The asbestos-in-sand saga has stopped being a recall story and become a compliance bill. From 1 February 2027, the Commerce Commission and Customs will enforce the Unsafe Goods (Consumer Sand Products) Notice, which requires mandatory pre-sale asbestos testing of sand-related toys and craft products. The notice was issued on 23 October after a September consultation.
The principle is hard to argue with. The execution is another matter, and the cost lands on whoever brings the product to market.
Forty-five thousand reasons to act
The case for intervention is solid. Since the issue broke in November 2025 with the recall of two brands of Kmart coloured play sand, 23 products have been recalled, covering more than 45,000 items. MBIE-funded research by AUT’s Dr Terri-Ann Berry found fibres in recalled products could become airborne during simulated play, which killed any argument that bound-in contamination was harmless.
It is worth remembering that importing asbestos-containing products has been illegal since 2016 without an EPA permit. The ban existed. What was missing was any mechanism to check before goods hit the shelves. Keren Lee, a Lower Hutt mother whose two children were exposed, put it plainly: she had “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”.
The burden of proof has moved
The notice covers toys and products with accessible sand, sand within a penetrable coating, and decorative, art and craft products containing sand, for children under 14. Suppliers must hold an accredited laboratory report using specified ISO 22262 methods, no more than 12 months old, identifying the specific product variant, and produce it to Customs or the Commission on request (Product Safety NZ). The draft required at least three units of each product or variant to be tested by electron microscopy.
Testing firm Intertek summarised the effect: it becomes unlawful to import or supply most sand-containing toys and craft products without a clean result. That is a genuine shift from reactive enforcement, where MBIE recalled products after contamination surfaced, to proactive proof owned entirely by the importer or retailer.
For a big chain with a sourcing team, that is an irritation. For a small importer or an online seller running sand art kits in eight colours, it is eight tests, renewed every year.
No local lab can do the work
Here is the problem officials have not solved. Retail NZ, which represents about 30,000 businesses and roughly 70% of domestic retail turnover, backed the policy but warned in its submission that “there are currently no IANZ accredited labs with the capability to test to the ISO 22262-2:2026 standard”. Every sample goes offshore.
Retail NZ called a three-month implementation window “not sufficient time… particularly if it must be done offshore” and asked for at least six. It got about 100 days, from 23 October to 1 February, straddling the Christmas shutdown at both ends of most Asian supply chains. It also flagged unanswered questions on whether the 12-month window applies to stock already on shelves, and on the absence of a defined limit of detection, which risks enforcement against trace results that pose no real hazard.
Those are not quibbles. A rule that demands proof but supplies no domestic way to obtain it, and no clear threshold for passing, is a rule that rewards whoever can afford to over-comply.
The trade fight importers will feel
The pushback has gone international. The US-based Toy Association has used the WTO’s Technical Barriers to Trade process to argue that supply-chain due diligence on sand sourcing would be more effective than blanket per-variant testing. That matters for Kiwi buyers: overseas suppliers resisting the cost may simply drop New Zealand from their range, or pass the bill straight through.
The smarter design was probably risk-based, testing sand sources and high-risk categories rather than every colourway. Officials chose belt and braces instead, and after 45,000 recalled items it is hard to blame them.
Eighteen months, then what
The notice runs for just 18 months. Lee and other parents want it permanent. Businesses paying for offshore lab work want to know whether they are building a compliance system or a temporary workaround.
The practical advice is simple. If you import or sell sand products, audit your range now, consolidate variants where you can, and get samples to an accredited overseas lab this month. Business.govt.nz has already published testing guidance. From February, nobody will come looking for the asbestos on your behalf. They will ask for your paperwork, and if you don’t have it, the stock doesn’t move.
Sources
- RNZ: Sand-related toys will need to tested for asbestos before being sold in New Zealand (2026-10-27)
- ODT: Asbestos testing for sand-related toys (2026-10-27)
- Product Safety New Zealand: Asbestos in sand products
- Business.govt.nz: New guidance for testing sand products for asbestos (2026-06-12)
- National Party: Stronger safety measures for children’s sand products (2026-09-04)
- Retail NZ: Submission on draft Unsafe Goods (Consumer Products – Asbestos in Sand) Notice 2026 (2026-09-25)
- Intertek: New Zealand proposes mandatory asbestos testing for toys and craft products containing sand (2026-10)
Join the discussion
Add useful context, ask a good question, or challenge an idea — keep it specific and respectful.