The Perfect Playground Safety Surface for Hawaii's Playgrounds

If you are planning a playground and have done your homework, you know your safety surfacing decesion is just important as the equipment you select. You may have also learned the bad news that surfacing can absorb as much as half of your playground's entire budget.

When dealing with this information and setting your playground budget, what is important to remember is that over 70% of all serious playground injuries* involve a fall to the surface. It makes sense: In building a playground you are creating a place for children to play off the ground and it is a fact of life that they eventually will fall.

Understanding the pros and cons of the available playground surfaces will no doubt convince you that unlike my catchy title above, that there's no perfect solution when it comes to playground surfacing. However, considering the glaring safety statistics on head injuries related to falls in playgrounds, the best approach is to to pick the best surface for your particular situation and consider it the single most important safety factor in your playground's design.

Ask yourself questions like;

What is our maintenance capacity?
How heavy will the use be?
Is our environment wetter than others?
What is our ongoing budget for replenishment?
Are there cats and rodents in the area?
Is this area prone to insect infestation?
What laws are we governed by?
Who has most the laibility?

Below is some information to base your decesion on and decide which surface is best for you:

Poured in Place Rubber Surface
Safest available surface
Most expensive surfaceMost flexible in design
Requires concrete base
Lowest maintenance Must be installed by licensed contractor

Rubber Tiles
Almost as safe as poured in place
Almost as expensive as poured in place
Can be installed by volunteers
Seams are difficult to maintain
Can be repaired by maintenance staff
Cutting tiles can cause waste

Shredded Rubber
Best fall protection if properly maintained
Not available locally expensive to ship
Won't break down
Can come off on children's hands and feet
Insects don't make homes in it
Requires weekly maintenance

Pea Gravel
Doesn't compact as easy as sand or woodchips
Very hard on play equipment
Readily available
High abuse potential
Drains well
Animals can take a liking to it

Wood Chips
ADA compliant loose fill
Attacts more insects as surfacing ages
Natural look and feel
Difficult to keep weeds out of it
Can be purchased in small denominations
High long term cost

Sand
Cheapest surface available
High maintenance, can require daily attention
Has very good play value
Favorite of animals
Readily available but nobody makes it for playgrounds, it's made for cement.
Can become unsafe almost instantly in a change of weather

*Injuries on Playgrounds

Playground Safety Week in Hawaii April 24 through 28.

I know what you are thinking... Will the post offices and banks be open?

Let me assure you that you have nothing to worry about. In fact I'd wager that unless you made the virtual journey over here to my Blog, you'd never know that we had such a week in Hawaii. Well don't feel bad, because almost 5 years after it's creation, it is apparent that the document signing below served as nothing but another photo opportunity for Ben Cayetano. Playground Safety Week has been sadly repressed into ambiguity by our past and current state and county administrations.

I am not sure how these things work but I wonder if anyone raised their hand and asked why Playground Safety Week is only five days long? Do we have to stop playing on the weekends? To me, this smacks of the dark side of our local politics. If our politicians designate a special week, it seems to me that it should remain special after the photo OP is over.

Psst! Mufi.. Linda.. Are ya listening?

I can remember back in 1998 when Steve King (one of the national pioneers of playground safety and design) visited Hawaii to speak to the DOE and attend the Hawaii Recreation and Parks Association Conference. I asked him what he thought it would take to shift the public focus to playground safety and compliance with federal standards. "A child is going to have to die on a playground here," he told me without hesitation. "Great" I said, "anything else?" He went on to explain that across the country there's a general apathy towards playground safety in local politics and unless something very dramatic and newsworthy happens, you very rarely see a spike in awareness.

It's been 7 years since Steve broke that news to me and thank goodness that we haven't had a death on a playground in Hawaii. I've observed a few island wide spikes in awareness come and go:

• Five years ago, the DOE created quite a buzz when they simultaneously closed 187 playground until they could be accessed for compliance with federal standards. When that assessment showed that we had maybe 10 complaint playgrounds in the entire state, the result was a temporary windfall of local awareness once they closed them all permanently. Everyone was calling their local government representative and giving them an earful. It was a perfect opportunity for someone to stand up and say; "Hey, the current condition of our public playgrounds is a real danger to our children but we only have one chance to fix this in the right way, it is going to take time" Then present a reasonable timeline for correction of the problem. While legislature did their part throwing millions of taxpayer dollars at the problem, there was an understanding that the DOE would undertake the very difficult task of doing a needs accessment involving parents, teachers, and adminstrators. But that lasted for about one year. Due to intense public pressure caused by 187 playgrounds being closed down, the DOE completley abondoned this plan and focused their construction plans were based on what they could do quickly and easily as possible. What the public got was "cheap and fast" and because that lit the path of least resistence and minimal public pressure. This is how they continue to build their playgrounds today.
• In 2002, Jeremy Harris decided that he would run for governor based on how many identical cookie-cutter playground designs he could build in our City and County district parks. It turned out that Mr. Harris had a few problems (like already holding an office) and he never got the chance to cash in on this plan. Nobody really noticed the mind boggling pace of the identical replacement playgrounds grind to a virtual halt from around 100 a year to approximately 15 the next and less than 10 this year once their political advancement potential was gone. Mr. Harris wanted to run against Linda Lingle and proudly point out that he improved 150 district park playgrounds, it was already printed in his would be campaign propaganda. But what he did was deliver an everlasting black eye to our island parks. The Harris administration took something that should have taken years of planning and community input and cranked it into mass production to gain political brownie points. Now arguably 150 or so of the most unique and beautiful parks on the planet all have the same identical mass produced playstructure in them. What's worse, three years after the fact, nobody seems to notice or remembers how this came to be.

Do these dramtic spikes of activity mean that we've fixed the problem or properly acknowledged it for that matter? No. It means that a few local and state politicians have astutely learned the political value of the playground. Have we made progress in playground safety awarenesss and design in the past 10 years? I'd say yes but very cautiously so. Playground Safety Week in Hawaii is a good example why I am cautious in my current assessment. I'd like to see Linda, Mufi, and the other mayors in Hawaii acknowledge this week so that the general populace would (even if briefly) consider the safety of the playground near them. I know I am idealist but I would like to see them do it for the right reasons, the safety of our children. But that doesn't get votes and or sway public opinion these days. The reality is that if they don't hear a whole lot of steady whispers from us little people, this just isn't going to happen.

So.. hey little people.. pick up the phone, bust out the pen, or send an email.

Governor Linda Lingle
State Capitol
Executive Chambers
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone: (808) 586-0034
Fax: (808) 586-0006
Email: gov@gov.state.hi.us

Mufi doesn't have a permanent address just yet but a note would surely get to him here..

The Hannemann Committee
98-1277 Ka'ahumanu St., Box 418
Aiea, HI 96701

Phone: 808-597-1488

Playground Issues in Hawaii: Centipedes for Playmates?

Playground Issues in Hawaii: Centipedes for Playmates?

Purchasing Playground Equipment in Hawaii

Buying commercial playground equipment could very well be one of the most confusing things you do in your adult life. Think of the of the major purchases you've made; a car, a house, a TV, and so on. How did you arrive at these purchasing decisions? If you are like most people, you probably prepared a smorgasborg of information sources to draw on. You talk to friends that own them, compile consumer product reviews, collect manufacturer specification information and compare product performance. Chances are that what you found was plenty of good information to choose from. Once you did your due diligence, you rightfully felt like you made an informed decision .

Playground equipment is a different animal. There's very little chance that you can find more than a handful of people that have actually purchased commercial or residential playground equipment to compare notes with, what worse is most of the playground equipment product information you are able to find is written for playground equipment installed in climates that are completely different than ours.

So you know going in that it's going to be a difficult choice but don't lose sight of the importance of the task before you! Your decision is going to effect the safety (and fun) of thousands of children over the years. This choice should be considered more critical than your car, TV, or probably anything else you will buy in your lifetime. Here's a list of do's and don'ts to get you started.

DO! Visit new playground installations. Always ask the playground equipment manufacturers rep for a list playground installation for you to look at. The new installations will give you (and your playground testers) an idea of what latest and greatest looks and feels like in person. You'll often be surprised that they product appears a bit differently than the photo than when you are testing it in the field.

DO! Talk story with people as many people as you can. If you are lucky, the person(s) that purchased it might still be around. Be sure to ask about the design process and how they came to their decision. Did the representative provide free site drawings? What about the warranty? Don't forget the person that has been tasked with taking care of the equipment. He or she might have a very different insight on durability and getting replacement parts.

DO! Visit playgrounds older than 5 years. The single best way to measure the quality of materials used is how they behave over time in our tropical climate. We've seen cheaper playground equipment completely disintegrate in just a few years. Be acutely aware that most all playground equipment looks new and shiny for a few years but the quality of the product construction will become more and more apparent as the playground ages. Some manufacturers cut corners by using materials like chain link or use all steel posts that work perfectly well in other climates. In Hawaii it's different. They will look and function okay for a few years but then fail in a few more years. When you are looking at older playgrounds, don't forget to check the welds of the playground equipment and how the hardware (nuts and bolts) are holding up.

DON'T! Make price your only deciding factor. While you cannot ignore your budget, consider your purchase over the lifetime of the playground, which should be 15-20 years. Often local representatives will attempt to "Walmart" you with tactics like luring you in with "sale playgrounds" or a Costco deal that includes "bulk purchase opportunities." The old saying, "you get what you pay for" was never truer when considering playground equipment. You can control the cost of your playground by supplying a well thought out wish list and providing a "not to exceed" budget. Don't get snookered by the sale game and purchasing the components that a playground manufacturer can mass produce the cheapest.

DO! Purchase a playground design that addresses your needs. Because today's equipment is modular in nature, you can have a playground designed to fit both your play space and wish list. Consider phasing your structure if you can't afford "the dream." Many agencies such as the DOE and Honolulu Park and Recreation purchase identical playground structures for ease of maintenance and the low cost of installation. Get into your care and take a very close-up look at the end result of that thinking. I often wonder if they ever tried to explain concept to our children!

DON'T! Forget to watch your children play. Too many times, a playground is purchased based on an adult's experience in the playground. While observing your children play on playground equipment, you will gain more valuable information than any fancy colored brochure or catalog. You'll see how the flow of playground can effect safety when it is heavily used, which component becomes dangerous when two or more children get on it, how some slides encourage children to enter them in a sitting position and how some poorly designed components can be a danger to your child. Most of all be sure to ask your children what they think after they leave the playground or where they want to go play next. Kids are always honest about fun and they will tell you straight up what was fun.

Why are there no swings in Hawaii Playgrounds?

If you are a parent, teacher, or born before 1985, it's a pretty good bet that your childhood memories of the playground include a swing set. Because these memories are so positive, it is very puzzling for most to see swings disappear from our schools and playgrounds. Is this a state-wide conspiracy against children having fun? No. Welcome to the new economics of the playground.

To understand this, we first must examine what has changed since we played on the playground (Actually it's my hope that you never stopped).

When we were children, nobody was keeping track of how children sustained playground injuries. Although it is a safe bet that you or nobody you know never got seriously hurt on the playground, the new findings show that you're more fortunate than you might think. In the past decade and a half, studies by the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) and other playground safety groups have produced some pretty solid data on playground injury. The results of these studies showed an alarming rate of injury (0ver 200,000 a year) on our public playgrounds. The finding of these studies vary slightly in some areas but uniformly they all showed one glaring statistic, an average of 75% of all injuries in the playground involve a fall to the surface.

Using the results from over a decade of extensive research, the CPSC has put together a set of guidelines for playground design and installation. You can find the complete set of guidelines here if you are interested in seeing them:

http://www.islandrecreation.net/downloads/CPSC_Guidelines.pdf

In these guidelines there is a safety surface requirement that dicates a "use zone" for each type of component that should have a protective safety surface. Because of the nature of swings and the possibilies for misuse (you know, all the things you used to do), they have the largest surfacing requirement of any piece of equipment. A basic summary of the surfacing area required is double the swing beam height in each direction. So if a swing has an 8' high beam it needs 32' of surfacing. That's big, really big!

So returning to today's playground economics; The swing itself is a pretty affordable piece of equipment with the cost ranging between $800.00 to $2500.00. But if a school or park is in compliance with CPSC and the ADA (this will be featured in a seperate post) surfacing requirement, the cost for same swing installed can be as much as $20,000.00!

The understandable reaction to the "new playground economics" is outrage. Before sitting down and writing your city councilperson, please allow me to bring this back into perspective for you. We now know that the playgrounds we grew up on where dangerous irregardless of our own experience. Once viewed as a whole, we learned that children were getting seriously hurt on them at an unacceptable pace. Providing safe environments for our children to play in sometime involves some compromise to our own memories of the playground. But before you start feeling sorry for the kids today, look at some of the playgrounds featured on this page. Playground designers are coming up with new and exciting things that we never dreamed possible as children!

$773.00 for a trash can?

I thought I would share my letter to the editor of the Star Bulletin in the likely event that it ends up in his $10.00 round file. This was written in response to the linked article below on the City and County spending $773.00 on a trash can.

http://starbulletin.com/2005/03/19/news/index1.html

March 19, 2005

Dear Star Bulletin Editor:

I read your headline story entitled, $773 for a Trash Can and like most who read it, I got angry. However, unlike most people, my anger is NOT directed towards the Harris administration for spending that much money on trash cans.

My company sells and distributes outdoor site furnishings and we were one of the local companies with similar products that were not given an opportunity to bid on this project. Therefore, if anyone should have a problem with a "sole source "contact of this nature, it should be us. However, my ire is focused on the statement made by the City auditor that "$300,000 could have been saved if they shopped around." This leaves readers with the impression that the City could purchase a trash can of equal quality and value for half of the price. That is just not true. It also insinuates that responsible City purchasing is adorning our City with cheapest products we can find. For outdoor site furnishings in our tropical environment, a significantly lower price tag means lower quality, a shorter life span, and a much greater "long term" cost to the taxpayer.

What we need to do is to take a hard look at the procurement laws that Mr. Tanaka is tasked to enforce. City officials are forced to purchase the lowest- priced products with no consideration to quality, product life, service, or warranties. Nationwide, Honolulu is one of the few major cities in the U.S. that does not have a procurement law that encourages evaluation of the quality and price of the products that we buy.

I once participated in a forum with a group of Japanese businessmen and tried to explain Hawaii’s low bid purchasing system to them. I explained that the City and County solicited bids publicly and the prices are listed from low to high and read publicly. The response was, "Oh, knowing who offers the lowest price seems to be a good way to AVOID purchasing the cheapest products!"

Mike McFarlane
Island Recreation

Lucky we live Hawaii!

The following is an excerpt from the guidelines that New York State Schools uses to determine whether outdoor recess will be held that day.

Factors considered for indoor recess

•Temperature: If it is hovering around freezing, children usually stay inside.
• Wind chill: If it feels too cold, children stay inside.
• Snow, ice and rain: A dry portion of blacktop must be available.
• Sun or clouds: Sometimes a sunny day will get kids outside to play despite chilly temperatures.
• Proper clothing: Students must have adequate coats, scarves, hats and gloves. Making the most of recess