Home Safety
Playground Safety
According to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), there were nearly 47,000 injuries on home playgrounds to children under age 15 in the latest year studied. The report also finds that over a ten-year period, more deaths to children occurred on backyard playgrounds than on public playgrounds. Adopt the following safety guidelines with playground equipment in your home, and also use the following guidelines to inspect any equipment in your neighborhood or school before your child plays there:
- Cover areas under and around play equipment with soft materials such as hardwood chips, mulch, pea gravel and sand (materials should be nine to 12 inches deep and extend six feet from all sides of play equipment).
- Do not suspend more than two swing seats in the same section of a swing support structure.
- Check equipment for signs of deterioration or corrosion, including rust, chipped paint, splitting or cracked plastic components or loose splinters.
- Avoid putting play equipment close together. For example, stationary climbing equipment should have an uncluttered fall zone of at least six feet in all directions of equipment.
- Slides and platforms for climbing equipment should not exceed heights of six feet for school-age children or four feet for pre-school children.
- Beware of entrapment or entanglement hazards. A child's head can be trapped in openings between 3.5 and nine inches wide.
- Avoid elevated platforms, walkways, or ramps that lack adequate guardrails or other barriers (to help prevent children from falling).
- Watch for possible tripping hazards such as rocks and roots. Clear this debris from your child's play area.
- Always supervise children when they are using playground equipment.
