PLAYGROUND SAFETY AROUND THE WORLD.

Internationally, there are three hot spots outside the United States where playground safety has recently had the serious attention of professionals and officials: Europe, the Australasian Pacific Rim, and Argentina.

It is apparent that U.S. playground safety efforts have played a major role in the Pacific Rim, but have made little impact in Europe and South America.

The 15 members of the European Union (E.U.) are settling in with the recently adopted Europeen Normalisation (EN) playground safety standards(1), which replaced the individual national standards, dominant of which had been the DIN standards of Germany and the BSI standards of the United Kingdom. Use of the new EN standards has caused some confusion and consternation in some instances -- the most radical changes were in equipment height, surfacing, guardrail and barrier heights, and equipment spacing. Some playgrounds which met previous standards are now failing the new criteria. The linguistic diversity of the E.U. has proven to be somewhat problematic as well. The standard was initially written in English then translated into German and French. Finns translated the German version; Italians translated the French version. Not surprisingly, these translations do not quite match up. Most active in applying the new standard has been England, and, to a lesser extent, Holland

In England, there have been some alarmist news stories ("Evil European bureaucrats stopping sweet English children playing"), but these may be just the usual right-wing press attacks against England's participation in the European Union. The English government agency responsible for implementation of Health and Safety Act 1974, which includes playground safety, is the Health and Safety Executive.

Implementation and Inspection Agencies

The U.S. counterpart to this is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is the principal safety organization in the U.K. and the largest playground safety program in Europe. Its counterpart in the U.S. is the National Playground Safety Institute, but RoSPA's services are more extensive and include post-installation and mandated annual inspections, surface impact testing, as well as the production of booklets and other publications and providing playground safety training. The Association of Playground Industries is England's counterpart to North America's International Playground Equipment Manufacturers Association (IPEMA).

There are five national centers of playground safety activity in the Australasian Pacific Rim: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Australia has the oldest safety record and was the first country in the Australasian Pacific Rim with its own national playground safety standard(2). That standard, originally established in 1976 and revised in 1981, has been criticized by many as needing updating and revision. Unfortunately, Standards Australia has yet to replace the officer who steered the playground standards committee after her resignation last year. Presently there is no agency in Australia with the authority to enforce these standards, obsolete as they may be.

Training and Maintenance Programs Offered

The organization most comparable to NPSI is KidSafe, which has divisional offices in each of the six huge states and two mainland territories. (Australia is roughly the same size as the United States.) One of the most active divisions is KidSafe New South Wales, Playground Advisory Unit. This small group offers training programs in playground inspections and maintenance, conducts research, provides design advice, evaluates playground plans produced by other agencies, and produces brochures and publications. Its playground safety course is presently going through the accreditation process. The Playground and Recreation Association of Victoria (PRAV), another state-level organization, is beginning to reassert itself after several years of modest activity.

New Zealand Breaks Away

New Zealand, which has historically been linked to Australian playground safety via the joint Australia/New Zealand Standard (AS/NZS) for Playground Safety(3), has grown impatient with the prescriptive format of this existing standard and the inaction of Standards Australia to make revisions. Late last year Standards New Zealand de-jointed from Standards Australia for this topic. The New Zealand Playground Safety Committee will soon adopt an interim standard based upon either (or more likely both) the E.U. and American criteria, with a goal of establishing a New Zealand standard independent of Australia, Europe, and the U.S. within a year.

As a result of the failure of a structure installed by a governmental agency, New Zealand health and safety laws and the NZ Building Code will be strengthened. While no single agency has enforcement authority, Public Body Operators and Municipal/District Building Compliance Departments ratify all structures built within their jurisdiction. The Australian Playground Equipment Manufacturers Association (APEMA), an industry organization similar to IPEMA in North America, was formed less than two years ago and is supporting the development of the new NZ Playground Safety Standard. Once the standard is in place, industry leaders plan to establish a playground safety training organization modeled after NPSI.

Japan Lacks National Standards

In Japan, presently, there are no national standards for playground safety. The Japan Ministry of Construction, the national agency in charge of providing, developing, operating and maintaining most of the public facilities such as roads, highways, sewerage, water resources, parks, etc., has been charged with the task of preparing a national playground safety standard. At the same time, the Japan Playground Facility Association (JPFA), founded by the government, is preparing manufacturing standards similar to ASTM F1487(4). JPFA also provides playground safety inspector training. A special interest organization, the Playground Safety Network (PSN) was established in 1995. Members include equipment manufacturer representatives, consultants, landscape architects, researchers and professors, students, and parents. The primary function of the PSN is to provide playground safety education. In 1997 it published a guidebook of playground safety and has plans for a brochure for the lay public similar to the NPSI Dirty Dozen. The organization plans to offer a training course similar to the NPSI program. Three of the ten members of the national playground safety standard committee belong to the Playground Safety Network.

Hong Kong Is Also Lacking

Hong Kong also does not presently have a national playground safety standard. Play equipment and surfacing are evaluated according to standards for the country of manufacture, essentially the ASTM(5) and EN(6) standards, but where appropriate, the AS/NZS(7) standards. There is no legislation mandating compliance to any playground safety standard, but increasing public awareness and product liability concerns have made the application of safety standards desirable and very acceptable in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, there are no playground safety special interest organizations or industry organizations comparable to NPSI or IPEMA. Playright, a not-for-profit agency, took the lead last year by hosting a Euro-American playground safety inspector certification course taught by trainers from RoSPA and NPSI. The course included classroom instruction, test instruments, and field applications. Successful participants passed written exams and on-site inspections using both European and American standards. The agency also organized a playground safety community education seminar series last summer, in conjunction with publication of the first Chinese pamphlet for parents on risks and hazards of children's playgrounds (another brochure similar to the NPSI Dirty Dozen). This pamphlet was widely distributed to all related non-government organizations, government agencies and departments, schools, and others. This year Playright is planning a playground safety course for frontline staff of housing estate management firms, in Chinese, and a second playground safety inspector certification course using international trainers, the latter perhaps hosted jointly with the Recreation Managers' Association of Hong Kong.

Singapore Hosts Training Program

Singapore adopted ASTM F1487 as the Singapore Standard(8) in 1999, under license from ASTM. Subsequently, Singapore was the site of the first official NPSI Playground Safety Inspector Certification Course outside the United State, held late last year. The training program was hosted by EM Services (a housing estate management company for nine municipal councils) and attracted participants from Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. There are now plans to create a Singapore Playground Safety Association (SPSA). The objectives of the SPSA will be to bring safety awareness to children in schools and childcare centers, bring safety awareness to parents, ensure playgrounds are built to the playground safety standard, form a liaison with NPSI, and to introduce a maintenance program for public playgrounds.

Argentina has playground safety Standards(9), but they are based upon a set of dated 1986 British Standards Institute standards. These have been largely ignored until recently when the city of Buenos Aires passed legislation mandating all municipal playgrounds meet these criteria as well as the current European playground surfacing standard(10), and making them all disabled-accessible and dog-free zones. (Many public spaces in the city are suffering from extremely unhealthy canine contamination.)

Argentina Looks to European Standards

Argentina has customarily looked to European standards as the models to follow, rather than those of the United States. Last December the U.S. Embassy in Argentina invited a NPSI board member to present several public lectures on playground safety and park planning and to confer with the Buenos Aires Ministry for the Environment on their playground renovation master plan.

The U.S. playground authority presented the Ministry staff with copies of the current ASTM F1487 and CPSC Guidelines for Public Playground Safety (the latter in both English and Spanish versions) as well as all the NPSI publications. He emphasized the physical accessibility criteria found in the ASTM standard which are absent from European standards, and recommended a U.S. expert in playground integration for a playground symposium scheduled for March 2001. It is hoped these contacts will foster future links to American playground safety interests, as well as those of Europe. There are presently no playground safety organizations or manufacturer's associations in Argentina.

Personal contacts and continuing communication with colleagues(11) in the countries described above indicate this international pattern: There are two dominant playground safety standards in the world today -- those of the European Union and those of the United States.

Mixed Success in Adopting Standards

While the European Union has adopted a common playground safety standard, individual European countries are having mixed success during the transition period while changing from previous national standards. Apparently England has been the most successful in doing so.

In the Australasian Pacific Rim, Singapore and Hong Kong appear to be most aggressively pursuing implementation of playground safety criteria, and show strong support for the American precedent. New Zealand is cutting ties with Australia regarding playground safety, and has taken a balanced position regarding the EN and ASTM standards (primarily a neutral international trade-block decision), until it can adopt its own.

Japan has established the framework for its national standard, but has not been able to finalize the process. Australia is losing its geographic and historic lead in playground safety standards due to apparent in-fighting among several entities with vested interests.

Argentina suddenly realizes something must be done but may wear out the present professional enthusiasm or force agencies to make rash decisions because of the urgency of a very short Buenos Aires playground renovation deadline dictated in the newly legislated mandates.

With the exception of Argentina, playground professionals from each of these countries were present at and indicated they were influenced by one or both of the International Playground Safety Conferences held in the U.S. in 1995 and 1999. These countries are on the verge of establishing their playground safety destinies for the future. The International Standards Organization (ISO) has been approached to establish a global playground safety standard, but has not taken action to date(11)(*). The contibutions of organizations and professionals to this world movement is a challenge that cannot be ignored.

Footnotes

Citations of Standards and Personal Communications

(1.) EN 1176-1 (1998) Playground equipment -- Part 1: General safety requirements and test methods

EN 1176-2 (1998) Playground equipment -- Part 2: Additional specific safety requirements and test methods for swings.

EN 1176-3 (1998) Playground equipment -- Part 3: Additional safety requirements and test methods for slides.

EN 1176-4 (1998) Playground equipment -- Part 4: Additional specific safety requirements and test methods for runways.

EN 1176-5 (1998)Playground equipment -- Part 5: Additional specific safety requirements and test methods for carousels.

EN 1176-6 (1998) Playground equipment -- Part 6: Additional specific safety requirements and test methods for rocking equipment.

EN 1176-7 (1997)Playground equipment -- Part 7: Guidance on installation, inspection, maintenance and operation

(2.) AS 1924.1 (1976, 1981) Playground equipment for parks, schools and domestic use -- Part 1: General requirements

AS 1924.2 (1981) Playground equipment for parks, schools and domestic use -- Part 2: Design and construction: Safety aspects

AS 2155 (1982) Playgrounds -- Guide to siting and to installation and maintenance of equipment

(3.) AS/NZS 4486 (1997) Playgrounds and playground equipment

AS/NZS 4422 (1996) Playground surfacing -- Specifications, requirements and test method

(4.) ASTM F1487-98 Standard Consumer Safety Performance Specification for Playground Equipment for Public Use

(5.) ASTM F1487 (op. cit.)

ASTM F1292-99 Standard Specification for Impact Attenuation of Surface Systems Under and Around Playground Equipment

(6.) EN 1176 (op.cit.)

(7.) AS/NZS 4486 (op.cit.)

(8.) SS 457:1999 Specification for playground equipment for public use

(9.) IRAM 3 655 - 1 (1992) Juegos infantiles de instalacion permanente al aire libre -- Parte 1: Caracteristicas y comportamiento

IRAM 3 655 -2 (1992) Juegos infantiles de instalacion permanente al aire libre -- Parte 2: Metodos de ensayo

IRAM 3 655 -3 (1993) Juegos infantiles de instalacion permanente al aire libre -- Parte 3: Instalacion y mantenimiento

(10.) EN 1177 (1997) Impact absorbing playground surfacing -- Safety requirements and test methods

(11.) Personal correspondence:

Cavanagh, Margaret -- Australia

Heseltine, Peter --England

Javier Isviqui -- Argentina

Koh Lin Wei-- Singapore

McFadden, Kevin -- New Zealand

Otsubo, Ryuta -- Japan

(*) Wallach, Frances -- United States

Wong, Kin Ho Kathy, Winnie Wai Ming Fong and Mary Wai King Wong -- Hong Kong

Monty L. Christiansen is an associate professor of recreation and park management in the School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Recreation Management at Penn State University. He has served as president of the National Society for Park Resources (NSPR) and was twice elected to the NSPR Board of Directors. He is a founding member of the National Playground Safety Institute (NSPI) and served as the chair of the NPSI Executive Committee. He is a former president of the Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society (PRPS) and is currently treasurer of the International Play Association and an active member of the International Federation of Park and Recreation Administration (IFPRA).