Lesley Yeomans: Australia correspondent on the recall of coloured play-sand products

The recall of coloured play-sand products - potentially contaminated with asbestos - is continuing to cause disruption on both sides of the Tasman.

A recall notice was issued last week for EC Rainbow Sand 1.3 kilos and Creatistics Coloured Sand, 1 kilo.

More than 20 schools and early learning centres are temporarily closed.

Australia correspondent Lesley Yeomans told Andrew Dickens schools and centres across Australia are also impacted.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To Australia. We go Leslie Yeomen's good morning, Good morning Andrew.
So just like us, you've got schools closed because of
asbestos and sand.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
We have this in the ACT around Canberra. We've got
more than seventy schools that have been closed because of
this catin sand, which is used in sort of arts
and crafts and play and apparently also it's been sold
in a lot of the large retailers like Target and Kmart.
They've done this big recall of the sand and these

(00:32):
seventy two schools across the ACT have been closed down
while further testing is being done. There's also it's also
been found in the Northern Territory and South Australia as well.
In South Australia, more than one hundred sites have been
identified as using the sand. Northern Territory haven't closed any
schools as yet, but they have closed some classes so

(00:54):
that further testing can be done on this sand. So
it's a this as beestos that's been found in it.
It's called a tremolite asbestos and apparently it's found as
a natural sort of asbestos, but we're not really sure
exactly how bad it can be. They're still doing tests

(01:14):
on it.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Thank you so much, China. Meanwhile, you've got a koala
colony in outback New South Wales which is under threat.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
It is they've been doing some koala testing for koala
numbers in central western New South Wales in the outback,
and the researchers have found this really large colony of koalas.
The only trouble is it's in an area where there
is a coal mine that wants to expand, and the

(01:46):
coal mine is wanting to move into an area about
one hundred and or just over one hundred hectares of
where the koalas are now. The operators of the coal
mine say that they're aware of it and they're more
than happy to relocate koalas if they come into the
area that the coal mine wants to go to. But

(02:06):
the environmental researchers and the wildlife researchers are saying it
that's maybe not the best thing, because this new colony
has really surprised them because they haven't sort of done
a lot of workout in central New South Wales as
far as koala numbers have gone, and they've been really
pleasantly surprised that they've found this huge colony of Koala's

(02:29):
out there.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yes, has anyone asked the Koala how they feel about
being moved? There? We go and I thank you Leslie
Yeomens all the very best. For more from earlier edition
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