The recalled sand products. Photo: Supplied
The changing way people shop and the sheer volume of products is making product safety harder to police, says Consumer NZ.
It says the recall of coloured sand products over asbestos fears shows product safety rules for kids toys and craft materials are not fit for purpose, with the rise in giant e-commerce retailers.
Several coloured sand products have been recalled, including a 14-piece sand castle building set and containers of blue, green and pink magic sand sold at K-Mart, and the Educational Colours rainbow sand and creatistics coloured sand, which was sold by half a dozen retailers.
Several schools that use the products have closed while they worked out what kind of cleanup is required.
Anybody who has the sand at home is urged to immediately stop using it and check the MBIE and Worksafe websites for details of what to do next. It should not be thrown in a rubbish bin, or vacuumed up.
Consumer NZ head of research and advocacy Gemma Rasmussen told Checkpoint that by law, all products should be covered by the Consumer Guarantees Act and one of the guarantees within that Act is that products must be of an acceptable quality, meaning they must be safe.
But she said one of the fundamental issues with product safety was the speed and amount of products coming into the country
"I think we are entering a completely different landscape. If you look at the way product safety used to operate in New Zealand, there were things that were deemed high risk like prams, nightwear, things like that, and then we have product safety standards to regulate the market. And products would be coming into the market at such a slow rate that we were actually able to keep on top of that.
"Now we've got retailers like Temu and Shine that are pumping out products at such a fast rate and I think retailers in a way need to compete, they need to be offering more products. And with the cost of living, people are often wanting things to be cheap and fast and affordable, and I think this is a bit of a conundrum for regulators."
She said the amount of money that the government was putting towards product safety did need to be escalated, "because this is an issue that is only going to continue to grow".
Rasmussen said there needed to be global online product safety registers.
"So as soon as a product is deemed to be unsafe and whether that's on an international online platform or through a local marketplace, as soon as a product is flagged to be a risk, that means that other countries can have an understanding and put out that recall notice. Because the way in which we're working at the moment, is it's getting onto the shelves and then people can be affected and we have to go through the recall notice, and really, you want it to be happening at a point where it's before it's reached the shelves."
Who pays for the clean-up?
The cost of getting rid of asbestos contamination could potentially run into tens of thousands of dollars, and Rasmussen said the responsibility for those costs ultimately laid with the retailer.
"They have the obligation to sell you a product that is fit for purpose, so as your first step you can go through the disputes tribunal and show the costs that have been incurred, and that would be capped at about $30,000 in terms of the amount you'd be able to get back."
She said it could cost more than that for businesses and classrooms, and they may need to get a lawyer and take it to the district court to get compensation.
But an asbestos removal expert said people worried about contaminated sand should have samples tested before committing to a costly and disruptive clean-up.
Asbestos Removal Association president Chris Saunders told Checkpoint it was best to have tests done first before committing to anything.
He said just because the products had been recalled, it did not necessarily mean every bucket was contaminated.
He said tests may come back negative and save owners a lot of money, but stressed it was still early days.
"The initial alarm bells have certainly worked to raise awareness, but in terms of determining what the appropriate response is, it is very site specific and that really is led by sampling and testing of the product.
"Testing costs are not that expensive, but if you end up needing to do a full decontamination procedure, that can be a very expensive exercise, in the tens of thousands."
He said things like carpet and drapes may need to be stripped out, and these would all have to be replaced, adding to the costs.
Testing was just the first step, but he advised people to be patient, as the laboratories were currently backed up with a large number of samples."
"So it's taking a while to get a result... but if you get three positive responses, that's going to tell you it's a big problem."
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