This article made me panic and run through my son's crayons right away. These are of the many things that we should not shrug it off our shoulders. I believe that these research and studies were done to improve people's lives and in this matter, for the next generation (pang Ms.Universe lang ang peg). So, I'll wrap it up so you can run through child's school supplies after reading the article.
Link: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/deadly-substance-found-in-crayons-and-other-kids-123545587357.html
EWG Action Fund’s analysis found trace amounts of asbestos in
crime-lab kits and crayons imported from China. (Photo: EWG Action Fund)
Deadly asbestos fibers have been found in several brands of
children’s crayons and detective kits through a scientific analysis
released Wednesday. The study of the kids’ products, by the EWG Action Fund, part of the national nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG),
was a follow-up to previous ones done in both 2000 and 2007, in an
effort to discover whether manufacturers had stopped using asbestos.
Instead, a lab report found trace elements of the toxin in four types of
crayons.
“This is a chemical known to kill people,” study co-author Sonya
Lunder tells Yahoo Parenting. “So it’s not good news that every seven
years we have to have an asbestos scare like this.”
The product test, conducted at Scientific Analytical Institute in
Greensboro, N.C., found trace amounts of asbestos in 4 out of 28 brands
of crayons — Amscan Crayons, Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Nickelodeon
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Crayons, and Saban’s Power Rangers Super
Megaforce, all of which are made in China. It also detected trace
amounts of asbestos in the fingerprint dusting powder of two toy
crime-lab kits — EduScience Deluxe Forensics Lab Kit and Inside
Intelligence Secret Spy Kit, both made in China.
The asbestos found in the tested products was most likely a
contaminant of talc, which is sometimes still used as a binding agent in
the crayons and in powder in the crime scene fingerprint kits; asbestos
is often found in mines alongside talc deposits. “But Crayola pledged
back in 2000 to stop using it, and has, so clearly it’s possible to make
crayons without it,” notes Lunder. It’s also unclear why fingerprint
dusting powder would still rely on the toxic substance, as some brands
use replacements like cornstarch — and the asbestos, in the powder form,
is particularly dangerous, because it can become airborne and breathed
in by children.
Photo: EWG Action Fund
“It’s a fully replaceable item in kids’ toys, and there’s no reason
to be exposing them,” Lunder says, with the report noting that, even
though the amounts of fibers and particles found were very low, “The
results are significant because even trace exposure to asbestos can
cause cancer and other fatal lung disease.” The symptoms of such
illnesses are not evident for decades after exposure, the study
explains, and if children are exposed when young, there is more time for
asbestos-related illness to develop later in life. (Such diseases
include mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or intestines,
as well as asbestos-related lung cancer.)
“Asbestos” is actually a legal and industrial classification for six
types of durable, insoluble silica fibers, and EWG Action Fund’s testing
found three types, probably all from talc: tremolite, chrysotile, and
anthophyllite (the rarest of the three, found in one brand of crayons
and one of the crime-scene kits).
Yahoo Parenting was not able to reach all of the toy manufacturers for comment, but Amscan, through a statement, told Sfgate.com
that company officials take “these matters very seriously and are
investigating further.” Officials from Toys ’R’ Us, which imported some
of the detective kits, said they were reviewing the report “to ensure
full compliance to our strict safety standards.” And an official from
Dollar Tree, which owns Greenbrier International (an importer of some of
the crayons), said, “We have a very robust and stringent test program”
to ensure product safety.
Federal health authorities have known since 2000 that crayons can be
contaminated with asbestos. That year, the study explains, the Seattle
Post Intelligencer commissioned tests detecting asbestos in three
popular brands of crayons. “The Consumer Product Safety Commission then
conducted its own tests on crayons, concluding that the risk of exposure
was ‘extremely low’ but that ‘as a precaution, crayons should not
contain these [asbestos] fibers,’” it continues. “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.”
Dr. Philip Landrigan, professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine
at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, as well as a former senior adviser
to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on children’s environmental
health and an asbestos expert, told EWG Action Fund, “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. 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.”
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA,
according to the EWG Action Fund, has noted, “There is no ‘safe’ level
of asbestos exposure for any type of asbestos fiber.” An estimated
12,000 to 15,000 U.S. adults die each year from asbestos-related
disease, most of whom are exposed while on the job; and children may be
at higher risk of such illness than adults.
Despite the results of the 2000 and 2007 tests, the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission has not implemented a ban or regulations
regarding crayons and other toys containing asbestos-contaminated talc.
But, CPSC spokesperson Scott Wolfson tells Yahoo Parenting, that’s
because such requirements would have to come from Congress. “We have a
lot of respect for EWG and take the report very seriously,” he
says. “Our staff is going to follow up on the report and look into the
products that were identified.” That said, “We can’t change the rules
unilaterally. … Congress would need to change the rules,” as it did in
2008 regarding the use of lead in children’s products, Wolfson notes.
Federal representatives, including Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), have
worked for years to pass an asbestos ban, but unsuccessfully. A bill
known as the READ (Reducing Exposure to Asbestos Database) Act is now
under consideration in Congress and would ensure transparency for
consumers. “Children’s playtime should be filled with fun, not
asbestos,” said READ’s sponsors, Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and
Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), in a statement released Wednesday.
Through its report, the EWG Action
Fund recommends that the Food and Drug Administration develop sound
testing methods for detecting asbestos in all products, and that the
CPSC ban talc in children’s products. “Our goal is not to scare
parents,” says Lunder. “But our message is that asbestos will continue
to be a problem until there are clear rules against it.”
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