Asbestos Found in Children’s Crayons, Toy Crime Lab Kits

An environmental group indicates that testing found asbestos fibers in some brands of children’s crayons, and in the fingerprinting kits found in play crime scene investigation toys. 

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) Action Fund published the findings of an investigation this week that revealed the presence of asbestos in a number of toys. The group warns that even trace amounts of asbestos can increase a child’s risk of developing cancer and mesothelioma, which typically takes decades to be diagnosed and is often fatal.

The group sent 28 different brands of crayons and 21 crime scene fingerprint kits to two government-certified laboratories. Four of the crayon brands and two of the crime scene kits tested positive for asbestos, including:

• Amscan Crayons
• Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Crayons
• Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Crayons
• Saban’s Power Rangers Super Megaforce Crayons
• EduScience Deluxe Forensics Lab Kit
• Inside Intelligence Secret Spy 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 preventative medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in the EWG Action Fund press release. Landrigan is also a former senior adviser to the Environmental Protection Agency on children’s environmental health and an expert in asbestos and other toxic materials. “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.”

According to the report, children exposed to asbestos are 3.5 times more likely than a 25 year old adult to develop mesothelioma, which may not be diagnosed for decades. However, the group says that federal regulators have known about the presence of asbestos in crayons since 2000.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) determined in 2000 that the asbestos was present in some crayons, but that the risk of exposure was extremely low. According to the CPSC, microscopic asbestos fibers found in some children’s crayons are embedded in the wax, and if a child eats the crayon, and thus the fibers, their stomachs are not hot enough to free the fibers from the wax. However, there is still a risk of inhalation.

Inhalation is the primary risk of the fingerprinting kits, which involve blowing off the excess dust that contains the asbestos into the air the child breathes. Asbestos was first detected in these kits in 2007, EWG Action Fund notes.

The CPSC indicated in 2000 that it will monitor children’s crayons and has said that, as a precaution, manufacturers should make sure crayons do not contain the asbestos fibers.

All of the contaminated crayons detected by EWG Action Fund’s laboratory analyses were made in China.

Abestos injury lawsuits are the longest-running mass tort in U.S. history, with more than 600,000 people having filed a case against more than 6,000 defendants after being diagnosed with mesothelioma or other related injuries that were allegedly caused by inhaling asbestos fibers.

While asbestos was banned from building materials and some other industries 30 years ago, it has not been completely banned from all consumer products. The EWG Action Fund, which urged regulators to issue a total ban, estimates that 15,000 people in the U.S. die every year due to asbestos-related ailments.

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer, which is only known to be caused by exposure to asbestos and breathing asbestos fibers. It is often not diagnosed until decades after exposure to asbestos, by which point it is often at a very advanced stage, resulting in a very short life-expectancy.