Sand playground safer for kids

MELBOURNE - Kids playing in sand-covered playgrounds are safer than those playing on the wood fibre surfaces, suggests a Canadian study.

Toronto-based researchers found that kids were nearly five times less likely at risk of breaking arms, legs or parts of their bodies on playgrounds with sand surfaces.

“We suspect that the fracture rates are lower on sand because of lower surface friction. A lower friction surface allows the hand to slide or sink limiting the bending moment and preventing a fracture,” ABC Science quoted researchers as saying.

“Updating playground safety standards to reflect this information will reduce the most common and severe injuries seen on modern playgrounds, without limiting children’s access to healthy outdoor play,” they added.

Australian playground safety expert and associate professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, David Eager also said: “My own opinion is that both sand and wood fibre, or bark, are excellent surfaces for playgrounds and it’s the rubber that is the bad surface which causes the rebound and lots more breaks.

“The forces are significantly greater on the rubber than they are on the bark or the sand.”

The findings were published on the PLoS Medicine website. (ANI)