There are a number of organizations dedicated to establishing and maintaining childhood safety, particularly for playgrounds. Some organizations worked together to examine and review data so that safety and testing standards could be created. As more is learned about the nature of playground injuries, these safety & testing standards are periodically updated by the agencies responsible for maintaining the appropriate corresponding documentation.

NOTE: Clicking on any of the bulleted text links below in the Playground Safety Basics and 7 Easy Installation Tips sections will expand the area and provide additional information. Clicking them again will hide the additional info. When clicking on the ASTM Safety Standards section links, this will open up the outside website in a new browser window.

Click on any of the 3 bulleted basics below to expand it for more detailed information, and click it again to compress it.

• Starting Off... - Just some basics about playground playset fall safety for children.

  Children tend to learn a lot about social interactions when they play on playgrounds with other children, developing problem solving skills and expanding their creativity. Perhaps the last thing parents and caregivers should have to worry about is whether or not the playground equipment and safety surfaces are actually harmful. However, this may appear to be the case when we know that about 600 kids a day end up in emergency rooms in the U.S. from playground injuries.
  
  Perhaps what is most alarming is how the playground industry appears to be ignoring and not implementing better safety standards based on what we know from a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report from March of 2000, where analysis of the data clearly proves the current playground fall safety standards are completely unsafe.
  
  To the left is a link to the article, "Are Our Playgrounds (and Industry-Related Fall Safety Standards) Really Safe?" In this article, it shows how the current acceptable rating of 1000 HIC (Head Injury Criterion) and 200 G-max. are competely unacceptable. This is supposedly the threshold at which it is LIKELY a child suffers permanent injury or death. This threshold was established based on NHTSA crash test data from the 1960's and 1970's, where cadavers and large animal body parts were used in testing. After we started learning a lot more about the dangers of concussions in the 1990's, mainly in professional sports such as football and boxing, the NHTSA conducted newer crash tests with much more sophisticated equipment and released its March 2000 report.
  
  The results were major, establishing that 150 G-max. is actually much closer to the equivalent of 1000 HIC, both of which are now deemed deadly. The thresholds at which these Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) or death are LIKELY to occur are actually calculated to be: 390 HIC for ages 1-3; 570 HIC for ages 4-5; and, 700 HIC for ages 6 through adult; not 1000 HIC!
  
  Unfortunately, the organizations responsible for making changes to the playground industry fall safety standards are comprised mostly of playground equipment manufacturers, who are opposed to any new regulations, even if the health and safety of children on playgrounds are potentially at risk.

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• What Age of Child? - Why the age of the child is important for determining proper fall safety.

  What we know, statistically, about playground injuries is if it involves a child is under age 6, the injury is likely to involve the face or head. At age 6, a child learns to protect their face and head at the expense of their arms and legs. In addition, younger children under age 6 usually lack proper upper body and hand strength to deal with certain climbing equipment, which can result in serious injuries when they fall, especially if they impact something else on the way down. Due to this, it is extremely important that children under age 6 play under constant adult supervision. Once children learn to protect their face and head and gain the hand and upper body strength around age 6, they can play unsupervised more often. However, it's always a good idea to provide adult supervision where children are on a playground, at any age.

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• Loose-Fill Surfacing Primer - Basic Info about loose-fill safety surfaces.

  There are a lot of sources of information out there, with companies claiming their playground safety surfacing is the best, but they all can't be. This is part of the reason this website was created.
  
  Plain ansd simple, loose-fill safety surfacing is always better for any significant fall height. The essence is that a child's head, arm or leg can pass into or through the loose-fill material, whereas it can become trapped at the point of initial impact in monolithic or unitary surfaces such as Poured-In-Place (PIP), playground mats & tiles, or synthetic turf with padding, which provide only the compression method of impact attenuation. The kinetic energy of the impact on PIP, mats, tiles or turf with padding then is returned to the child, while still falling, often resulting in far more serious injury. The result is these types of surfaces are found to be 444% to 700% more likely for a child to suffer injury than recycled rubber mulch, which is considered to be the safest of all loose-fill safety surfaces.
  
  This is because recycled rubber mulch tends to provide the best levels of both dispersion and compression methods of impact attenuation. Not only that, one in particular is a much smaller particulate, providing up to 100% better fall safety than other recycled rubber mulches, is 100% free of steel wires, maintains a more consistent thickness during playtime, requires less maintenance, has the longest lasting color, and provides a 25-year safety guarantee. All of this at a cost of roughly 40% to 50% of what PIP costs.

Click on any of the bulleted installation tips below to expand it for more detailed information, and click it again to compress it.

• 1. Determine Your Safety Area - The distances and shape can have a lot to do with levels of safety for your play area.

  The recommendations of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and others provide great information about how to define your playground "use zone," or the area where the safety surfacing should be.
  
  It is critical that you go out at least 6 feet away from any structure, from which a child might be able to fall from, even if used in unintended ways (which is quite common). For slides, add to this 6 foot distance the difference between the highest and lowest points on a slide. This could mean that if the slide measures 3-4 feet from top to bottom areas, you would correspondingly want 9 or 10 feet for the distance from the end of the slide. For swings, you should allow at least 4 times the measured distance from the pivot point at the top of the swing chain to the bottom of the seat. Therefore, if this measurement was 6 feet, you would want 24 feet in overall area, 12 feet in front and 12 feet to the rear of the direction of the swing's travel.
  
  This doesn't mean the area has to be a rectangle, like so many manufacturer's draw in their owner's or instruction manuals. I have yet to meet the child who can climb up the outside corner of a playset and leap backwards between 9 feet and 16 feet, as shown in some manufacturer's manuals. Transversely, getting too close to the playset can result in a falling child impacting outside the use zone, or worse, the border material. Making a curved perimeter border to contain the loose-fill safety surfacing is a great idea. Just make sure you use a 6 foot rope or string from all areas of the playset to determine the proper distance from the playset, and greater distances for swings and slides.

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• 2. Yard Playset Position - Make sure your area is large enough for the playest, and provides proper drainage.

  I have personally heard from a number of people across the country who go out and purchase a large playset, then find out they lack the proper area to provide fall safety. This is a recipe for disaster. The last thing any parent of caregiver wants is for a child to suffer a serious injury or death while playing. Perhaps the best way to prevent this is to make sure you have sufficient area and clearance for the playset being considered. If not, chose another more suitable playset.
  
  Another approach is to eliminate or close-off certain areas of the playset which pose the risk of a child falling. This could include completely removing a rock climbing wall or knotted rope climb for children under age 6, and closing off raised fort areas where children could fall from leaning over the safety rails. In all cases, it's always best to provide the proper distances, as stated in "Determine Your Safety Area" section above.
  
  One important factor is making sure you have an area which provides for proper drainage during heavy rains or run-off, so it doesn't accumulate within the play area. Some effective ways to do this are installing box drains, French drains, or even just sloping the sub-grade at least 1 degree toward an area where water can be directed. If you don't have such an area, you may install a sub-base of 3/4" crushed rock (not Class 2 permeable road base!), where the water can accumulate and absorb into the soil naturally. If there's a lot of water, then perhaps making 3' pit(s) (in all dimensions, WxDxH) filled with 3/4" crushed rock can accept higher levels of rain or run-off, placed at the lower end of the 1 deg. sloping sub-grade.

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• 3. Contain the Material - Perimeter borders often work best for many loose-fill safety surface applications.

  Perimeter borders help to keep the loose-fill safety surfacing where it should be. With younger children like toddlers and pre-schoolers, it's often best that they don't step over anything too high, and when they step into and out of a playground safety surface it's close to or equal to the same level as the area they enter from and exit to. This tends to minimize the falls that so many young children tend to have.
  
  One of the best borders is synthetic lumber border, where recycled wood particles are mixed together with often recycled plastics to form a very resilient border material which doesn't have the problems wood has with aging, rotting or getting splinters. One in particular is 3/4" x 3-1/2" x 20 feet in length, with a fully rounded radius on the 3/4" dimension.
  
  Perhaps the best way to secure this is by using the long flat steel stakes used for concrete forms, which are normally 18" and 24" in length, with diagonally opposed holes near the top, to which you can secure the perimeter border material. This one particular product also has notches on either end so one piece can be connected to the next, for a contiguous perimeter border, at a normal price of under $18 each at a local landscape supply distributor.

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• 4. Preparing the Proper Depth - How to go about getting the area ready for loose-fill safety surfacing.

  In general, the depths for which a product should be installed varies between products, and the respective maximum fall heights for the playset help to determine this. If you were to take the highest point from which a child could access and fall from, even if using the playset in unintended ways, this tends to be consistent with the ASTM F1292 determinations for establishing maximum fall height. Do not just take the fall height from the top of a landing on a raised fort, as many playset manufacturer's do under ASTM F1487, which is inconsistent with establishing proper safety as instructed to Certified Playground Safety Inspectors (CPSI) like myself.
  
  For sand, wood chips or Engineered Wood Fiber (EWF), the recommended depth is commonly 12 inches. For recycled rubber mulch, the recommended depth is normally 6 inches. However, understand that during playtime the material can vary significantly in depth, depending on the average size and shape of the particulate used.
  
  Many "one-size-fits-all" recycled rubber mulches for use as a landscaping material or playground safety surface are about 3/4" in average size of particulate, and can vary up to +/-4" when disturbed during playtime. This can result in insufficient depths to provide proper fall safety, without almost constant raking and leveling. Another recycled rubber mulch in particular is a completely separate product from the manufacturer's landscaping product, typically about 3/8" in average particulate size. The result is normally a variance of about half of that of larger particulate rubber mulches, or +/-2" during playtime.
  
  You might consider digging down into the soil, instead of just building up a border on top of it, especially where young children are present, for the reasons covered above. You should take into account the inherent characteristics of your safety surfacing, and perhaps make accommodations for the variance in depth during playtime. Especially if it's a play area where children often play unsupervised, because I don't believe any child normally says to their parents, "Mom and Dad, I'm going to level off the safety surfacing before I start playing." Whereas, it's easy for an adult to fill-in low areas while supervising children as they play (providing it can be kept up with).

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• 5. Keep It Separated - Use the proper geotextile fabric, not something inadequate, and secure it well.

  With all loose-fill safety surfacing options, it can mix or even push into moist soil, or other things outside the safety surfacing area can get in. An effective way to prevent this is to use a heavy-duty geotextile fabric, not just a cheaper weed cloth from your local hardware or garden supply store. Not only do these inferior products often disintegrate too quickly, they sometimes can inhibit the flow of accumulated water, or become affected quickly by the agitation of the loose-fill safety surfacing installed above it when children run around and play. Not only this, but many of the rolls of material at your local store may only be in 3' to 6' roll widths.
  
  A great alternative is to contact your local contractor or landscape supply distributor, where they often carry industrial or commercial grade geotextile fabric, such as Mirafi 140NC, which is a non-woven geotextile product available commonly in 12-1/2' and 15' roll widths, and sell it by the linear foot. If not, try contacting a local landscape contractor to see if they might have some excess material available to sell.
  
  When installing the geotextile, it should be placed between the loose-fill safety surfacing and the sub-base, overlapping at least 6" where the "rows" of geotextile meet. Secure this geotextile near or onto the perimeter border. If using the synthetic lumber border material, you may use rust resistant staples in a heavy-duty staple gun (I recommend electric, for the sake of your hands), to secure the doubled-over geotextile, covering up the heads of the flat steel stakes used to secure the perimeter border. This also helps to maintain the stability of the perimeter border once the weight of the safety surfacing is present.

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• 6. Loose-Fill Surfacing Installation - Simply lay out the material, and spread it around evenly.

  Depending on how your loose-fill safety surfacing is packaged and arrives to you, there are varying degrees of effort involved. For example, transporting, installing and leveling anywhere from a 6" to 12" depth of material in bulk can take a lot of physical effort and time. Alternatively, loose-fill safety surfacing products in smaller bag sizes make it easier to get the qty. you really need, easier to transport to the play area and install (often saving between 75% to 80% in installation time), easier to blend colors (in the case of rubber mulch). You can simply place the bags on top of the geotextile fabric to yield the desired depth, then open up each bag and spill it right where it is, and you're done!
  
  If you want to blend colors of recycled rubber mulch, you can place the bags in alternating patterns, like a checkerboard, for even distribution of color, then use a landscape rake, upside down (so you don't snag the geotextile fabric), to blend the colors.
  
  It's always a good idea, when using recycled rubber mulch, to rinse off the material after installation, usually the day before it gets used for the first time, just to clear out any paint dust which might have accumulated during packaging, shipping and installation.

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• 7. Loose-Fill Surfacing Maintenance - Always maintain loose-fill surfacing per the manufacturer's recommendations.

  Loose-fill surfaces carry with them different maintenance recommendations and requirements.
  
  In the case of playground sand, wood chips or Engineered Wood Fiber (EWF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and others recommend completely removing and replacing these every two years. It is highly unlikely that most installations of these products follow these recommendations, nor do they often maintain proper preventive measures to mitigate access by animals, rodents and birds; or re-top the material as required every 6-12 months.
  
  With recycled rubber mulches, a lot depends on the attrition over time. Larger particulates may compact more, as well as disperse more material outside the play area, which can require periodic re-topping 10% or more every 2-3 years. Whereas smaller particulate product tends to compact less and spill out as much as the larger material, and re-topping about 5-10% every 4-6 years is acceptable to maintain proper levels of playground fall safety.

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Below are quite a few of the established playground safety specifications and testing standards in place, primarily ASTM, as well as the Canadian standard identification. ASTM International has all Specifications and Test Methods available on their website, a link to which is available on our Online Links page. If you want to jump to other specific specifications, documents or testing standards, please use our Resources page.

Only ASTM International provides authorized copies of its specifications and testing standards, and any party offering copies for free are doing so illegally and violating ASTM's rights. In addition, the information provided by any party other than ASTM may be altered and not reliable. Please obtain your copy of any ASTM specification or testing standard desired or required directly from ASTM.

ASTM playground safety testing standards

ASTM International, known until 2001 as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services. ASTM standards and tests are often referred to by an alphabetical letter followed by a numeric designation, such as ASTM X0000-12, with the two-digits after the hyphen indicating the year of revision.

Click on any of the safety standards listed below to open up a new page on the externally hosted website.

• F355 - Test Method for Shock-Absorbing Properties of Playing Surface Systems and Materials
• F963 - Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety
• F1148 - Consumer Safety Performance Specification for Home Playground Equipment
• F1292 - Standard Specification for Impact Attenuation of Surfacing Materials Within the Use Zone of Playground Equipment
• F1487 - Consumer Safety Performance Specification for Playground Equipment for Public Use
• F1816 - Standard Safety Specification for Drawstrings on Children's Upper Outerwear
• F1918 - Safety Performance Specification for Soft Contained Play Equipment
• F1951 - Specification for Determination of Accessibility of Surface Systems Under and Around Playground Equipment
• F2049 - Standard Safety Performance Specification for Fences/Barriers for Public, Commercial, and Multi-Family
  Residential Use Outdoor Play Areas
• F2075 - Specification for Engineered Wood Fiber for Use as a Playground Safety Surface Under and Around
  Playground Equipment
• F2088 - Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Infant Swings
• F2373 - Standard Consumer Safety Performance Specification for Public Use Play Equipment for Children
  6 Months through 23 Months
• F2479 - Guide for Specification, Purchase, Installation and Maintenance of Poured-In-Place Playground Surfacing

• CSA Z614 - Childrens Playspaces and Equipment

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All tests created for establishing maximum thresholds for playground safety, especially for playground falls, are set at a point where anything beyond could result in fatal injury. However, there are many experts who feel these standards are not acceptable, because the basis for determining the type of injuries expected at various ranges of G-max. & Head Injury Criterion (HIC) scores were arrived at from older automotive studies, often involving the use of cadavers and volunteers. Therefore, it is fairly widely acknowledged that the standards involved may not be conclusive as to the nature of real-life injuries to children at various ages. Just as we are now learning more about the nature of concussions, and how serious an injury those can be, sometimes with lasting or fatal results.

The recent article, "Are Our Playgrounds (and Industry-Related Fall Safety Standards) Really Safe?," provides a lot of additional information you may find useful in assisting you in making informed decisions regarding playground fall safety.

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The Canadian Association of Playground Practitioners (CAPP) published a document entitled, "CAPP Probability of Head Injury Relative to HIC Scores," which provides perhaps a better understanding of CEN-EN-177 and ASTM F1292, for playground safety surface fall impact testing. This document provides statistical information as to the nature of injuries sustained by children falling on surfaces with differing HIC values. The data revealed about how HIC scores relate to injuries are eye-opening. A link to this document online is provided on our Resources page.

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