Keeping
Your Home Playground Safe
As kids head back to school, you're bound to notice the
kindergartner whose wrist is in a cast after falling from the monkey bars. But it's not
just on the schoolyard and neighborhood park that injuries occur - in fact, more deaths to
children occur in backyard playgrounds than on public play equipment.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that from 1990 to August 2000 there were
150 deaths to children 15 and under stemming from unsafe playground equipment. Ninety of
those deaths occurred at home. About 75 percent of the home deaths resulted from hangings
from ropes, cords, homemade rope swings, and similar items.
And when it comes to injuries, there were more than 200,000
playground-related injuries in 1999 - almost 47,000 of those incidents occurred on home
playgrounds to kids under 15.
The CPSC and KaBoom! - a nonprofit organization devoted to building safe playgrounds -
encourage parents to install and maintain protective surfacing, eliminate unsafe ropes,
and check for potentially hazardous hooksand edges on swings and slides.
Many parents place playground equipment on dirt or grass, which doesn't protect
children from serious head injuries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says
more than one-third of all playground-related injuries are severe - fractures, internal
injuries, concussions, dislocations, and amputations.
The CPSC offers a number of tips to prevent your kids from hurting themselves on your
backyard play equipment:
Install and maintain at least 9 inches of wood chips, mulch, or shredded rubber for
play equipment that reaches up to 7 feet high. If you use sand or pea gravel, you'll want
at least 9 inches for play structures up to 5 feet high. Or, you can use surface mats made
of safety-tested rubber or rubber-like materials.
- Install protective surfacing at least 6 feet in all directions from play equipment. For
swings, the surface should extend, in back and front, twice the height of the suspending
bar.
- Don't attach anything to the playground equipment that can be a potential strangulation
hazard - ropes, jump ropes, clotheslines, or pet leashes.
- Smooth out any sharp edges or points.
- Cover open "s" hooks or protruding bolts. Better yet, don't use "s"
hooks at all.
- Check for openings in guardrails and between ladder rungs. Spaces should be less than
3.5 inches or more than 9 inches so that they don't present an entrapment hazard.
- Make sure you have enough spacing between swings. There should be at least 8 inches
between suspended swings and between a swing and the support frame, and at least 16 inches
from the swing support frame to a pendulum seesaw.
- There should be at least 8 inches between the ground and the underside of the swing
seat.
- Swing seats should be securely anchored.
"Children should be out on the
playground where they belong, not in the hospital emergency room," said CPSC Chairman
Ann Brown. "We believe that by sharing our simple safety tips with parents, home
playgrounds can be a place where kids have fun and play safely."
In addition, the American Academy of Pediatrics says that swing seats should be made of
a soft material and that you should always check metal surfaces, like slides, when it
heats up outside to avoid burns. You should also make sure your kids don't twist the
swings, swing empty seats, or walk in front of moving swings.
Also, always assemble the equipment according to the instructions and cap all screws
and bolts.
And, most importantly, always supervise young children while they are playing.
