Welcome to CPSC’s podcast for Friday, April 25th, 2008. I’m Julie Vallese.

Drop by any playground this spring and summer and you are bound to find dozens of active kids swinging, sliding, climbing and having a good time. But a good time on a community or school playground can be ruined by a fall, entrapment, cut or any other type of injury.

Joining me to talk about how to keep your kids safe on the playground is CPSC spokeswoman Patty Davis. Thanks for being here Patty. Patty, how many kids are injured on playgrounds every year?

[Patty]: Julie, playgrounds are all about being fun. Unfortunately, every year about 200,000 kids are injured and the injuries range from, as you said, falls, cuts, bruises. And these are preventable injuries.

[Julie]: How so? How can these injuries be prevented?

[Patty]: Well first and foremost if this play set is in your backyard make sure that you are always supervising your child. And if we’re talking about the public playground at a community center or at your school make sure your children are being supervised. Make sure that that play equipment meets the latest safety standards. And you want to also see surfacing, a good depth of surfacing under and around the playground equipment, because if your child falls that gives them the cushion that protects them when they fall. Also make sure that the sharp edges, the screws that hold that playground equipment together are covered, and that you replace the missing hardware, and close the “S” hooks that can cause injuries.

[Julie]: This is National Playground Safety Week. What is CPSC doing about to help improve playground safety?

[Patty]: We have a great, updated public playground safety handbook. It is colorful. It is meant for the designers of playgrounds, it’s meant for schools and communities that have public playgrounds. This is considered really the “bible” of the industry. It has been adopted all over the country by states and municipalities as part of their building codes.

[Julie]: What is new? What are some of the things that may be different in this playground handbook than others?

[Patty]: Our staff has been working really hard on this publication and revising it and bringing it up to date. A couple of things that are new are that they are now guidelines for kids as young as six months old, also new guidelines offered by CPSC for track and log rolls for older children, and playground surfacing, there are new guidelines there as well. Also suggestions very interestingly on protecting your child from sun exposure on playgrounds. Consider shading when you’re looking for where to place your playground.

[Julie]: That’s all great information. Thanks Patty.

You can find out more about playground safety as well as information about recalls announced by CPSC at our Web site www.cpsc.gov. While you’re there, sign up to receive CPSC’s recall announcements directly to your email inbox. That’s it for this week’s CPSC podcast. Thanks for listening.

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