A Coloring Book and Asbestos?
Report: Toxin in Crayons
By Bill Blakemore, ABCNews.com
There are now claims that inside those brightly wrapped packages called Crayola crayons, lurks a deadly fiber: asbestos. (Art Today)Crayons are basic to American childhood, and their aroma is one of the 20 most recognizable smells to adults.
And they evoke the most wonderful memories, of afternoons spent pouring over coloring books and pictures. They are the instruments of our earliest attempts at creativity.
But there are now claims that inside those brightly wrapped packages lurks a deadly fiber: asbestos.
According to a report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the paper said it had eight crayon brands tested by government labs, using crayons bought in Massachusetts, Florida, Texas and California.
It said asbestos was found above trace levels in three companies - Crayola, and two smaller brands, Rose Art and Prang.
The paper reported that there was asbestos - in differing degrees depending on the color, with the largest allegedly making up to 2.86 percent - in Crayola's Orchid crayons. The report says any asbestos would almost certainly have entered the crayons as a contaminant of talc, basically the same talc used as body powder.
"We were very surprised to even see any of this in any crayon product at all," said John Harris, director of Lab-Cor, one of the two laboratories the newspaper used for the tests.
The findings do not shed light on whether there is a public health threat, however.
Controlled experiments would be required to determine any possible risk from airborne particles, Harris said.
Companies Concerned
Crayola says talc gives durability to their crayons - and that it does not accept talc contaminated with asbestos.
"We make sure and require, and always have, that the talc that comes into Crayola is asbestos free," said Tracey Muldoon Moran, a corporate spokesperson for Binney & Smith, which makes Crayola crayons. "We're taking this all very seriously."
She also said they looking at and reviewing the process of these certifications and tests and whether or not there should be more checks and balances.
The safety seal on the Crayola boxes is awarded by the industry-financed Arts and Crafts Materials Institute.
A vice-president of the Institute told ABCNEWS that they evaluated studies of Crayola talc, but also confirmed these studies were provided by the talc company.
"The studies were done by the providers of the talc, yes," said Deborah Fanning, the company's vice president.
Consumer critics say this is a blatant conflict of interest.
"I don't think either the crayon companies or the Arts and Crafts Materials Institute should have taken the word of the suppliers of the talc... There should have been a definitely independent analysis of this," Dr. Michael McCann, of the Center for Safety in the Arts told ABCNEWS.
Dixon Ticonderoga, which makes Prang Crayons in Sandusky, Ohio, also categorically denies there are any traces of asbestos in its product.
"It is inaccurate and unsubstantiated," Rick James, president and CEO of Dixon Ticonderoga said of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's story.
"I stand by our products 100 percent as being non-toxic and safe for use." He said the crayons and talc used in them are rigorously examined by independent toxicologists.
Government Investigating
Government officials also are looking into the report.
"We have never heard of this being a problem with crayons before," said spokesman Russ Rader of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington, D.C.
"Our position is that asbestos should not be in any product, and that's what we're telling the companies," Rader said.
Neither the safety commission, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta nor the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health were aware of any reports of asbestos-related health problems among people who make crayons.
Virtually all asbestos-related illness affects the lungs. Little is known about illness from ingestion, though a federal task force in 1987 said such exposure "should be eliminated whenever possible." It can take decades for disease from asbestos exposure to develop.
Particularly Dangerous to Children
But if the reports are true, asbestos could have an especially lethal effect on children.
"Asbestos is a proven cause of cancer in humans," Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at Mt. Sinai Hospital told ABCNEWS. "It's been established beyond any shadow of a doubt that asbestos can cause lung cancer or malignant mesothelioma.
"Now, these are not cancers that would appear in childhood," Landrigan added. "But we're talking about exposure in childhood that could sow the seeds for cancer that could appear 30, 40 or 50 years later. Cancers caused by asbestos have an amazingly long incubation period," he said.
By the age of 10, the average child has worn down 723 crayons and breathed crayon dust from the bottom of the boxes.
Landrigan says children are especially vulnerable because they take in more air.
"Children will take more toxin into their bodies on a pound for pound basis," he says, "because children breathe more than adults."
Though Landrigan cautioned that any laboratory report should be double checked, he believes that they are very reliable. "I have no reason to doubt the reports," he said.
It would be best, he said, if parents didn't allow their children to use the crayons until they have been assured by independent labs that the risk is gone.
"It makes no sense to allow children to be exposed to asbestos fibers that are intended for their play," he said.
The Associated Press and ABCNEWS.com's Karen Goldfarb contributed to this report.
