The Mirror: News, Sport, Celebrity & Entertainment'I was given 15 months to live after using my dad's coat gave me cancer'
Mum's fury after son swallows 'Dinosaur egg' toy that may have asbestos inside
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/mums-fury-after-son-swallows-37028100
nonlinear
The Penguin of EvilRE: https://toot.wales/@SwanseaBayNews/116362089938030133
The "there's #asbestos in your kids sand" debacle continues as the UK continues to have absolutely no effective safety regulation enforcement and token fines even when it does.
EditorPRODUCT RECALL: Parents urged to stop children using Smyths Toys dig kits immediately after asbestos contamination fears
The government issued the shock recall on 1 April covering seven archaeology and excavation kits sold under the Smyths Toys own brand. The brightly-coloured sets — marketed at young children and designed to let them dig out dinosaur figures, gemstones and pirate treasure — contain a sand-like material which may include traces of the banned substance.
Asbestos is one of the most dangerous materials known to science. It was widely used in construction for decades before being banned, and its fibres — invisible to the naked eye — can become permanently lodged in the lungs, causing conditions including asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancer. There is no safe level of exposure.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards, which published the recall, said the toys posed “a risk to health” and did not meet the requirements of the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011. The alert was triggered by Local Authority Trading Standards.
The seven recalled products are the Dino Dig Sensory Bin, Dig In Kit GOLD, Let’s Dig Out Dinosaur Eggs (10pc), Gem Dig Kit (12 Gem Pack), Dig It Up Pirates 13 Treasure Set, Dig In Treasure Dig and Discover Play Gold Treasure Chest, and Gem Dig Kit 8 Pack.
The seven recalled products.Anyone who has bought any of the affected kits is being told to stop using them immediately and to keep them away from children. Smyths Toys is offering a full refund and customers can return the products to their nearest store — including the Swansea branch at the Enterprise Park in Llansamlet.
The situation is potentially more alarming for families where the kits have already been used, since the sand will have been disturbed. Parents in that position are being told not to sweep or brush the area, as doing so can generate dust and spread fibres further.
Instead, anyone who has used the kits should clean the area using wet cloths to suppress any dust, and must wear gloves and a mask during clean-up. The sand, cloths, gloves and mask should all be double-bagged together before disposal.
If the sand remains unopened in its original packaging, it should be placed inside a heavy-duty plastic bag, double taped and sealed, clearly labelled and stored safely away from children until it can be returned or disposed of.
Families who cannot get to a Smyths Toys store can dispose of the bagged sand in their general household waste, and contact Smyths Toys directly to arrange a refund without needing to travel.
The government’s full product recall notice — PSD case number 2603-0225 — can be found at gov.uk/guidance/product-recalls-and-alerts. Further guidance from Smyths Toys is available at smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/product-information.
Parents with concerns about potential exposure are advised to contact their GP.
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Juggling With EggsLeft wet and windy Holyhead in Wales to arrive in lovely sunny #Dublin today. Irish Sea a bit choppy, but luckily we’ve travelled ahead of #StormDave.
Had a wander around the city. Hadn’t been for 25 years, but recognised much more than I expected to.
My partner made me take this photo because it strangely contains a word I unfortunately spend much of my working life talking about - #asbestos.
But I loved the contrasts of the different murals against each other and the sky.
Casdeiro@markhburton Do you know the great works and struggle by the late Paco Puche in Spain against asbestos and the asbestos tycoons? He wrote lots of articles and published some must-read books on the problem. For example: https://www.catarata.org/libro/amianto_44878/
Amianto
El amianto (también conocido como asbesto o uralita) es un mineral cuyas propiedades lo hacen prácticamente indestructible, de ahí que su uso se extendiese a la construcción de viviendas, la fabricación de automóviles, trenes, buques, electrodomésticos… Desde hace décadas se sabe que provoca cáncer (mesotelioma, cáncer de pulmón, laringe y ovario) y, según la Organización Mundial de la Salud, cada año mueren en el mundo más de 150.000 personas por su exposición al mineral en el ámbito laboral, familiar y ambiental —en el caso de España son unas 1.500 personas, más que en accidentes de coche o laborales—. Aunque la Unión Europea lo prohibió hace más de diez años, sigue presente en cientos de productos. Y en el mundo más de 40 países siguen permitiendo el uso del amianto y se siguen extrayendo dos millones de toneladas al año, lo que previsiblemente provocará millones de muertes en las próximas décadas. Una auténtica masacre. Así, se hace urgente la prohibición universal inmediata y el manejo seguro del amianto instalado —2,6 millones de toneladas en nuestro país— que está en su mayor parte en el periodo de finalización de su vida útil y cada vez es más nocivo.
World news | The GuardianSydney playground at centre of asbestos mulch scandal closed again after timber found ‘bleeding black tar-like substance’ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/01/rozelle-parklands-playground-closed-timber-wood-testing #Pollution #Waste #NewSouthWales #Sydney #AustraliaNews #Asbestos
DavidRE: https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/116324676116121930
This whole series of posts reminds me of @pluralistic calling #LLM-generated code the #asbestos of time. #ClaudeCode doesn't just produce #asbestosCode; because it's written using Claude Code, it is asbestos code.
To the surprise of no one with a clue about #appSec or the #engineering part of #softwareEngineering, plagiarism synthesis models are tech debt generators.