SAFETY AND FUN GO HAND IN HAND.

Too many times now I have heard criticism of the playground safety movement, in that it is blamed for the decline of imaginative play, in deference to making the playgrounds safer. It has been claimed that in the trade-off for removing hazards and reducing the number and severity of injuries, we have removed the fun, the excitement, the challenge of creative play. And, in doing so, we are accused of creating bland, uninteresting sites on which children are loath to play. Play, after all, encompasses challenge, accomplishment, success and resultant feelings of self-worth. In addition, a good play experience invites the full use of imagination and creative use of the playground.

The history of the playground safety movement goes back 25 years, when the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published The Handbook for Public Playground Safety, the first federal guidelines with the end goal of promoting playground safety. It took many years for the concern for safe playgrounds to develop into a movement, but this was finally accomplished with the strong support of the playground equipment manufacturers and the general public. In 1988, the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) joined the fray by establishing a committee to develop a safety standard for public use playground equipment, and this standard (F1487) was first published in December 1993.

In the meantime, ASTM had another committee which, in 1990, published a standard for testing playground surfaces (F1292) to meet the CPSC benchmark for surfacing under playground equipment that would provide sufficient impact attenuation to prevent serious injuries, in case of falls. The CPSC Handbook and the ASTM standards have all undergone several revisions and will probably continue to have changes, as we discover new hazards, identify injury patterns, and include new products as they reach the market.

The major reason for the rapidly expanded interest in playground safety came when, in 1990, the National Recreation and Park Association established the program to certify National Playground Safety Inspectors. This was--and is--a uniquely designed program to train professionals to audit and inspect playgrounds. The NPSI program contains a great many resource materials, which have to be read and understood, and is based upon a two-day refresher course where attendance is required and certification is awarded on the basis of a test given by an independent testing company. The test is focused on the applicant's knowledge of and ability to apply the contents of the U.S. CPSC Handbook and the ASTM Standard F1487, plus additional readings from several texts. To date, more than 4,000 inspectors have been certified and NPSI Institutes are now offered more than 40 times per year throughout the U.S. As a result, we have seen awareness of playground safety increase dramatically, and new playgrounds are being planned and installed on a daily basis.

Yet, along with this success has come criticism that the focus on playground safety has driven the magic out of the play experience and that playgrounds no longer are exciting venues for children. The questions that immediately arise are: Is this claim valid? And whose fault is it?

One of the major changes in playgrounds has been the lowering of platform heights, and children love heights. If this makes the playground equipment less interesting, what are our alternatives? We can increase the platform heights, providing we have a safety surface that is sufficiently impact-attenuating so that drops from the desired heights will not cause injury. We can surround the platforms with protective barriers that children cannot mount. We can fully enclose and cover the platform areas so that there is no way out except the designated egress, or we can keep our lowered platforms, but put some exciting and challenging activities on the lowered platforms.

We can begin looking at our playgrounds as total environments and include natural settings and growth as part of the play experience. We can incorporate other materials, such as water, into the play experience. We can provide long hillside slides that youngsters cannot fall from; we can design the play equipment so that "under," "into," and "over" are activities to choose from.

We also want to face the challenge of serving children of varied abilities. So far, the major forms of design have been to get the youngster with a disability either up a ramp or a transfer platform. Little creativity has gone into the activities that should take place for the special child.

The need for safety has no connection to enjoyment and creativity. We can remove hazards without diminishing the activities. Providing a large enough use zone at the end of the hillside slide does not take any fun and excitement from the use of the slide; removing an entanglement gap at the top of a slide bedway may save a life and won't change the play. In other words, concern for safety does not in any way ruin the playground or the play experience. Let's stop promoting that myth and accept the reality that playground safety and fun can--and should--go hand in hand.

In this issue, Guest Editor Fran Wallach fights back against critics who say the playground safety movement lacks the creative edge that playground design had before. She tells us that playgrounds can be safe and fun at the same time. Wallach, a CLP, CPSI, is from the Total Recreation Management Services in New York, New York