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KMID : 0892720050090020207
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Journal of the Korean Society of Maternal and Child Health
2005 Volume.9 No. 2 p.207 ~ p.223
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Assessment of Safety of Playgrounds and Playground Equipment in a Metropolitan City
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Lee Yu-Mi
Lee Choong-Seop
Lee Sun-Ju
Park Kyoo-Tae
Hong Jee-Young
Kim Keon-Yeop
Lee Moo-Sik
Na Baeg-Ju
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Abstract
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Objectives : This study was done to assess the safety of playgrounds and their equipment in the kindergartens, elementary schools, apartments and amusement parks of a metropolitan city.
Methods : We investigated 161 playgrounds from July 21 to August 4, 2004. The playground equipment we investigated in this study consisted of swings, slides, seesaws, iron rods and climbers. We used the safety criteria that was were developed on the bases of the Handbook for Public Playground Safety, the Korean Industrial Standards for Playground Equipments, a source book for designing playground equipment and so on. We divided the safety criteria of the playground equipments into designing and maintenance factors.
Results : For the general safety of the playgrounds, the proportion of all playgrounds that didn’t meet the safety criteria was 50.4% for the ’spacing interval’, 31.1% for ’dangerous hardware’ and 26.7% for ’surfacing protective material’. 69.6% of all playgrounds had a traffic lane around the playground. For the design factor of the swings, the proportion of playgrounds that didn’t meet the safety criteria were high for the line materials(97.8%), chain rings(92.9%), surfacing protective material(80.7%) and the distance from the ground to the footing(67.6%). For the slides, the height of the balustrade(92.6%), the materials(89.5%) and the height of the upper portion(79.6%) were the high risk factors. For the seesaws, the chairs(75.2%) were a high risk factor. For the iron rods, their length(72.4%), height(76.7%) and circumference(66.7%) were high risk factors. For the climbers, their height(82.4%) was a high risk factor. For the playground maintenance, rust on all the equipments and old paint for the iron rod and climber were problems.
Conclusions : The results of this survey suggest that much of the playground equipment didn’t meet the safety criteria, and the children using these playgrounds were at a high risk for child accidents such as falls. Therefore, safety standards for the playground equipments should be developed and the existing equipments should be investigated and repaired immediately.
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KEYWORD
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playground, playground equipment, safety, assessment
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