August 2010 - Parks & Recreation - 50

Too Hot to Play
Another challenge for playground operators is keeping surfaces cool enough for
play. Recent cases of children burning
feet and hands on surfaces or equipment
have raised the issue. Colors of PIP surfaces don't differ greatly in heat retention, although black is the hottest-and
cheapest-in the spectrum.
" Rubber is rubber, " Everplay's Huber says. " All of these materials are absorptive, and therefore you're going to get
heat. On a hot, sunny day, you're going to
have a significantly hotter surface than the
ambient temperature. When the ambient
temperature is between about 80 and 100
degrees, the surface will be about 30 to 40
degrees higher on a bright, sunny day. "
That goes for all types of surfaces. " Sand, wood chips, turf, poured in
place, tile, they all absorb infrared, and
so therefore they will always be hotter
than the ambient temperature, " Huber
says. " The coolest surface is pea gravel,
but nobody wants that because it doesn't
meet the accessibility requirement. "
With poured-in-place surfaces, different colors may have different safety
levels because their impact-absorbing
properties in case of falls may vary.
Heat works on the binder that's between
the granules in the surfacing. In some

48	 Parks & Recreation

SEPTEMBER 2010

surface systems, heat could cause certain colors to be more supple, which
could make them either less or more impact-absorbing. Black typically becomes
more supple in hot weather.

Heat can be mitigated on surfacing.
A new coating can be applied on site
to rubber tiles and rubber poured-inplace surfaces to reflect some infrared
rays. " That's one system you can say that
makes things cooler, " Huber says.
Shade structures-like super-size
sails or tents without walls-can be installed over playgrounds. The structures
are becoming more common in Arizona, California, and New Mexico as well
as Australia. " As soon as you take away
the direct infrared from the surface, all
you're dealing with really is the ambient
temperature, " Huber says.
Trees are an obvious option for shading, but planting trees can be expensive.

Never Static
While the temperature on playgrounds
changes all the time, an ongoing issue
concerns plastic slides and their effect
on children with cochlear implants.
The static electricity generated when
clothing rubs against a plastic slide
can cause a problem with an implant's

www.NRPA .ORG

external device, which includes a microphone, batteries, and sound processor.
In the 1980s and '90s, memory chips and
longer wires on processors were more
vulnerable to damage from static electricity. Sometimes the memory became
corrupted, and processors had to be reprogrammed, at significant cost. Technological advances have helped.
" It's less of an issue now than it was
then, " says Doug Miller, an engineer
with Cochlear Americas in Colorado,
the original cochlear implant manufacturer. " The device is much more resistant to static electricity. "
T he processors no longer have
lengthy wires, which tended to attract
static. " There is still some chance of static electricity causing a problem with the
current generation of sound processors.
Usually the worst thing that could happen is it could turn off, and they simply
have to turn it on again. There's no need
to have it reprogrammed, " Miller says.
Some playground manufacturers
heard complaints from parents about the
static problem.
" We want to open up the playground for
meaningful play opportunities for children
of all abilities, " says Tony Malkusak, director of technical services for Boundless Playgrounds, a nonprofit designer and creator
August 2010 - Parks & Recreation

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