Federal regulations that allow a form of asbestos in toys could put the health of Canadian children at risk, two New Democrat MPs charged Thursday.

Pat Martin and Catherine Bell used hand puppets dubbed Toxic Timmy and Ms. O'Thelioma, named after an asbestos-related cancer, to make their case at a news conference in Ottawa.

NDP MPs Catherine Bell and Pat Martin use puppet Ms. O'Thelioma and Toxic Timmy to explain their concerns about regulations that would allow asbestos in some children's toys.
(CBC)

"You would have to be crazy to put asbestos in children's toys," Martin told reporters in the voice of Timmy. "It's sort of like putting razor blades into children's apples at Halloween time."

The federal government published an update to the Hazardous Products Act in the Canada Gazette in November. One of the regulations says that "a person may advertise, sell or import an asbestos product … that is used by a child in learning or play" as long as as the material cannot become airborne.

That refers to products that do not contain crocidolite asbestos, a form that stays in the lungs longer and is more likely to cause disease, according to Health Canada's website. It also says that while asbestos itself is a hazardous material, use of the chrysotile form within a product does not constitute a health risk.

Jirina Vlk, a spokesperson for Health Canada, said that the regulation Martin referred to is 30 years old and there are no toys sold in Canada that contain asbestos.

But Martin said that while asbestos was previously outlawed in wax crayons and Plasticine, the regulation would allows it as a binding agent in some plastic or wax-like toys.

Asbestos is mined from rocks and comes in many forms. Martin said the regulations should only allow asbestos to be used in industrial settings where there is no alternative, such as boilers exposed to acid. For most other purposes, there are safer alternatives, he added.

Canada is one of the largest miners and exporters of asbestos in the world, despite bans on the product in some other developed countries. 

All of the mining occurs in Quebec, where one-third of work-related deaths are attributed to asbestos exposure each year, according to a 2006 study conducted by the Ottawa-based non-profit organization Centre for Study of Living Standards.

With files from the Canadian Press