Asbestos in stretchy toy

[Scared80]

Hello
im spiraling and can’t cope. I’ve just found out that my two sons played with the exact same sand filled poop toy that has been recalled because it could contain asbestos.The make and bar code were the same.
It split years ago and I threw it in the bin, but because I didn’t know there was any risk of asbestos in this type of product I just hoovered it up, there was quite a lot of sand.
Im sat here in tears and can’t cope or see a way forward as my children now have the risk of an incurable disease hanging over them. I can’t see a way to get through the next few hours or days I’m so frightened.

I’m sorry other people have experienced this level of fear, it is debilitating but I just feel
that my anxiety is warranted as the product split and it was the recalled batch. If the toy had stayed in tact I probably wouldn’t have worried as much.

I am also worried because I unknowingly used the Hoover and I hate that I’ve increased their risk.

i just feel numb and can’t look at them without wanting to cry. I also feeling I’m hiding a terrible secret that they should know about..

Also, wouldn’t any parent be concerned about this exposure? Is it so unreasonable? X

It’s not unreasonable to be concerned about exposure. But it happened a long time ago, there’s nothing you can do. They’re exposed to so many other harms every day and you don’t cry about those or reveal the truth about those to them. You can’t do anything about it. The anxiety isn’t productive, you’re worrying about something that may never happen, to the point of not being able to look at your children. I’ve felt how you feel so I’m not trying to be rude, I get it, but it’s happened. No one can tell you the risk of harm is 0% which is obviously what you understandably want. So now you have to figure out how to move forward. Do you stay unable to look at your children, in a state of high anxiety (arguably something that’s quite harmful to them in itself) or do you work on moving forward, however that looks (therapy, mindfulness, breathing exercises etc)

Yes, it’s unreasonable. We have all been exposed to asbestos and only a minute proportion of us will be affected by it.

I currently have an ill child undergoing multiple tests, awaiting MRI and colonoscopy later this month. I am worried sick about my dc. I will not Google until the consultant gives us some indication of what is making my dc so ill because it can’t help and will only increase the worry. I already have another dc with a lifelong condition. If that dc does not take their medication they will die within weeks. There is no maybe about it. They. Will. Die. They will die extremely painfully. Of course I worry about them. I worry about the NHS or the world situation causing a delay in their medication.

And still we laugh, we plan, we celebrate. I go to work. I see friends.

I park the worry. I do not think about it all the time. If I remember it I will often say to myself, “I’m not thinking about it right now.” Because, believe me, if I think about these two dcs and their actual health too deeply or too alone I sob. I am overwhelmed by fear for them. Sometimes I talk with my friends about our worries, and they share theirs. We comfort each other, support each other. And then we move on, together or separately.

Because life is for living. Enjoying the moments you have, rather than fearing the what-might-be.

have you posted before about asbestos? If you are that poster you need help - your health anxiety is far more likely to damage your children than a potential risk of exposure.

And even though the risk is low, it’s still there and we won’t know for years whether they will become ill.

In the kindest possible way, there is nothing that you can do to change what's happened and there is no point in worrying about what might happen until there's actually something to worry about. If you worry so much about every tiny thing that might/might not effect them in later life, you'll make yourself ill and won't be around to know anyway.

Do you let them go in cars or walk next to a road?

Staristically that's much more risky.

We are all living with fear of death and injury every day.

You can take steps calm your panic about this issue.

So how worried would you all be as mums if this happens to your children?

Small amounts of asbestos were found in that particular batch, so it’s not a hypothetical worry, it’s an exposure.

I just feel sick with worry and don’t know a way forward

You claim that the toy split years ago and you hoovered it up and that you know the exact bar code of the toy.
The products were only manufactured in 2025, not ‘years ago’.
How do you know the bar code if you bought it years ago and threw it away when it split?
The concern is that these products ‘may’ contain minute traces of asbestos but that the risk is minimal.

I feel as though I’m hiding an awful secret from my children; they think they are healthy but some awful disease is hanging over them due to this exposure, made worse by me hoovering the sand up and spreading fibers into the air.

The toys were sold in our local shop in 2021, there are photos on their website with that exact code as they were new in.

I think you need support for your anxiety; this is not a proportionate response.

As explained above I took a photo of my child with the toy when it was gifted to him, and the label and barcode can be seen if I zoom in. The barcode matches the recalled code, I searched back through my photos as I remembered my son being bought one.

if it helps I prized up asbestos floor tiles whilst my toddler played in the room next to me. I had no idea. I spiralled a lot but the asbestos specialist said it takes a fairly frequent exposure (think working with it) to do the damage. (Not saying we shouldn’t avoid where we can but it’s in a lot of houses!)

This seems as intense as the recent bat threads, op you really seem like you need professional help/therapy this response is not normal

But surely you all know the dangers of disturbed asbestos? It doesn’t always take major exposure, look at the poor teachers who have developed mesothelioma from pinning work on walls or women who’ve become ill after washing their husbands overalls.

You are correct, but we are all exposed in our lifetime and how many go on to develop disease?

There are always scares going on like this. We had a Polly Pocket recall and BPA in plastic bottles during my dc childhood , plus MMR jab/autism theory(subsequently discredited) when ds was due it. You cannot protect your dc form every potential contaminant. They are present in the environment - air pollution, microplastics, chemicals, food additives, fertilisers, antibiotics in the food chain etc. All you can do is mitigate the risk as best you can. Which exactly what you did when removing the toy and disposing of it. The risk is small, the recall precautionary. You cannot change what has happened but you can change your reaction to it, with mh support if needs be.

Your anxiety will cause your child more harm than any of this

As someone who has done a lot of therapy for OCD.

Op allow yourself some time to feel your panic about this but limit that time. Say the next hour only. Then stop googling.
There is nothing you can do and it’s not your fault.
Also if, on the mad chance, this one maybe exposure led to anything we’re talking years into the future and medical advances are happening all the time.

This is meant with kindness I hope you take it this way ❤️

At the risk of giving you more things to worry about, They breath in pollution every day, eat food with chemicals on, wear clothes or come into contact with materials that have harmful chemicals on, there may be asbestos other places you don’t know about (loads of recalls recently!), there’s bpa and microplastics, there’s lead in stuff we consume and even cleaning products are harmful to us. The world is full of dangerous things we definitely come into contact with regularly likely multiple times a day in fact. You can’t avoid it. As someone who’s been where you are, you can focus on it or you can focus on trying to be mentally healthy for your dc. If you’ve posted about this before - I think you have - and your anxiety is still this severe you need to get some support.

Honestly? I'd be worried for about 5 minutes max. Worrying won't change anything. It will just steal the time you have now. None of us know when someone we love will die or have a life-changing injury or illness so make every minute count now.

Hi OP, I work with asbestos, and have done for over 30 years, hopefully I can give you some reassurance here.

I've looked up the product in question, and it contains sand from mines in China contaminated with tremolite. Tremolite is an odd one as it has never been used commercially for anything, so there is much less safety information on it, the contamination of products like sand is just an accepted normal in parts of the world where it occurs.

There is asbestos in the air all the time, eroded either from natural mineral deposits (not much of that in the UK) or from asbestos roofing, which can be found everywhere.

The Health & Safety Exec set an acceptable limit of 0.1 fibres per millilitre, which means as long as a building with asbestos in or the air outside doesn't clock over that there is no drama.

That doesn't mean there is zero risk, there never is and never will be, if for example you go walking in the outback of Australia you can encounter quite high levels in places.

Mesothelioma is scary, but reducing in numbers as the generation who worked heavily with it pass on and younger folks have had less exposure, and 10 to 20% of cases have no links to asbestos.

I would not be concerned about this very fleeting exposure, if indeed they did breath in a fibre or two, if their school building contains asbestos they will pick up a few more there, if the roof of a local warehouse, barn or garage has asbestos sheets, there will be a few in the air etc. etc. - so long as they don't start sawing up sheets of asbestos insulating board for a past time, they will be fine.

Feel free to ask me anything.

As a child, I used to play in a shed that had an asbestos roof. I’m in my fifties now and nothing has happened.
I think part of the reason you’re feeling so terrible is that you are taking on responsibility for this, when it isn’t your fault. The manufacturers of this toy did something wrong, not you.
However, how do you know your toy was the recalled batch?

But those people were chronically exposed for years and years, not one small exposure.

Risk from these sorts of things are cumulative, the longer the exposure, the greater the risk.

And even for known dangers like asbestos, ionising radiation, chemicals, smoking, etc etc, many people are exposed at quite high levels and suffer no detriment at all. We only restrict exposure because across the population it leads to a reduction in death rates.

Please don't worry about this, its very unlikely to have harmed your DC.