Prevent playground injuries with professional inspection.

Playground design has improved markedly in the 15 years since the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) Handbook on Public Playground Safety was first published. Thanks to the CPSC guidelines, landscape architects and leisure professionals are no longer forced to rely solely on intuition and experience when trying to design a safe play environment. And by specifying compliance with the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) Standard on playground equipment, they can be confident that new structures from the top manufacturers will be unlikely to impale, entrap, cut, pinch, bruise, or otherwise cause serious injury to children.

That's the good news. But there's a darker side to this picture, as one playground equipment manufacturer discovered after surveying 900 park departments in the spring of 1995. The disquieting news is this: Not all playgrounds have been audited for safety, and very few of those audits were conducted by certified safety inspectors.

Of the park and recreation professionals who responded to the survey, 29.9% admitted they had never conducted a safety audit on their equipment - despite the fact that 46% of their play structures were more than 10 years old.

And the personnel performing safety inspections may have had little specific training in playground safety regulations or inspection techniques. Risk management professionals conducted the largest share of the safety audits (54%), while only 8% of the park and recreation departments had their equipment audited by certified safety inspectors.

These statistics make it clear that today's test playground-safety risk isn't from new equipment - it's from older equipment that may have deteriorated to the point of becoming hazardous, or and ASTM safety standards. This hypothesis is borne out by industry data on playground accidents, which reveals that at least one-third of playground injuries are a direct result of inadequate maintenance.

The solution to this problem is twofold:

* Playground owners and managers must conduct safety audits of their equipment at regular intervals - preferably on a schedule recommended by the equipment manufacturer. * Safety audits must be conducted by staff personnel or outside consultants who have been trained and certified in proper inspection techniques and the latest safety standards.

The NPSI Certification Program

In 1989, the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) recognized the need for a subsidiary organization to gather, organize, and disseminate information on playground safety. NRPA then founded the National Playground Safety Institute (NPSI) to fill this role.

Ken Kutska, superintendent of parks and planning for the Wheaton, Illinois Park District, remembers how the Institute and its certification program got started.

"I'd been involved since 1989 in developing the ASTM standard for public playgrounds," he says. "At the time, our agency had 24 play areas. We'd made some improvements but weren't sure just what to do, since there were few information resources at the time. We saw the need to develop a written training manual for our park district. Pretty soon, we realized that our materials could be used to help other communities with the same problems."

Kutska and a group of colleagues got together and laid the groundwork for the National Playground Safety Institute. The institute asked for and received NRPA's blessing to train, test and certify playground safety inspectors as part of a concerted effort to reduce injuries caused by site and equipment problems.

Today, applicants for NPSI certification must attend a two-day seminar that involves classroom lectures, discussions, and hands-on examples of playground maintenance problems.

"The focus is on being able to look at something and say whether or not it's a hazard," Kutska explains. "Park operations people typically don't have a lot of knowledge of CPSC and ASTM standards. The NPSI certification program helps them learn to identify hazards, establish repair priorities, fix what they can fix now, and develop long-term plans to upgrade playgrounds."

During the seminar, attendees receive a 294-page book titled Play It Safe, An Anthology of Playground Safety, edited by Monty L. Christiansen and published by NRPA. The articles in the book range from "Playground Safety Inspections - Protrusions and Entrapments" to "Risk Reduction and Control Techniques."

The seminar concludes with a multiple-choice exam of 130 questions on the latest regulations, safety guidelines, and auditing procedures.

Since the NPSI began certifying inspectors in 1991, several hundred applicants have become Certified Playground Safety Inspectors - including park directors, school. maintenance supervisors, manufacturers and their sales representatives

Not Just for Newcomers

Mel Siebold, a Landscape Structures representative with M.E. O'Brien & Sons in Hartford, Connecticut, recently took the certification exam after 15 years of selling playground equipment.

"Manufacturers have done a good job of keeping us up to date on the latest regulations, so I didn't have too much trouble with the exam," reports Siebold. "However, the seminar was useful in giving me a better idea of which rules apply in different situations. For example, I learned that CPSC guidelines apply mainly to the installation: equipment layouts, distances between structures, dimensions of resilient surfacing zones, and so on. ASTM applies more to the manufacturing standards for materials, mechanisms and design."

Siebold believes that schools, park and recreation staff, and the general public are more safety-conscious today than in the past. "The ADA has also had an effect," says. "By forcing playground designers to think about accessibility, it also leads them to pay more attention to guidelines in general. Insurance companies have also become active in approving new plDATrounds because of accidents and lawsuits."

Because of this new emphasis on safety, Siebold is convinced that every community should have at least one employee who is NPSI certified. "That employee's job description should include responsibility for playground safety," he adds.

Siebold cites Hartford, Connecticut as a city that has made a strong commitment to playground safety. "Hartford is a large city with many parks and approximately 50 Play structures," he explains. "In one period, the city changed the playground-maintenance personnel about six times in seven years. There was no continuity in inspections or maintenance, and the condition of the Playgrounds suffered."

After a rash of severe accidents and lawsuits, the city developed a dedicated position for playground maintenance and NPSI certified inspections. "Since then, there has been a significant improvement in the condition of Playgrounds," Siebold reports. "Equipment is in better shape, and resilient surfacing is in better repair. There's more care taken in the assembly of replaced components, and the city is doing a better job with maintenance of moving Parts. Repair Parts are now kept in stock for quicker replacement of commonly vandalized components. And finally, structures look better, thanks to improved cosmetic maintenance."

Even before he took the NPSI training, Mel Siebold was a firm believer in safety education. "O'Brien & Sons has been heavily involved in presenting seminars and in-service workshops to train maintenance people in the Northeast," he says. "Every year, we hold an in-service at the Connecticut Parks and Recreation Association conference. We recently put on a safety-training seminar for 70 childcare people, where we covered topics like playstructure planning, purchasing and maintenance. And we've trained many People in conjunction with the Eastern States Campground Owners Association over the past six years."

Siebold always carries a copy of the CPSC guidelines and ASTM Standard F1487-93 in his briefcase. "Questions about safety come up all the time, and the NPSI training has made me more confident," he explains. "I don't just rely on memory, though, because safety issues are so important to the public."

Doing Your Homework

Jim Baker, a Landscape Structures representative with Lonestar Recreation in Houston, thought the NPSI course offered a real challenge. "Don't rely on the speakers to provide the bulk of the information you'll need to pass the test" he advises new applicants. "The exam is based mostly on the reading material that's mailed to you before the seminar, so it's important to study before you attend the classes."

Baker says that he was able to put his new knowledge to work immediately after attending the Certified Playground Safety Inspector training. "I learned a lot about fall safety zones, surfacing issues, guardrail and deck-height differences for different age groups, pinch points, and other less obvious hazards."

He adds: "I use the information daily. I'm much more attuned to the regulations and much more confident when dealing with park directors. For example, when you're working on a playground expansion, there are many things that need to be updated - even for components that go back only three or four years. This training has helped me keep my customers on the leading edge of regulatory compliance."

Baker believes that more professionals in the industry should take the NPSI training. "Today, the guidelines from CPSC, ASTM and ADA are on everyone's mind," he says. "We all want to keep the kids safe, and liability is always an issue. It's important that we know what we're talking about when we're looking at play equipment or writing proposals."

Anticipating Potential Hazards

The NPSI certification program has benefits that go beyond identifying maintenance problems. It can also help designers, installers and customers prevent the estimated 26% of playground injuries that result from inadequate site planning, improper installation, errors in equipment design and product failure.

Rob Vincevenius, a playground designer at Landscape Structures, says "the Institute brings to fight many issues that make playgrounds safe for kids. It trains you to check everything in a play area against CPSC and ASTM standards. And if you're a designer like me, it helps you build more safety into your playground designs."

Brian Rumpza, a construction coordinator, believes that the NPSI training has benefits for installers as well. "I use the training every day as I give advice to playground owners. It gives you ways to measure compliance, such as looking for entanglements, protrusions and nonconfirming deck heights. To get through the training, you really need to read the books, so you become familiar with the guidelines."

Not a Panacea 

The NPSI certification program isn't perfect, just as government and industry safety guidelines have room for improvement. "There are some loopholes built into the standards," Ken Kutska admits. "For example, when the ASTM standard was released in 1993, there just wasn't time to get agreement on every issue - and in any case, there wasn't enough research data to support written guidelines for every item."

According to Kutska, "professional judgment" is something that is difficult to measure with a traditional multiple-choice exam. "The CPSC and ASTM standards don't talk about the linking of use zones on a continuous structure," he says. "This means you could place a slide exit within 20 inches of a stairway or fireman's pole and not violate the guidelines. The certification program doesn't get into this area as much as it should, simply because the regulations are vague." Fortunately, a new ASTM standard is likely to have been ratified by the time you read this article. The new standard clarifies some of the language in the F1487-93 standard, with added detail on new play events. Since NPSI requires certified inspectors to be re-examined every three years, it won't be long until the new ASTM recommendations are disseminated throughout the country.

Reaching the Grassroots

NPSI's Certified Playground Safety Inspection program has the ultimate goal of building safety awareness among playground buyers, designers, installers, and maintenance staff at every level. Ken Kutska explains: "We believe there should be at least one person in every community who has the NPSI certification. This will create a national network of people who are kept up to date on standards, changes, equipment recalls, and other issues that relate to playground safety. As they receive NPSI mailings or turn to NPSI for unbiased information, they can share their knowledge with others in their community."

Kutska has seen this "trickle-down" effect at work in his own park district. "Through meetings and annual safety reviews, we've helped everybody understand that we all have a stake in playground safety," he says. "For example, our paper-pickers have learned to notice and document problems on the playground."

Putting it All Together

NPSI's certification program is an important step toward conducting reliable playground safety audits. It can also help communities avoid design mistakes before playgrounds are constructed or renovated. Just as important, NPSI-certified inspectors return to their communities with the knowledge and materials they need to establish local training programs.

In 1990 alone, an estimated 150,000 children were treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries associated with public playground equipment. Such numbers are intolerable. The quickest way to relieve the pain and suffering is to inspect your playgrounds methodically, using the procedures taught through NPSI certification seminars. Commit your agency to professional safety training this year - it's one of the most cost-effective investments you'll ever make.

Editor's note: To obtain more information about the 1996 National Playground Safety Institute, write to Michelle Park, Director of Professional Services, National Recreation and Park Association, 2775 South Quincy St., Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22206.

For information about correspondence study and local examination by an approved proctor, write to Judy Kelly, Penn State University, Department of Independent Learning, 120 Mitchell Bldg., University Park, PA 16802.