{"id":642741,"date":"2026-10-27T11:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T11:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/642741\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T11:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T11:34:09","slug":"sand-related-toys-will-need-to-be-tested-for-asbestos-before-being-sold-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/642741\/","title":{"rendered":"Sand-related toys will need to be tested for asbestos before being sold in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Any toys containing sand will soon require testing to prove they are asbestos-free before they can be sold in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

It follows a recall on Kmart coloured sand products from November last year<\/a>, after it was discovered they contained asbestos.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Commerce Commission said it – alongside New Zealand Customs – would enforce the new safety check as part of an Unsafe Goods (Consumer Sand Products) Notice from 1 February 2027.<\/p>\n

The commission’s principal compliance adviser Grant McIntosh said the new rules were designed to reduce the risk of asbestos exposure from products containing sand.<\/p>\n

“Parents and caregivers should be able to feel confident that the products they buy for their children are safe. These new testing requirements will help prevent sand products containing asbestos from reaching New Zealand shelves and homes.”<\/p>\n

The new rules only cover certain sand products – but all toys for children under the age of 14.<\/p>\n

As of October 2026, the commission said 23 products have been recalled after finding traces of asbestos<\/a> – affecting more than 45,000 items. News first broke of the situation in November 2025.<\/p>\n

It said the testing requirements would apply to:<\/p>\n

toys and other consumer products containing accessible sand;or sand within a coating that can be penetrated during normal usedecorative, art and craft products containing accessible sand.<\/p>\n

The commission said asbestos cannot be identified without testing – “making it hard for consumers to know whether a product poses a risk simply by looking at it”.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has purchased sand-related products is advised to<\/p>\n

check whether the product has been recalled;stop using recalled products immediately;follow the instructions provided in the recall notice;keep up to date with product safety alerts and recalls.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said the notice would be in place for 18 months.<\/p>\n

Keren Lee – a Lower Hutt mum whose two young children were exposed to the contaminated sand – asked why it was not permanent.<\/p>\n

“We all believe this should be a permanent thing put in place, but we have to start somewhere so it’s great news.”<\/p>\n

“It’s validated that this should have been in place already.”<\/p>\n

Before news broke in November last year, Lee said many parents assumed products they purchased in New Zealand had been checked.<\/p>\n

“Why would these checks ever not be in place? So many of us families assumed that they were,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I genuinely thought if you purchased something in New Zealand, even if it had been made overseas, that it had been through some kind of check to know that it wasn’t toxic.”<\/p>\n

She said the entire saga had been “sickening”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve focused on the things I could do something about, getting rid of everything and getting reimbursed, but this uncertainty about our children’s health is going to hang over us for a lifetime.”<\/p>\n

Lee hoped the safety conversation would continue beyond sand.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just sand, there’s been lots of products with questionable materials in them,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’m glad that this is still rolling, and hopefully it keeps the conversation open.”<\/p>\n

Christchurch mum Elle Chrisp, who received $15,000 in compensation from Kmart<\/a> after her twins were exposed to contaminated sand, said the new safety checks should have been implemented before Christmas.<\/p>\n

“The urgency is still not there, and I’m really discouraged by that,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The fact that it’s not starting until February completely confused me. The threat is active now, and we’re heading into the busiest time of the year for retail shoppers.”<\/p>\n

AUT associate professor Terri-Ann Berry, an expert on asbestos, had similar concerns.<\/p>\n

“I was a little bit disappointed with that, it would have been nice if it could’ve started before the Christmas period, because we do know there are still products available – we don’t know whether or not they contain asbestos, but it would be nice to have that in place,” Berry said.<\/p>\n

But Berry said the new requirements coming into force in February were robust, and had testers using a method called “transmission electron microscopy,” which was highly accurate.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s important, actually, because we need that level of microscopy to be sure that it actually is asbestos,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[And] I’m glad that they’ve mentioned there needs to be three separate samples as well, rather than just basing it on one, because sometimes you can find it in one product, but not in others.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Any toys containing sand will soon require testing to prove they are asbestos-free before they can be sold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-642741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642741","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=642741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}