No one wants to see children get hurt doing what comes naturally -- playing. Yet each year an estimated 205,860 children are treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms because of playground equipment related injuries, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
“Playground injuries can be life-threatening to children,” said Donna Donald, Iowa State University Extension Family Life Field Specialist. “According to a CPSC study, over half of playground related deaths were from hanging, primarily from ropes, shoestrings, cords, leashes, clothing strings and other items tied to or entangled on the equipment. Other causes of death included falls, equipment tip-over or collapse, entrapment or impact with moving equipment.”
Mrs. Donald suggests checking the following playground features to keep children safe:
1. The surface under and around the playground equipment.
Severe head injuries from falls have the potential for long-term consequences or even death. Improving the safety of playground surfaces is critical. In the CPSC study, only 9 percent of home locations had appropriate protective surfacing under playground equipment. Concrete, asphalt, hard-packed earth and grass are not recommended because they will not provide protection from a fall. Acceptable surfaces include some synthetic surfaces and loose-fill materials (sand, pea gravel, wood chips, shredded rubber) provided that they are not wet or compacted and are maintained at an appropriate depth, generally at least 9 to 12 inches.
2. Clothing or equipment that could cause entanglement.
Clothing, strings, and loose clothing and stringed items placed around a child’s neck can catch on playground equipment. Such entanglement can cause serious injuries or death by strangulation. Scarves, ponchos, attached mittens, hoods and drawstrings can become entangled on even the safest equipment, so it's critical to dress children with safety in mind. In addition, make sure that protrusions or projections on playground equipment, particularly at the top of slides, cannot entangle children's clothing. Protrusions, nuts and bolts, open-ended hooks, gaps and other parts of equipment can be entanglement hazards. Homemade rope, tire or tree swings can potentially become entangled around a child’s neck as well.
3. Equipment or openings that could trap a child's head.
In general, any opening -- except those where the ground serves as a lower boundary -- with an interior dimension between 3.5 and 9 inches could trap a child's head. Check openings on equipment, like the spaces between the steps on slides and rungs on ladders. Don't forget to measure the spaces in other features in the playground area, such as fences, guardrails on decks and porches, etc.
Visit the ISU Extension Web site for several playground safety resources including a simple playground checklist, Ten Steps Toward A Safer Playground.
More detailed information on these and other potential playground hazards is in the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Handbook for Public Playground Safety. This publication is available at the CPSC Web site.
For additional information about playground safety, visit the National Program for Playground Safety Web site.
donna/bmr
5/4/2008