Playground Safety Week Is Every Week

Each year about 205,000 children are treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries related to playground equipment falls, entrapments, cuts, or other playground equipment related injuries. Playground safety has changed drastically from the 1940′s and the decades that followed, when asphalt was recommended as the safety surface of choice. Today, we understand the severity of injuries that can result from inadequate and/or inappropriate safety surfacing. Fortunately, many playground injuries can be prevented.

National Playground Safety Week April 26th-30th highlighting the things parents and teachers should look for to assure children can enjoy safety in the out of doors.

Sof Solutions, in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), offers the following tips to help in the prevention of injuries and other hazards to children playing on both public and home playgrounds.

• Always supervise children on play equipment to make sure that all are safe at all times.
• The surface around the playground equipment should be soft enough to cushion a fall. Maintain the appropriate depth of wood fiber or rubber surface under and around playground equipment.
• Ensure that protective surfacing extends at least six feet in all directions from play equipment and provides sufficient fall height protection. For swings, extend protective surfacing in both directions of the swing, twice the height of the swing’s suspending bar.
• Enclosed openings on playground equipment must be checked for head entrapment hazards. Children often enter openings feet first and attempt to slide through the opening. If the opening is not large enough, it may allow the body to pass through the opening and entrap the head.
• Playground maintenance is critical to ensure the play area remains safe for childrent. There should be no missing, broken, or worn-out components; all hardware should be secure, repair sharp points or edges, replace missing hardware and close “S” hooks, and all parts should be stale with no apparent sign of loosening.
• Trip hazards are created by play structure components or items left/attached to the playground. Never attach ropes, jump ropes, clotheslines, pet leashes, or any cord or any kind to play equipment, as these will pose a strangulation hazard.

 The playground and surfacing industry, in cooperation with NRPA, CPSC and ASTM, have escalated efforts to improve the safety of play areas in parks and schools. The activity of play is critical to the health, wellness and development of children; where all children can play, learn and develop is our industries’ mission.
SOF SURFACE / PRODEK, INC.