Fifteen years ago the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission called on the toy industry to stop using talc tainted with asbestos as a binding agent in children’s crayons. Eight years ago, a non-profit group found asbestos in the fingerprint powder of a children’s crime scene kit and filed a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer and several major retailers.

Today, EWG Action Fund released the results of its consumer product testing report, demonstrating that asbestos can still be found in imported crayons and children’s crime scene kits.

Why hasn’t the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission taken action to keep asbestos our of children’s products?

EWG Action Fund commissioned tests for asbestos of a variety of children’s products. Samples of four crayon brands, several marketed under the names of popular fantasy characters Mickey Mouse, Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, contained the deadly fibers. Two crime scene fingerprint kits were tainted with asbestos. In both cases, the culprit appears to be talc. Asbestos is a family of minerals often found alongside talc deposits.

The contamination of crime scene fingerprint kits is particularly troubling because the instructions tell kids to brush or blow off excess powder, sending asbestos-contaminated powder into the air where it can be inhaled.

Asbestos fibers that lodge in the lungs or other organs can cause grave, often fatal, illnesses such as mesothelioma whose symptoms are not evident for decades after exposure. Children have an increased lifetime risk because of the long latency period between exposure and symptoms. The U.K. Committee on Carcinogenicity estimated that the lifetime risk of developing mesothelioma is about 5 times greater for a child first exposed at age 5 compared to an adult first exposed at age 30.

Federal law does not ban asbestos in children’s products. The Reducing Exposure to Asbestos Database (READ) Act, introduced by Rep. Suzane DelBene (D-Wash.) and Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), would allow the public to know which products contain asbestos and where they may be located in their communities.