Last year, I went to a garden store to pick up a few bags of sand. At a garage sale I had found a sandbox, and I was intent on filling it up and letting my toddler dig, pile and create to her heart's content.
I got it home, then noticed a label on the bottom of the bag, that read the now famous line, dust from this sand "is known to cause cancer in the state of California." Annoyed from the wasted time and money, I threw the bags in our garden shed to be returned (where they sit this very minute).
Fast forward to another spring, and thoughts of outdoor play. We have a new play set care of my kid's generous grandparents. There is a great little spot for a sandbox. I visited my neighbor today, and she had just bought sand that looked less refined then what I had bought, and it didn't have the warning label. I checked the website of the company, and sure enough, it contained a hazardous material warning. Not on the bag, mind you, but on the website. So folks are buying this sand without knowing that it might be bad for their kids.
So what is the problem? Apparently, most types of play sand contain crystalline silica and asbestos tremolite. The silica is derived from quartz stone and is a known carcinogen. California's fantastic Prop 65 requires the labeling of carcinogen's in products for sale in that state.
OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) says this about crystalline silica, "Silica, Crystalline: Silicosis is a disabling, nonreversible and sometimes fatal lung disease caused by overexposure to respirable crystalline silica. More than one million U.S. workers are exposed to crystalline silica, and each year more than 250 die from silicosis. There is no cure for the disease, but it is 100 percent preventable if employers, workers, and health professionals work together to reduce exposures." Apparently, the small pieces of silica can be inhaled and trapped in lung tissue. To see the California label, and to learn more about silica, visit SafeSand.com.
Asbestos tremloite is a form of asbestos, and puts kids at risk of developing a lung cancer that is mostly caused by limited absestos exposure, and this risk can continue for decades. According to the Green Guide, and Philip Landrigan, M.D., director of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, children breathe proportionally more air than adults, and they play close to the ground, thus increasing their exposure significantly. Think about kids playing in sandboxes, they literally sit in it, are constantly pouring and creating dust (and c'mon, they're kids--many times, they are eating it!), therefore ingesting and breathing in these carcinogens.
It completely boggles my mind that this sand is being sold labeled and unalabeled, right now, all over the U.S. I think if parents knew about this most of them wouldn't buy it.
So what to do? CHEC's HealtheHouse shares some good tips for what to do. The kind of play sand that can have these two carcinogens is made from crushed rock, so look for river or beach sand, usually found at landscape and gardening stores. This is what I will be doing. Also, there is a company called Safe Sand that sells sand without tremoite and silica (but unfortunately it is expensive). In the very least, avoid very fine sand that gives off easily ingested dust.
Non-Toxic Kids is a Premier Content Partner of SustainLane. Katy can be found at Non-Toxic Kids sharing helpful information about how to raise kids as naturally as possible. She is a teacher, freelance writer, and mama from the mountains of Vermont.
Ken O. says:
I noticed this on a bag of rocks I bought for gardening purposes at Long's Drugs and was similarly annoyed. The gardening solution then is to use volcanic pumice. For a sandbox, maybe not. (the lava rock bags had no such notice, even though other bags of gravel by the same company did.)
Yes, Prop 65 is great - I see it posted everywhere - at 99 Ranch (this facility...), my LEED Silver apartment complex underground area (this facility...), in Bed Bath and Beyond (these crystal lead products...), on every new appliance sold with any kind of flexible electric power cable (softer flexible plastics contain LEAD... that makes the PVC/plastic bend better?)
Jeannie C. says:
where can you find safe sand in Chicago? How safe are the parks as long as kids stay out of the sand boxes?
Kim S. says:
I liked Greg's post.
The chemical compound silicon dioxide, also known as silica (from the Latin silex), is an oxide of silicon with a chemical formula of SiO2 and has been known for its hardness since antiquity.[1] Silica is most commonly found in nature as sand or quartz, as well as in the cell walls of diatoms. It is a principal component of most types of glass and substances such as concrete. Silica is the most abundant mineral in the earth's crust.
We just bought sand (we haven't used it yet thought) for my son's sand box. This is a link to the letter that U.S. Silica posted on their website. This is the sand we purchased.
http://www.u-s-silica.com/Recreational%20Sands%20Health%20Info/Recreational%20Sands%20Health%20Info.pdf
Silica is used in the production of various products.
Inexpensive soda-lime glass is the most common and typically found in drinking glasses, bottles, and windows.
A raw material for many whiteware ceramics such as earthenware, stoneware and porcelain.
A food additive, primarily as a flow agent in powdered foods, or to absorb water (see the ingredients list for).
Used in the extraction of DNA and RNA due to its ability to bind to the nucleic acids under the presence of chaotropes.
As hydrophobic silica it is used as a defoamer component.
As hydrated silica in toothpaste (abrasive to remove plaque.)
As a high-temperature thermal protection fabric.
In cosmetics for its light-diffusing properties and its absorbency.
Liquid silicon dioxide (colloidal silica) is used as a wine and juice fining agent.
As a glidant in pharmaceutical products silicon dioxide aids powder flow when tablets are formed.
In the production of tires
Thermal enhancement compound used in thermal grouts for the ground source heat pump industry.
Kristen C. says:
I agree with Greg and Kim S. - I just purchased sand from a local store and saw the warning label. The mother in me freaked out immediately and questioned whether or not to return the sand immediately. However, the organic chemist in me said decided to do some research and it's true...silica is one of the most abundant minerals on the planet. Your child will be exposed to this material their entire lives. It's the dust that is the problem - and your child would have to be breathing just dust 8 hours a day, at least 5 days a week for this to be a problem.
Long story short, if you are concerned about the silica dust, then place the sand in a shallow tub, pour water in and let all the fine silt and dust float to the top. Then pour off the fine stuff and viola! Much less to worry about.
As for me, I filled up my son's sand box with the cheap stuff, rinsed it, poured off the fine particles and we have both had a great time. Don't be dooped...
Josh K. says:
To Greg J: I know you are trying to clear up misconceptions, and expose companies (and lawmakers) who would create fear unnecessarily (or for profit), but I can't just take your word for it, for the same reason you suggest not taking theirs. I have read the fine print of enough science articles, to know that research is often paid for by people with an interest in the outcome. I’m uneasy with your implication that the only thing to fear is actual death from sand dust exposure. As if a person would be perfectly healthy after repeated exposure, up until the moment they contracted silicosis. More likely is that there would be smaller, perhaps cumulative health problems that might arise (especially in developing children) which was not captured in the data you quote from, since it does not reach the threshold of death, or silicosis diagnosis. You (we all) are making assumptions based on limited data, which I doubt includes statistics on e.g. increases in asthma, or respiratory problems. Another common mineral, asbestos, thought to be unsafe for many years, continued to be used extensively b/c of a lack of data directly linking it to health problems. Original asbestos studies said that only workers with long term daily exposure were at risk, but later found that their families, and even people living within a certain radius of naturally occurring asbestos deposits were also more at risk. I’m not saying that I know for sure that sporadic and minimal exposure to silica, will lead to health problems, I just think you are being a little too certain that it couldn’t.
The link that Kim S. posted states “All the published scientific literature contains no evidence that silicosis or silica-related lung cancer occurs among people with non-occupationally related exposures at beaches, backyards, or sandboxes.” While this sounds encouraging, it merely states that the studies so far have not shown something that they did not actually look for in the study.