In a startling discovery, a study commissioned by EWG Action Fund has found traces of asbestos – a highly toxic substance – in children’s crayons and crime scene fingerprint kits.
Crayons and crime scene fingerprint kits were purchased at national retail chains or through online retailers and tested by two government-certified laboratories including Scientific Analytical Institute in Greensboro, N.C. using state-of-the-art equipment.
The tests found asbestos in four of the 28 boxes of crayons tested and two of the 21 crime scene fingerprint kits were tainted with asbestos.
The four crayons are Amscan Crayons, Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Crayons and Saban’s Power Rangers Super Megaforce. The two crime scene fingerprint kits are EduScience Deluxe Forensics Lab Kit – black fingerprint powder and Inside Intelligence Secret Spy kit – white fingerprint powder.
The two crime scene kits appeared to contain higher concentrations of asbestos than the crayon samples. The kits’ loose powders pose a greater inhalation risk than fibers caught in crayon. A single crayon or crime scene powder sample could contain 1 million or more microscopic asbestos fibers.
According to package labels, all the crayons and toys that contained asbestos were made in China and imported to the U.S. It is unclear whether the companies whose names or trademarked characters appear on the packages are responsible for, or had any role in, the manufacturing of the products or whether they merely licensed the use of their trademarks.
According to Crayola, kids use as many as 730 crayons by age 10 and sometimes even chew or eat them up. Fingerprint kits contain loose powders that kids blow and possibly inhale; the kits even include brushes and straws that make this easier.
The suspected origin of the asbestos in the items that tested positive is talc, a binding agent in crayons and an ingredient in fingerprint powder. Asbestos deposits are frequently found in talc mines and may contaminate talc products. Although the crayons pose a lower risk than the powders, scientists agree that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure.
EWG Action Fund notes in its report that federal health authorities have known since 2000 that crayons can be contaminated with asbestos. In year 2000, the Seattle Post Intelligencer commissioned tests detecting asbestos in three popular brands of crayons. The Consumer Product Safety Commission conducted its own confirmation tests on crayons and concluded that the risk of exposure was “extremely low” but that “as a precaution, crayons should not contain these [asbestos] fibers.”
The commission said it would “monitor children’s crayons to ensure they do not present a hazard,” but it has not banned or regulated asbestos in crayons, toys or other children’s products. Seven years later asbestos was found in the fingerprint powder of a similar crime scene kit.
“Asbestos in toys poses an unacceptable risk to children, today as it did in 2000 and 2007, the last time tests found the deadly substance in these children’s products,” said Dr. Philip Landrigan, professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
Landrigan is an internationally-recognized asbestos expert and former senior adviser to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on children’s environmental health. “Clearly some toy manufacturers haven’t done enough to protect children and others from asbestos in consumer products. Therefore, it’s high time the federal government bans asbestos in consumer products.”
You can find the full report here.
