Playground safety audits are important for the same two reasons that inspections/maintenance is important: they show you the hazards on your equipment so that they can be fixed right away and therefore keep the children safe. They also limit your organizations liabilityin the event of an unfortunate situation. You will have a full audit report on hand as written proof of your organizations care for the well-being of the children who use your playground.
You may only need to do one Certified Playground Safety Inspection when you put equipment in. Playground safety is a serious subject; most injuries can be prevented with regular ongoing inspections and maintenance. Scheduling a Certified Playground Inspection is fast and easy. In most cases, we can have someone come out to the site within a few days and finish the reports in less than a week.
California law now requires that all new public playground equipment be inspected by a NPSI certified playground inspector before children are allowed to use it. Other states are adopting similar legislation to have a certified playground safety audit completed before opening the park or school.
Terms used in the certified playground safety audit/inspection:
ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials.
The organization creates safety standards for many industries, including playgrounds for public use, home use, children under two, soft-contained playgrounds, playground fencing
, playground & sports surfacing, trampolines, sports gear, amusement rides, etc.
Some or all of the playground safety standards are law or the standard in some states (California), and for some entities who have adopted it into their bylaws.
The current version of the ASTM Public Use Playground Fencing Standard is #F2049-11. The current version of the ASTM Public Use Playground Standard is #F1487-11, published in November 2011.
Although ASTM is a voluntary non-profit , the Standards themselves are considered by some to be “voluntary” yet by others to be the “standard of care” (and are adopted into law in some states!). ASTM is always looking for potential members of various categories from diferent areas in the industry. Interested parties are always welcome to attend meetings. They can become a member and learn the extensive process that we go through to make a Standard. Member categories include Manufacturers (“Producers”), Owner/Operators (“Users”), Consultants and General Interest. The forum for all concerned parties is to express their own interests and ideas so that we can all come to an agreement on each issue at hand. This is a time-consuming process where, like laws, changing them reduces injuries and saves children’s lives.
CPSC: United States Consumer Product & Safety Commission.
Created the U.S. – C.P.S.C. Safety Guidelines on Public & Home Playground Equipment. Also issues a checklist on Soft Contained Play Equipment (SCPE), as well as recalls of specific products of all kinds.
The Public Use playground Guidelines #325 are law in some states and for some entities who have adopted it into their bylaws.
The original version of the Public Use playground Guidelines #325 was published in 1981. The next revision was published in September of 1991. The revision after that was published in September of 1994. The revision after that was published in September of 1997, but was re-released in November of 1997 with minor corrections. The next revision was released on April 21, 2008. The last revision was released in November, 2010.
