A playground safety update.

The concern for promoting safety on the playgrounds has been escalating since 1975, when the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) began work on the development of its Handbook for Public Playground Safety. The handbook, finally published in February 1981, was categorized as a "guideline," not a "standard," and there were many conflicting opinions about the necessity to adhere to an advisory publication that was not a legislated mandate.

The handbook existed for 10 years without revision and in that time, since it was the only existing federal document promoting playground safety, it became the state-of-art reference in parks and playgrounds. Seminars were held across the country promoting the handbook's recommendations, the contents of the publication began to appear consistently in lawsuits, and the interest in reducting the number and severity of playground injuries slowly grew. By 1988, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) had undertaken a project to develop a voluntary national standard for public-use playground equipment. And, by 1991, CPSC had issued a revised handbook, while the National Recreation and Park Association developed a National Playground Safety Institute (NPSI) to certify National Playground Safety Inspectors. These inspectors would be qualified to audit and inspect playgrounds and to identify hazards, so that measures could be taken to upgrade the safety levels for children.

The NPSI Institutes have been phenomenally successful, starting with a single institute and growing into more than 30 institutes in 1997. Training sessions were held across the country, and at least 30 more will be scheduled this year. There are now more than 2,500 Certified Playground Safety Inspectors in the U.S. some of them having already re-certified after three years. In some agencies, the requirement for a NPSI certification has become a part of the job description in several titles, and this requirement is expected to spread into many park and school agencies.

At the same time, state legislation mandates have begun to increase. Several states require adherences to the CPSC handbook, the ASTM standard, or both. There are training requirements in some proposed legislation, and a number of state legislatures are currently examining proposed laws for playground safety procedures.

The issue of safety on the playground has now spread beyond the public-use traditional equipment. Soft contained play apparatus, originally designed for fast-food restaurants and pay-for-play family entertainment centers, has now moved into the municipal community center. Supervision on the playground, a vital factor in safety, needs to be looked at. The great, unanswered question at the moment is how to serve children under the age of 2 years, both in the public setting and the daycare center.

According, we have taken this opportunity to address some of the peripheral concerns in playground safety. From an analysis of playground injuries to a study on supervision to the issue of wood materials on playgrounds, we hope to expand the parameters of playground safety understanding.

With that goal in mind, we would also urge everyone who maintains a playground, designs or constructs equipment, is responsible for children at play, or is in any way involved in risk management, to become a Certified Playground Safety Inspector. Information on the 1998 Institutes can be obtained from NRPA at [phone], or through your state recreation and park society.