December 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 58

Operations

Poured-in-place surfaces like this one created by Surface America, offer design versatility while meeting industry standards.

date what type of surface should be
installed under play equipment, only
that it meets certain criteria for impact attenuation. Playground surfaces range from natural materials like
sand, wood chips and pea gravel to
man-made materials including engineered wood fiber (EWF), rubber
tiles, loose rubber mulch from recycled tires, and unitary surfaces such
as poured-in-place rubber (PIP),
bonded wood-fiber mats and hybrid
surfaces, such as those that have
an underlayment of rubber mulch
packed in bags and covered by a carpet.
Impact-attenuating surfaces are
designed to absorb impacts to prevent head injuries from critical fall
heights. The critical fall height is a
measurement above which a serious
head injury might be expected occur.
Impact-attenuating surfaces also protect against other types of injuries,
such as long-bone fractures that are
56	 Parks & Recreation

commonly associated with playground falls. Both ASTM and CPSC
note that no matter what type of surface is installed and how impact-attenuating it may be, not all injuries
may be prevented.
So what are the implications for
public park and recreation agencies
if these revisions are made to the
existing standard? Ken Kutska, a
playground safety expert and CPSI
instructor, notes that because the
current standard has been in place
for so many years without change,
" There is a 'don't want to know,
don't care' mentality " about the HIC
ratings of playground surfacing. He
predicts that the new standard will
cause park and recreation agencies
to pay much closer attention to the
HIC rating of their playground surfaces and more testing will be needed to measure performance in the
field. He also notes that more information will be needed to educate the
end-user on how to make the best
decisions for their needs.
" The new standard may affect you
and it may not, " says Elaine Sherman,
the designer of a proprietary surfacing system now owned by Playworld.
" It all depends on what type of equipment you have in your playgrounds,
the fall heights, the type of surfaces
you installed and the manufacturer's
specifications for that surfacing. "
Industry representatives and consultants attending the recent ASTM
committee meetings noted that some
installed surfaces might already meet
or exceed the new 700 HIC standard,
while others could be retrofitted without substantial costs. " Those who installed to the basic minimum, " says
Rolf Huber, a Canadian playground
surface expert, " will have the greatest issues with the new standard. If
you just spent 50 percent of your

| D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

playground budget on surfacing that
is destined to fail, then you may have
made a bad decision. " No matter
what, say the consultants and committee members, the new standard
will require careful attention to developing specifications, writing contract language and monitoring the
installation to ensure that purchased
surfaces meet the standard to which
they were designed.
It should be emphasized that the
revision to F1292-14 has not yet
been formally adopted by ASTM.
The recommendation for adoption
must be approved by the ASTM
Committee on Standards. Some
members of the playground surfacing subcommittee have indicated
their intention to formally object to
what they viewed as irregularities in
the review process for changing the
impact attenuation standard.
NRPA has never objected to making playgrounds safer for kids and
works continually to ensure that
public playgrounds in parks and recreation are safe for all users. NRPA
has led the way nationally in providing training, education, certification
and awareness of playground safety.
NRPA objected to the passage of
these revisions to the current ASTM
standard for playground surfacing on
the grounds that the process by which
they were approved was flawed and
because there was not sufficient evidence of relevant data from playground injuries to lead to reconsideration of the present standard.
Stay tuned. More information on
this developing story will be provided by NRPA in Parks & Recreation
Magazine and though NRPA's social media outlets as it becomes
available. 
Richard J. Dolesh is NRPA's Vice President of
Conservation and Parks (rdolesh@nrpa.org).



December 2014 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2014 - Parks & Recreation

December 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 1
December 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 2
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