Category: Playground Safety

Playground Safety is a common liability concern for most organizations. We’ll provide information on what warning signs to look out for and the types of playground equipment that is made in compliance with the U.S. Consumer Product Safty Commission, ASTM, and ADA Guidelines to keep children safe.

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Playground Planning Playground Safety

Top Playground Safety Inspection Tips

Evaluating Playground Safety

Playground safety should be a primary factor of your project planning. Playgrounds are designed to withstand everything the environment and children can throw at them but they still need TLC to help keep them safe. When your playground is first installed it should meet every current standard but regular maintenance is needed over time to ensure playground safety measures are in place.

Don’t Ignore the Small Stuff

Little nicks and gouges in the powder coating, divots in the rubber components and other small imperfections are all side effects of regular use and exposure to the elements and infrequently may be the result of vandalism. Once or twice a year, your playground should be inspected for these issues.

Catching these problems early on prevents further damage to your structure. Catching and treating these small issues can significantly extend the life and beauty of your playground. Repair damage to metal posts using the touch-up paint provided in your playground care kit.

Hint: always check for damage at welded joints where the paint is the thinnest. Small damage to thermoplastic coated decks can be repaired using a torch but you may want to have a professional handle the repair if you aren’t handy.

Double Check for Anything out of Place

Children are creative and love to decorate their favorite things. It’s not unusual to find strings, yarn or cord tied around bars or woven through equipment. Unfortunately, these little works of art can become tangled with hands, fingers and ankles. Always remove any strings or cloth you find as even the smallest pieces can be an entanglement hazard.

You will also want to look for anything sticking up out of the ground, particularly if you use a loose fill surface like rubber mulch. From tree roots to lost toys and broken sticks anything that doesn’t belong on the playground should be regularly removed. If you’re using a loose fill surfacing, go ahead and rake it all back into place.

Evaluate Your Site for Playground Safety

Take a moment to step back and look at your entire playground safety efforts. Is everything still level? Are there any dramatic dips or pot holes? Cracked concrete, misaligned borders and puddling away from equipment can be a sign that your subbase is washing away or that tree roots may be damaging your play surface. As with any problem the sooner you identify the issue the easier and more affordable the solution will be.

This is also an opportunity to take a look up. If your playground is near trees, it’s important to keep the branches trimmed back  and away from equipment, at least 6 feet away. You should also look for damaged or dead branches that might fall onto the playground equipment or guests.

In previous blog posts we’ve discussed the importance of using proper surfacing and discussed what requirements need to be met to meet different material safety and design safety standards. For more information on playground safety, subscribe to our blog!

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Playground Safety Uncategorized

Avoiding Heart Disease in Children and Adults

Heart disease is the number one cause of death and disability in America today. According to the CDC, it’s also one of the most preventable causes of death in our country. Simple changes in your daily routine can help prevent you from becoming one of the 200,000 preventable deaths from heart disease each year.

Heart Disease Prevention Tips

Remember that change can be hard and the occasional slip up is to be expected. The most important thing is to give yourself time to adjust to your new lifestyle. Try the following steps to get started.

Get Your Heart Rate Up

Adults need at least two and a half hours of moderate intensity exercise each week. You should break a sweat and raise your heart rate and maintain that level of activity for at least 10 minutes at a time. If you’re unsure how to start a healthy exercise program, work with your doctor to ensure your progress is safe and sustainable. Children require at least an hour of physical activity each day.

Don’t assume that your kids are getting enough exercise at recess or during PE. The majority of high school students are not enrolled in any kind of physical education program. If you have an elementary age student talk to their teacher, coach and playground attendants about their activity. Even if your child is involved in sports, set aside time to practice fitness activities as a family.

Get creative and accommodate everyone’s speed and fitness levels. Small children might not be able to keep up with parents on a bike. However, they can ride along as you jog. If your children ride their bikes too fast for you to keep up on foot but are too slow for you to ride along try roller skating alongside them.

Eat Well

Even if you work 40 hours a week, you can make healthy and delicious meals at home or make smart choices when dining out. One simple guideline for planning a quick and healthy meal is to choose meals that use fewer ingredients, cook quickly, contain lean meats and green vegetables.

If you do have a picky eater, don’t require them to clean their plate. Instead, consider requiring them to take a a ‘no thank you’ bite of each food. Spend a few weeks double checking your portions by weighing and measuring each serving. It won’t take long for you to be able recognize the proper portion sizes. Also, give yourself the opportunity to recognize when you’re about to consume a second serving.

Drink Wisely

Many Americans don’t realize how many liquid calories they consume each day. Although fruit drinks, smoothies and health drinks may seem like a great way to squeeze in extra servings of fruits and vegetables, they may not be as satisfying as whole foods. Treat these drinks like real servings, measuring them out and planning them into your daily meals. Don’t let them become the unnoticed extra calories that throw your healthy lifestyle out of whack.

One good way to reduce the consumption of unhealthy calories is to eliminate sodas, fruit punches and other sugary drinks from your diet. As tasty as these treats are they provide no health benefit and aren’t hydrating due to the high levels of caffeine, sugar, and salt they typically contain.

Although you can drink a greater volume of soda for 100 calories than nutrient dense liquids like milk, you will find that you get more bang for your buck when choosing the healthier option. Most of the liquids you consume should be water. By the time you feel thirsty, your body has already entered the first stage of dehydration.

Heart Disease Learning Resources

If you want to learn more about heart disease, refer to the following resources:

Categories
Playground Safety Playground Safety Surfacing

Does Your Playground Surfacing Lack Shock Absorbency?

An example of wooden mulch playground surfacing

Playground surfacing is one of the most important parts of a play space. Why? Because when kids fall they can get scrapes, cuts, bruises and, in serious cases, broken bones. However, with the right surface, you can help reduce the amount of damage done to a child who falls on the playground.

Playground Surfacing Types

All playground surfacing has a percentage of shock absorbency, some more than others. For example, concrete has a very poor ability to absorb shock waves from children who fall, resulting in more intense injuries. In contrast, rubber and wooden mulch have very high shock absorbency abilities. As a result, children who fall suffer less damage because most of the impact is absorbed into the surface.

Rubber Mulch

An example of multi-colored rubber mulch playground surfacing
Multi-colored rubber mulch playground surfacing.

Rubber mulch is made of shredded recycled rubber that will not freeze in the winter, absorb water, or sustain the growth of mold or fungus. Also, it does not attract bugs or emit odors and requires little maintenance over time.

Rubber mulch exceeds all of the safety requirements put in place by the ASTM, IPEMA and CPSC organizations and is ADA accessible. Finally, this surface is a great shock absorbent because of its material. Rubber has a large elasticity component, which allows it to compress when fallen on and spring back. This lessens a child’s fall because when the surface material is compressed it absorbs the impact.

Wood Mulch

An example of wooden mulch playground surfacing
Wooden mulch playground surfacing.

Much like rubber mulch, wooden mulch is also a fantastic shock absorbent. Wooden mulch is composed of 100 percent natural fibers and does not contain any chemicals or artificial components. This mulch is not the same as your garden mulch though. Garden mulch is usually dyed different colors for an aesthetic appeal and can be treated with chemicals to repel pests. This type of mulch is not compressed, leaving splinters that can injure children or adults. Playground mulch has been specifically engineered for playground purposes, meaning that there are no splinters or shreds of mulch that children can injure themselves on and there are no artificial dyes that can harm children’s health. Playground wooden mulch meets all of the ADA, ASTM and CPSC surfacing standards and id environmentally safe.

Among rubber and wooden mulch, rubber tiles, pour-in-place surfaces and sand are also great shock absorbents. Some of these surfaces must have a base surface made of crushed gravel or concrete to maximize the surface’s ability to absorb shock from an impact. Concrete and crushed gravel are poor absorbents, as mention earlier, but by having these materials as a base surface, they level out the ground and provide a slight elevation for proper drainage. This allows the top surface to lay flat and become a better shock absorbent.

Learn More About Playground Surfacing

To learn more about the shock absorbency of different surfaces please review our previous blog posts:

We can refer you to our National Playground Construction Company to schedule an inspection of your playground surface and play structures. If you would like to inspect your playground yourself, please use the safety checklist provided by the United States CPSC organization.

If you have any questions or concerns about your playground surface, please feel free to give BYO Recreation a call at 1-800-853-5316. One of our professionals will be happy to answer all of your playground surfacing questions.

Categories
Playground Safety Playground Safety Surfacing

Safety Surfacing Details You May Not Know About

Laying the right safety surfacing at your playground area can be a lot harder than you think. You can’t just put down a couple bags of sand or mulch and say your playground is safe.

First, research surface materials and find out what the requirements are for surfacing your play space. Then you can provide proper safety surfacing throughout your playground. Lucky for you, you can find all of that information right here on our blog.

Safety Surfacing Options

Let’s start with your options. According to the CPSC Handbook for Public Playground Safety, there are two types of safety surfacing: unitary and loose-fill. The right surfacing for your playground will depend on many factors such as:

  • How much you would like to spend on safety surfacing. (This includes upfront cost as well as cost of maintenance.)
  • Playground use frequency and by how many children.
  • Site conditions like drainage and climate.
  • You know your total playground budget.
  • You’re interested in a long-term warranty.

Safety surfacing must be IPEMA tested AND approved in order to be compliant for playground use. Your surfacing should also allow your playground to be accessible to those with disabilities in accordance with ADA standards.

Unitary Surfacing

An example of poured-in-place safety surfacing.
Poured-in-place, rubber safety surfacing.

Unitary Safety Surfacing is durable, long lasting, and more flexible than traditional surfacing. Unlike loose fill, there is no displacement so daily or weekly maintenance is minimal.

To start, unitary surfacing materials are held in place by a binder that may be installed at the playground site, such as rubber mats, tiles and Poured-in-Place (PIP) material. Unitary surfaces are cured after installment to form a shock-absorbing surface. Curing after installment is strongly recommended to avoid discoloration and roughness.

The most common and versatile type of unitary surfacing is PIP. This is installed over asphalt, concrete, or crush stone, making it great for spare parking lot space. It’s also the most customizable option and does not require any borders.

On the other hand, rubber tiles offer a lower maintenance option for unitary surfacing and are especially great for facilities with indoor playgrounds. Also, maintenance is very simple and low cost with Rubber Tiles. Repairs are simple as you need only remove and replace the damaged tile.

Loose-Fill Surfacing

A shot of wood mulch playground surfacing
Wood mulch safety surfacing.

Loose-fill safety surfacing is a cost-effective safety surfacing for any facility that is looking for a high rated, affordable option. Additionally, it’s the most common playground surfacing used in the United States. These materials are loose bark, shredded, or chipped, and typically made of engineered wood fiber or recycled tires. This mulch is not like the mulch you toss in your garden though.

Playground mulch is specifically for outdoor play areas. Unlike garden mulch, playground mulch is compacts together, eliminating splinters and maximizing shock absorbency. Other loose-fill materials are sand, pea gravel and rubber mulch. Out of all surfacing options, Rubber Mulch provides one of the best impact attenuation ratings through IPEMA.

Loose-fill materials compress about 25 percent over time due to use and weathering, so it is important to consider this when filling your surface. For example. if it’s required to have nine inches of fill, then your initial fill should be 12 inches. This will account for the weathering and compaction over time. Therefor, although loose-fill surfacing is cheaper up front, it can cost more money over time.

Activity displaces the fiber and requires regular raking to be turned back into place. This is especially true in heavy use areas such as below swings and at the base of slides.

According to PlaygroundSafety.org, “equipment height influences the ability of a surface to provide protection in the event of a child’s fall. Research has shown equipment more than 5 feet high more than doubles the probability of injury. “

Safety Surfacing Shock Absorbency

Of course, both of these safety surfacing options have one important factors in common: shock absorbency. On a playground, shock absorbency may be the most important safety factor.

It’s inevitable that children fall, trip, and stumble on the playground. The more shock absorbency a surface has, the more cushion there is for fallen children. This helps lessen the impact of falls, preventing serious injuries and in some cases death.

Finally, all safety surfacing must have a three to six inch base ground made out of gravel and must comply to the ATSM F1292 standards. Having a base ground allows for proper drainage and helps your desired surface perform better.

Learn More About Safety Surfacing

For more information about surfacing or the importance of shock absorbency on the playground, please feel free you give us a call at 1-800-853-5316. One of our certified professionals will be happy to help you choose the best surface for your play space. We can also schedule an inspection or installment of your surfacing for you!

Additionally, we recommend you review pages 8-11 of the CPSC Handbook for Public Playground Safety to learn more about safety surfacing.

Categories
Playground Safety Playground Safety Surfacing

Playground Safety Measures to Implement at Your Organization

boy-being-helped-by-an-adult-on-a-playground-spinner

Playground Safety is one of the most important components of safety in a play space, so it’s important to know what you should be inspecting in order to keep children safe at play.

Playground Safety Statistics

According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission:

About 200,000 children are treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms for playground equipment-related injuries. An estimated 148,000 of these injuries involve public playground equipment and an estimated 51,000 involve home playground equipment.

Also, about 15 children die each year as a result of playground equipment-related incidents. Most of the injuries are the result of falls. These are primarily falls to the ground below the equipment, but falls from one piece of equipment to another are also reported. Most deaths are due to strangulations, though some are due to falls.

Playground Safety Measures

Let’s educate you from the ground up on playground structure safety. Children at play may fall off the structure injuring their heads, arms and legs. Placing cement or asphalt under a play structure is forbidden because the surface does not have any kind of effective shock absorption. If a child falls and hits his or her head on these surfaces he or she may obtain a fractured skull or neck, a concussion or even swelling of the brain. Falling on these surfaces may also result in death.

Safe Playground Surfaces

An example of safe wood mulch playground surfacing.

Wooden and rubber mulch, fine sand and fine gravel are great surfaces for a play space. These surfaces have fantastic shock absorbency, preventing injuries upon falling. You still must maintain these surfaces, making sure the depth is well-kept and there are no exposed roots, rocks or hard ground.  All BYO Recreation surfaces are ADA, ASTM and CPSC certified. In other words, you can be sure that your children will have a lesser chance of injury if they fall.

Playground Structures

An example of playground bars exceeding the recommended 9" standard.
These playground overhead bars exceed 9″, and therefor do not present an entrapment hazard.

Moving up the ladder to the play structures, we can find more ways to implement playground safety. Let’s start with prevention of head entrapment.

Children love to climb through safety bars on the playground. However, if they attempt to go through feet first they will reduce their ability to climb out of danger’s way causing their head to get stuck between bars. If unattended, children can strangle to death as a result.

In general, openings that are closed on all sides should be less than 3 1/2″ or greater than 9″, according to the U.S. CPSC. Openings that are between 3′ 1/2″ and 9″ present a head entrapment hazard. These openings are large enough to permit a child’s body to go through, but are too small for a child’s head.

Installation & Maintenance

BYO Recreation offers professional installment of all playground equipment through our National Playground Construction Company (NPC). NPC is a licensed Certified General Contractor (CGC) and all NPC installers are certified by the National Playground Safety Institute as playground professionals (NPSI). Hiring us will ensure you that your playground is assembled properly and meets all the safety codes and regulations put in place by government organizations such as the U.S. CPSC.

We also recommend that you inspect all hooks to make sure they are tightly closed with no protrusions. This prevents children’s clothing from getting caught which, can cause strangulation. Ropes and cords are yet another way that children can be strangled. They can get tangled in or fall on to the rope or cord that has been tied around a part of the play structure. It is important to make sure ropes and cords hang normally and are not tied or tangled in dangerous ways.

Learn More About Playground Safety

These are only a couple ways to incorporate playground safety and reduce the amount of injuries or deaths on your play area. Help save children’s lives by inspecting your playground on a regular basis.

Additionally, to learn more about playground safety, please review the Public Playground Safety Handbook. To obtain a playground safety checklist please refer to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Public Playground Safety Checklist.

If you would like to request a professional to examine your playground equipment, please give us a call at 1-800-853-5316. One of our consultants will be more than happy to assist you and answer all of your playground safety questions.

Categories
Playground Planning Playground Safety

Here’s How Much Playground Shade Can Make a Difference

playground-shade-example

Playground shade seems pretty unimportant when it comes to playground safety. After all, making sure play structures are built properly and swing set parts are not worn out seem to be at the top of the safety checklist. However, shade is important too, if not the most important safety feature on a playground. So if shade is the most important safety feature, why is it overlooked so often?

Answer: People don’t realize how HOT playground equipment and surfaces can get!

Unbelievable Playground Temperatures

Let’s find out just how hot a play area can get on an average sunny summer day.

In Cathedral City, California, the CBS Local 2 News staff took a laser temperature gun to measure a play space lacking playground shade. The place was Panorama Park, CA, and it was 115F degrees outside. The playground equipment and flooring measured 161F to 180F degrees! According to AntiScald Inc., a person can receive third degree burns by touching a structure at 140F degrees for 5 seconds. That’s 20-40 degrees cooler than the recorded temperature of playgrounds not protected with shade.

Burns are not the only thing to worry about.  “Children’s skin is especially sensitive to direct sunlight because they don’t have as many pigment cells as adults do. Children burn faster and cumulative skin damage starts with the first exposure,” according to the American Academy of Dermatology. “One bad sunburn in childhood could cause skin cancer 30 years later.” Improper shade over your playground area can cause children to over heat and adults can have heat strokes resulting in a trip to the hospital.

So you can see why shade is a very important component to outdoor safety. It prevents heat exhaustion, heat strokes, second and third degree burns, skin cancer and so much more!

Playground Shade for All Outdoor Spaces

BYO Recreation offers a variety of shade structures for playgrounds, sandboxes, benches, tables, sidewalks and virtually anywhere you desire. Pretty cool!

Example of playground shade for a large preschool.
Playground shade comes in several shapes, sizes, and styles to accommodate any space.

Additionally, to learn more about playground safety, please review the Public Playground Safety Handbook. To obtain a playground safety checklist please refer to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Public Playground Safety Checklist.

Finally, learn how playground shade can save your visitors from harsh injuries or illnesses by calling 1-800-853-5316. One of our consultants will be happy to answer your inquires and concerns. Also, visit our website and take a look at our state-of-the-art playground shade structures and place an order to save children’s health.

Categories
Playground Equipment Playground Safety

Commercial Swing Set Maintenance Best Practices

example-of-a-commercial-arch-swing-set

A commercial swing set is the most common playground equipment component found in any play space. It’s also the most used structure by kids of all ages. The heavy amount of use makes it even more critical to inspect your playground swings every six months to a year.

Standard Commercial Swing Set Inspection

A commercial swing set is composed of several parts such as swivels, seats, frame connectors, hangers and chains. Over time every day wear and tear from use and Mother Nature take a toll on these parts causing equipment to become brittle, or weak. When inspecting your commercial swing set, examine the chains and hangers first, because these are the most replaced parts of a swing set.

Swing Chains

Some chains come coated in a protective material to prevent children from pinching themselves. Over time, this coating can come off and expose the chain metal. The chain is coated in anti-ruse, galvanized steel, but the coating gives extra protection and a nice visual appeal to your swing set.

Swing Hangers

Hangers are what attaches the swing to the top beam and slows for swinging motion. After years of swinging back and forth, these hangers wear down and become weak. The swinging motion rubs the chain against the hanger, which causes the link to become thin over a period of years. These should be replaced when worn out to ensure children will be safe while swinging.

Learn More About Commercial Swing Set Care

Every aspect of your swing set should be inspected to ensure your play structure is up-to-code and safe for child play. If you are unsure of how to inspect your playground space, please call BYO Recreation at 1-800-853-5316. Our certified playground representatives can help you make a checklist of all the major parts to examine.

Additionally, to learn more about playground safety, please review the Public Playground Safety Handbook. To obtain a playground safety checklist please refer to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Public Playground Safety Checklist.

Finally, for more tips on how to inspect your playground for safety, subscribe to our blog! And remember to inspect your commercial swing set annually!

Categories
Playground Safety Playground Safety Surfacing

Safety Surfacing Maintenance Best Practices for Playgrounds

example-of-poured-in-place-surfacing

Using proper safety surfacing to help avoid child injuries is the number one priority for BYO Recreation. Therefor, for Playground Safety Week, we want to provide you with a checklist of things to examine on your playground surface, so you can ensure your children are safe while playing.

Safety Surfacing Types

Loose Fill

Example of loose fill wooden mulch safety surfacing
Loose fill wooden mulch safety surfacing.

If you have a rubber or wooden mulch safety surfacing, you want to check its levels regularly. Over time, your mulch will become compact from children running and playing, children will pick the mulch up and toss it about, kids will even digs holes in the ground, which buries your mulch under dirt. Making sure that your mulch level is good keeps children safer because it keeps your ground level, it protects kids from tripping on any underground objects and it keeps kids from major injuries or infections that improper safety surfacing, like a hard dirt ground, can cause.

Unitary

Example of unitary poured-in-place safety surfacing
Unitary poured-in-place rubber safety surfacing.

Rubber tiled or poured-in-place safety surfacing is much more durable and lasting than mulch surfaces, but even these should be checked from time to time. Tiled surfaces can be pulled up by determined children or have dangerous objects wedged between the cracks. Over time, the tiles may even shift slightly making gaps that kids can trip on. Poured-in-place surfaces are a little more durable than tiled surfaces, but still have some risks. After years of wear and tear, your surface can become thin. This can cause kids to fall on harder ground or trip from an uneven surface. If you inspect your surfaces once a year for these issues, you can keep your kids safe during playtime.

Safety Surfacing Borders

example-of-playground-borders-for-loose-fill-surfacing
Playground borders for loose-fill surfacing.

It’s also a good idea to border your play space with BYO Recreation safety surfacing playground borders. Bordering your playground will designate where the children can play and where they may be out of sight from supervisors. This is also a great way to contain your playground mulch.

For more tips on how to inspect your playground for safety, check back here throughout the month of May 2013 and remember to inspect your playground during Playground Safety Week (April 21-27)! If you would like more information about your surface safety, or would like assistance fixing your playground problems, give us a call at 1-800-853-5316 and one of our associates, will be happy to help you determine your playground issue and select the best product to fix your problem.

To learn more about playground safety, please review the Public Playground Safety Handbook, and to obtain a playground safety checklist please refer to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Public Playground Safety Checklist.

Categories
Playground Equipment Playground Safety

What You Should Know About Playground Maintenance & Safety

Playground maintenance is a huge part protecting your investment and prolonging the life of your playground equipment. Whether you are in charge of maintaining a playground for a school, church or community, you should familiarize yourself with basic playground maintenance requirements to assure you maintain a safe play environment. We have covered the different playground components in previous blog posts, and encourage you to treat each part of your playground with equal care.

Playground Maintenance Checklist

Structures & Independent Items

Playground structures combine many of the maintenance concerns of independent play equipment along with their own special care. The complexity of your playground maintenance routine is determined by your structure size and what types of components it incorporates. Even the largest structures should not require more than a few hours of playground maintenance per year.

Hidden Problems to Note

The most dangerous accidents on playgrounds result in entanglement or entrapment. Entanglement most frequently happens when clothing, rope or fabric becomes tied or tangled on equipment. Hooded sweatshirts and other loose clothing is the biggest factor in entanglement. However, you can minimize risks by ensuring that there are no bolts or screws protruding. Additionally, any rope, string, or ribbon that children may have tied onto the structure should be removed immediately.

Entrapment occurs when a body part is not easily be removable from or pass through equipment. Older equipment has gaps built into the design that are no longer safe. Inspect any equipment over 10 years old with the services of a certified playground safety inspector. The inspector will use a set of templates to test the openings on your equipment. This determines if they are neither too small nor too wide for safe use.

Independent Playground Equipment Maintenance

There are a number of other hazards that can occur as your playground is exposed to time. Each year, your playground maintenance routine should consist of examining the underside of your structure. Safely remove any insect or wasp nests before they can become a danger. Remember that if a child can get in or under something, they will. The safest course of action is to treat your entire play area and always remove anything that doesn’t belong.

Like anything else, your playground will benefit tremendously from a regular maintenance routine. Cover any scratches or chips with a fresh coat of touch up paint to prevent rusting. Also, clean off any built up dirt or grime and clean moving parts so that they move smoothly. Furthermore, check that any loose joints, close bolt or pins, and remove any damaged equipment. Check your surfacing to ensure that loose fill has not become swept away and replenish it as needed.

All together, you’ll probably spend less time maintaining your playground than sweeping up leaves or removing trash each year. However, taking the time to create a proper maintenance plan will greatly extend your equipment life.

Learn more about playground maintenance and safety for independent play equipment, swing sets ,and surfacing!