Very strange, non-health related question (I hope!)

I am posting this in the Anxiety Forum because I am really agitated over this and having some anxiety about it...though it's not really an anxiety question. I just need some feedback from anyone on this!

Yesterday my son and his 2 neighbor friends were playing in the alley behind our house when they discovered a large amount of a strange, bright pink (hot pink), granular substance that looks like coarse salt. I should have gone back there and cleaned it up immediately, but I was busy, so I just told them not to play with it.

Well today I found out that they did play with it, scooping it up into a tin can, pushing it around with a stick, etc. I don't know how much they touched it, but obviously any amount is too much, since it's probably some sort of poison!

Today I carefully threw out the tin can filled with this substance, and hosed down the bits of it that the kids had somehow transferred into my yard. Then I took the hose back into the alley to try to hose down the rest of it to get rid of it so that the kids wouldn't get into it again. To my horror, I found not one pile of this pink stuff, but several large mounds of it! So much that I had to get out a shovel and scoop it up into a trash bag to dispose of it! Someone must have dragged a large bag of this stuff into the alley and either left it there purposely or else the bag must have broken. Either way I am not pleased!

I've probably exposed myself to this stuff cleaning it up, and I'm sure the kids have exposed themselves playing with it. My question for all of you is, does anyone have any idea what this pink grainy stuff could be? I am thinking maybe a herbicide or insecticide?

Any replies would be really helpful!



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