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General Playground Safety Resources
US Consumer Product Safety Commission - Recalls and Alerts - details of the CPSC's recalls and alerts for playground equipment - and many other things as well. Part of the "Babybag" pages.(Dec, 96)
Includes, interalia:-
Inventory, Audit and Inspection: a layered approach to playground safety - a review of how a playground safety program should be constructed by Scott Payne of North Carolina State University. (Aug, 96)
Florida Center for Technology in Physical Activity - General Guidelines for schools and playgrounds
"Under a Watchful Eye: Supervising Children in the Playground" a detailed guide fron the US National Safety Council for carers who are involved in supervising children using playgrounds. (Dec, 96)
Create A Safe Place For Children To Play - an action sheet from Stand for Children organisation in the USA. (Nov, 96)
Playgrounds: Keeping Outdoor Learning Safe - from the US National Association for the Education of Young Children contains hints on how to manage a playspace in an early childhood service. Interestingly, they still seem to have merry-go-rounds in the US. (Dec, 96)
Outdoor Playground Areas and Equipment and Pools - a brief outline of safety for playspaces. Part of The ABC's of Safe and Healthy Child Care, a US government site. (Dec, 96)
The National Program for Playground Safety maintained by the University of North Iowa Center for Educational Technology. An awful 30k image map takes ages to load and clicking on the "textual" alternative takes you to a page that can leave you stranded in the middle of the site. Like a sort of curate's egg, the site is however very interesting and informative in parts. There are some good quizzes on various aspects of playground safety which sometimes have suprising answers. Also suprising are the links to commercial equipment manufacturers some of whom make equipment which does not conform to the safety standards promoted on the pages. (They are listed on these pages too but we put in a disclaimer.) (Dec, 96)
"Play It Safe Playground" - a guide to playground safety from the august American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Statistics, and useful information but they cop out in some areas by saying things like, "Avoid... concrete or asphalt". I mean I think they could be a bit more direct and come out and say quite clearly "no" to these surfaces in playgrounds. (Nov, 96)
"Handbook for Public Playground Safety" US Consumer Product Safety Commission's invaluable document. Pages maintained by Medaccess whose site is well worth having a squizz at. They are also available in a Portable Document File (PDF). You'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the .PDF file. You can download that from here.( May, 96)
MIT Department of Architecture Program For Playground Safety (May, 96)
NRPA's "Dirty Dozen" a checklist for playground safety. May, 96
"Playground Safety Is No Accident" - short but good summary on Playground Risk Management by the boss of playground designers, Grounds for Play, Dr Eric Strickland. (Aug, 96)
NRPA's Playground Safety Resources details of NRPA publications etc. (Dec, 96)
"Playground Safety Guidelines" by Vic Hergott, Director of Parks, Bradford, Ontario - short commentary on Canadian playground safety standards. (May, 96)
"Playground Safety" by Fran Wallach, Total Recreation Management Services, New York, NY - article on development of playground safety standards in USA. (May, 96)
How Can We Provide Safe Playgrounds? - from the US a discussion of common playground hazards and what actions can be taken to ameliorate them. (Dec, 96)
Playground Safety Checks Can Protect Children from Injury - a copy of a Texas (US) Department of Health's press release which includes some useful information on playground safety. (Dec, 96)
Ten Steps Toward a Safer Playground - US CPSC guidelnes. A "Babybag Online" page. (Dec, 96)
Summer Survival - The Playground - a compliation of CPSC and AAP tips.
Every Parents Guide to Playground Safety - 5 easy steps everyone can use to check on their playground's safety and start the ball rolling on getting improvements made. Located at this site. (Jan, 97)
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Lead Paint on Public Playground Equipment - US CPSC's pages which include information on identifying and controlling lead paint, a Q&A, and an executive summary for ... executives, you know those people with short attention spans, poor comprehension skills and a propensity for politics who are so useless at actual productive work that they get promoted. (Dec, 96)
Lead Alert! - a resource on lead paint on playgrounds and what to do about it for parents and teachers. A Green Shopping page. (Dec, 96)
A lot of play equipment is manufactured using treated timbers. The pages lited below all are all "pro" the use of such materials. None of the pages address whether it is possible to actually build equipment that is structurally safe using timber. Does anyone know of any internet pages stating the "con"? If so please email me.
"Evaluation of Risk to Children using Arsenic Treated Playground Equipment" Summary of report to California State Depot of Health Services (page maintained by CCA timber manufacturer). (Jun, 96)
"Estimated of Risk of Skin Cancer from Dislodgeable Arsenic of Pressure Treated Wood Playground Equipment" Summary of US CPSC 1990 report (page maintained by CCA timber manufacturer) (Jun, 96)
AWPI online - a faq on treated timbers from the American Wood Preservers Institute. Professionally presented pages that argue, among other things, the case for the safety of treated timbers. (Dec, 96)
Wolmanized Wood FAQ - from a US manufacturer, pages that argue the case for the safety of the use of timber treated with arsenic. It's meant to be re-assuring, but I'm not so sure. It says in part, "exposure to treated lumber poses no greater risk of skin cancer than exposure to sunlight during play periods". (Dec, 96)
Strings Can Strangle Children on Playground Equipment: Safety Alert - reproduction of CPSC document at The Babynet pages. (Dec, 96)
Child's death spurs effort to release guidelines for drawstrings on children's jackets and sweatshirts - reproduction of 16 November 1995 CPSC Press Release on the danger of drawstrings in children's c;lothing at the National Injury Survellance Unit (Australia) site. (Dec, 96)
Custom Standards Services Inc. in the USA will source and supply standards for playgrounds (Dec, 96)
[Back to Annotated Play and Playground Resource Index Page]