep working to make sure that is the case,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"NationalNational MP Cameron Brewer. Photo \/ Jamie Ensor<\/p>\n

\u2018Panic and worry\u2019 for parents <\/p>\n

AUT research lead, Associate Professor Terri-Ann Berry, told RNZ the \u201cawful lot of panic\u201d worried her. <\/p>\n

\u201cLook, there\u2019s no safe level of exposure to asbestos \u2013 on the positive side, being exposed does not mean that you\u2019re necessarily going to develop an asbestos-related illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t quite work like that, but of course, finding no fibres is a much nicer place to be,\u201d Berry said.<\/p>\n

She told RNZ that she understood the discovery would be confronting for parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone from something that was just a potential to something that\u2019s now realised in that we know those fibres can get into the air from play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Urgent meetings to be held Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer said he was taking the matter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,29786,3596,33737,138,4749,2949,266,79817,6722,117,111,139,69,10538,29545,48047,1518,12860,2751,4758,25444,80],"class_list":["post-505467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-airborne","tag-asbestos","tag-breakthrough","tag-business","tag-childrens","tag-finding","tag-government","tag-meetings","tag-minister","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-play","tag-present","tag-prompts","tag-research","tag-revealed","tag-sand","tag-taking","tag-urgent","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505467","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=505467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}