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CNN Live At Daybreak
Some Surprising Information About Playground Equipment and Our Own Backyard
Aired August 02, 2001 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The current head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission has a new warning for parents this morning.
Ann Brown has some surprising information about playground equipment and our own backyard.
Good morning, Ann.
ANN BROWN, CHAIRMAN, CPSC: Good morning.
LIN: What did you find out? First, where are you? Are you in somebody's backyard?
BROWN: We're in somebody's backyard, and we have both bad and good playground equipment, backyard equipment. You know, with the children dying in the past 10 years on all playgrounds -- there were 150 children who died -- but 90 of those children died in backyard playgrounds. People don't realize that there have to be a lot of precautions taken with western backyard playgrounds, just as there are in the regular playgrounds.
LIN: Can you take us through a checklist?
BROWN: Yes, I certainly can. I'm going to show you the bad things first. First of all, I'm standing on the wrong kind of surfacing. Eighty percent of the injuries are from falls, and grass is just a terrible surface. It doesn't protect gets.
LIN: Really, I would think it would be pretty soft. I would think most parents who are laying sod are protecting kids from head injuries.
BROWN: Everybody thinks that, and that's one of the reasons that we're doing this why we do this with Kaboom, that wonderful group that builds playgrounds, because we want people know that grass is an unacceptable surface. It doesn't pad the kids.
LIN: So what will?
BROWN: I will show you good surfacing, and that is 9 inches of mulch or tan bark or special rubberized surfacing.
LIN: What else? BROWN: Well, now we have a play piece that is just not properly anchored into the ground. You could see that this could topple over easily if I could move it with one hand. So this is very important, that you have to anchor your play equipment extremely well. And there's instructions about -- in your playground packaging about doing that.
LIN: And what do you recommend for parents? Should they get some sort of professional to help them assemble equipment in backyard, or is it really matter of the individual parent following the directions on the box?
BROWN: If you follow the directions, which are inside. For instance, CPSE surfacing is inside. And also there are all the instructions for putting up and anchoring well. You can follow those instructions without professional help and have a pretty good set.
LIN: Well, we've talked about the problems. Ann, stay right, we're going to get to take a quick break and come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: All right. A new government talking is talking about the sheer number of dangers right in your own backyard, when kids are playing with their very own playground equipment.
Ann Brown from Consumer Products Safety Commission is with us now in a backyard.
Ann, we talked about some of the problems. What are some of the solutions?
BROWN: Well, you see right here, we have the proper kind of surfacing. This is nine inches deep, and its tan bark and mulch, and it will really pad a kid when a child has a fall, or else you can use rubberized surfacing as well.
And now we will show you a safe kind of a swing. This has a nice soft plastic. So that if a kid would get hit by it, it wouldn't be such a devastating hit, and it has the right kind of S hooks. The S hooks here don't have space so that children's clothing can't get caught in it. So these are good safe swings on good safe surfacing.
LIN: I read that -- I'm sorry to interrupt you, because I want to stay on the swings just for a quick second. I read in the study that three out of four deaths that were equipment related were hanging deaths, so what happens if you get a very sturdy, but rope swing, you know, where you have the ropes hanging down?
BROWN: The ropes are fine as long as they are anchored in both hands. It's the homemade ropes that cause those deaths, or when they put dog leaches on or cords. Anything that is a homemade rope would be bad or a rope swing. But the ones you buy commercially now, they can't hang you. You can't even get caught in these chains. They won't trap a child around the neck.
LIN: Sorry to interrupt you. I know you were moving on there.
BROWN: Yes, I want to show you that there are platforms here and they of course have barriers, and the barriers have a small enough space so kids heads can't get caught and they don't strangle. We also have the bars, and these are far enough apart that a child's body could get through, that its head wouldn't get caught. Again, the right amount of space here, so that a child again can't get caught. And finally, we have these recessed hooks, and what's wonderful about these are that a child won't get caught on these, their clothing, until there's no danger of strangulation.
LIN: You know, when I think of kids in the backyard, it's nice to think that I can washing my vegetables at the kitchen sink and just be looking from a distance, because they are right there. What do you recommend for adult supervision?
BROWN: I recommend that adults keep eye on their kids. When you're using all these precautions, you don't have to be hovering over your kids. And we're not really worrying about the little bumps and bruises. Those are badges of honor. What we're really concerned about the death and serious injuries.
LIN: Absolutely. And some really interesting results in this study. I didn't realize how much danger there was out there right in our own backyards.
Thanks so much.
BROWN: We hope everybody will.
LIN: Thanks so much, Ann Brown, Consumer Products Safety Commission.
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