IS SAND SAFE?

Let me tell you my credentials before I answer this one and why I’m telling you this. The Jurassic Sandman is Geologist Jerry Bergosh. I have been practicing geology and engineering for over forty years, and am a registered Professional Geologist in the State of Utah with an active license.

My specialties in geology includes sedimentary rocks like sand and sandstone, analytical characterization of rock materials (I ran an independent analytical testing lab for years) on projects for the Department of Defense, Dept. of Energy, and the EPA as well as oil, gas, and mining companies.

I am very familiar with the technical aspects of the research on the health and safety of play sand, silica and quartz sand. These include the government warnings (and studies) that many of us see on some bags of play sand, or if you live in California, on many of the everyday products that one uses in their lives.

We are occasionally asked if our sand contains silica or quartz (which it does) because some competitors of ours use the government warning labels as proof that silica or quartz sand isn’t safe and carcinogenic.

The bottom-line facts are these warnings are not meant for a child in a daycare or backyard sandbox or using sand and water table in school: it is intended for workers in industrial occupations like sandblasters, miners, shipbuilders, etc that are exposed to the 5 to 10 micron-sized particles of crystalline silica respirable dust in high concentrations, full-time (8 or more hours/day, 5 days/week) for 20 to 40 years and without any breathing protection devices.

To put it more in a real-life perspective and so you can compare, here are the sizes in microns of some common products: raw sugar = 600 microns, white table sugar or salt crystals = 350 to 450 microns, powdered sugar or a snowflake = 100 microns, a human hair = 70 to 80 microns, Original Jurassic PlaySand = 200 to 300 microns.

Our Jurassic Sands are all-natural sands from the deserts of the US Southwest - Utah, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico - and are not crushed or pulverized like other sands for sale because that creates dust.

Jurassic Sands proudly conducts - and passes with flying colors - all tests required by the Consumer Product Safety Commission for heavy metals because the safety of your child and our sands are our #1 priorities.