Archive for December, 2015

Part 2 of 3 – Hazard Based Approach to Standards Development: The time is now.

Thursday, December 31st, 2015

Part 2 of 3 – Hazard Based Approach to Standards Development: The time is now.
By Kenneth S Kutska, CPSI, Executive Director
International Playground Safety Institute, LLC
July 18, 2015

Food for Thought from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission Staff

“Playgrounds should allow children to develop physical and social skills, and part of that development includes testing the limits of their skills. Innovation is important for this, as children need new challenges. Staff believes it is important that new, innovative playground components should still follow the safety recommendations and standards that both CPSC staff and ASTM have worked to refine over the past several decades.” CPSC Staff May 20, 2013

“CPSC staff believes that focusing on the hazards posed by the equipment’s design or movement would address the issues of nontraditional equipment more appropriately than exempting that equipment from all but the most basic requirements.” CPSC Staff May 10, 2012

“CPSC staff believes that rather than exempting nontraditional equipment from most aspects of the standard, a more appropriate method of dealing with any issues of nontraditional equipment would be to focus on the hazards posed by the equipment.” CPSC Staff May 10, 2012

The May 20th CPSC staff letter requests ASTM create definitions for each different type of play equipment. CPSC points out neither the ASTM playground-related standards nor the current version of the CPSC Public Playground Safety Handbook (Handbook) currently define a “slide”. ASTM currently believes a definition for a slide that addresses each and every possible variation would become design restrictive and stifle innovation. Any definition that does not address each possible variation for a type of play event should not mean the equipment need only be required to meet the performance standards based on what name the product is called by the manufacture. I would rather propose conducting a risk assessment that goes beyond the merits of the product’s intended function and consider the reasonable foreseeable misuse of the product by the intended user group.

Intended Design Use of a Slide

Historically, the 1986 printing of the CPSC’s A Handbook for Public Playground Safety, Volume II, defined a “slide” as an “apparatus having an inclined surface used for sliding.” They have since stated the working definition for a slide used by the CPSC technical staff is,

” a flat or concave, inclined surface where children are likely to sit on their buttocks and slide down with their feet in front of them.”

This sounds like a reasonable definition for a slide and its intended use. I also think the use of the words, “likely to sit on the buttocks and slide down with their feet in front of them,” is a bit too narrow a description for how it has been used by children for more than 100 years. Where we start to get ourselves in trouble is when we try to create one-size-fits-all performance requirements for each inclined surface where children are likely to sit on the buttocks. Currently there are many specific performance requirements for a slide. Slide side rails currently have a performance requirement of a minimum of four inches. Why four? Why not three or six? Why any at all? This requirement came about based on the CPSC staff injury analysis going back more than 30 years. The CPSC said slide side rails would not always prevent a child from falling off the slide bedway. The primary function of the side rails were to provide an edge guide for the user’s feet or heals which would minimize lateral discharge as well as provide something for the user to hold onto for balance, if so desired.

Reasonable Foreseeable Use of a Slide

How did you use your old school playground slide? Did you every run up the bedway? Did you go down lying on your belly headfirst? Did you hook your legs around the person in front of you to create a kind of human centipede? Is this typical use or misuse. The new ISO definition for reasonable foreseeable use states the word “use” is synonymous with word “misuse.” This seems reasonable especially in the context of consumer products intended for use by children.

To make my point I would like to share a personal schoolyard experience as I remember it. I use to enjoy a very physical game of tag on our schoolyard. Understand this was in the late 1950s before there were any standards or guidelines. Our school had a 10 foot high free standing slide. I first started using this slide as defined and intended by the CPSC 1986 definition. This slide became so much more to us around the age of 9 or 10. We had mastered the sliding experience as intended and were now beginning to experiment and see what else we might be able to do with this traditional slide. It seemed so huge. It had two different types of diverging bedways. It had a double wide, open riser, step ladder up to a fairly large slide transition platform supported by metal support posts angling outwards to the ground. The platform had a guardrail to keep us from pushing someone off the platform. The slide had evolved into the arena for my friends and I to play tag. We seemed to be able to play on this one piece of equipment for hours on end or until someone got hurt. The latter was our signal to stop playing however it never stopped us from coming back another day and play the same game. This game had only a few rules we made up. Basically if you were tagged you were “IT”, until you could tag one of the other players. We moved at warp speed. We ran up the bedways. We went down the stepladder. Sometimes we went under the guardrail and down any one of the platform’s support posts to escape. I wonder if anyone considered some of these uses for this equipment. We did whatever it took to avoid getting tagged. I remember watching my friend use the stepladder handrails as a very steep banister slide. We did not see this as misusing the slide. We were just playing. It was exciting and great fun. Not everyone had the skills to do some of the things the stronger more experienced kids could do. This made them appear almost super human and impossible to catch. We learned a lot about our individual abilities and used that knowledge and skill to our advantage as part of the game. To us that double slide was so much more than just a slide. What started out as just a slide years earlier became a challenging super structure perfect for our game of tag. I wonder if designers ever considered observing how a bunch of 4th, 5th or 6th graders might actually play if they thought they were being left alone with no rules? This game of tag and the unintended, yet foreseeable, behavior it generated never occurred during school recess. Teachers would never stand for such careless and dangerous activity under their watchful eye. Guess what happened after school when all teaches left the building or on evenings and weekends when the area was unsupervised?

Unintended consequences of Reasonable Foreseeable Misuse of a Slide

The unintended consequences of the reasonable foreseeable misuse of any piece of playground equipment may result in something more than society is willing to accept. There is not much the owner and manufacturer can do about the lack of or improper supervision or inappropriate user behavior. The best defense against unintended consequences is for the manufacturer to provide and the owner to follow all inspection and maintenance recommendations to keep the area in compliance with best practices for public playground management.

The manufacturer has, at a minimum, specific information they must provide to the owner about the equipment intended users, installation, inspection and maintenance of their equipment. The owner must post at least the minimum required information and warnings. Since children most likely will not read or head the warnings and the caregivers often ignore them, what more should either party provide to their respective consumers beyond these minimum requirements to address the unintended consequence of reasonable foreseeable misuse?

Prescriptive vs Hazard-Based Performance Standards

CPSC staff has asked the F15.29 Subcommittee to recognize the recommendations in their Handbook and the requirements in the ASTM F1487 standard which are designed with respect to the hazards posed by the type of equipment. These requirements are based on a long history of injury statistics and analysis of injury patterns based on until now a very limited number of play equipment types that existed at the beginning of the playground safety standards movement. Times have changed and so has playground equipment. CPSC staff has recommended the F15.29 Subcommittee develop definitions for the equipment types listed in Section 8 based on the likely use patterns of children. Does this include just intended design use or does it include reasonable foreseeable misuse?

We both agree that definitions should ensure all new innovations meet the appropriate safety requirements yet foster continuing innovation in playground design. Broadly written or vague definitions leave too much open to subjective interpretation by parties with conflicting interests and objectives. The ASTM F15.29 Subcommittee has realized they cannot in a timely fashion, keep pace, with innovation within the playground equipment industry. Play equipment types and the multitude of variations for each type do not fit neatly into the basic playground equipment types that were available when the first playground standards were first being considered.
Regardless of what something is labeled we should consider taking the path as suggested by the CPSC but reword a bit to say, “playground safety performance requirements shall be developed and applied to focus on the hazards posed by equipment’s design, movement, and layout, whether free-standing or in combination with other components, and should address the issues of intended and reasonable foreseeable use rather than exempting that equipment from all but the most basic requirements.”

In Part 3 I will discuss how the hazard based process is applied.

Part 1 of 3 – Hazard Based Approach to Standards Development: The time is now.

Wednesday, December 30th, 2015

Part 1 of 3 – Hazard Based Approach to Standards Development: The time is now.
By Kenneth S Kutska, CPSI, Executive Director
International Playground Safety Institute, LLC
July 18, 2015

Background Information on Developments within the ASTM F1487 Standard
On May 20, 2013 the ASTM F15.29 Subcommittee responsible for the content of the ASTM F1487 standard received a letter from the staff of the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. CPSC staff noted that the specific types of playground equipment in Section 8 of the Standard (balance beams, climbers, upper body equipment, sliding poles, slides, swings, swinging gates, merry-go-rounds/whirls, roller slides, seesaws, spring rockers, log rolls, track rides, roofs, and stepping forms) were not defined in the terminology section of the standard. CPSC acknowledged the difficulty in defining these items but felt the lack of definitions may lead to differences in interpretations and application of the standard, resulting in some products not meeting the appropriate specific equipment performance requirements.

In May of 2012, the CPSC staff submitted a written comment on a ballot item that proposed to add a new Section 8.0 to ASTM F1487 to address new equipment designs not currently being addressed in specific performance requirements in the current Standard Section 8-Equipment and Section 9-Layout.

The proposed ballot item was to address all equipment does not fit neatly into the existing equipment categories or types. CPSC and ASTM agree, all non-traditional equipment not specifically identified in Section 8 still need to be evaluated using this standard. Everyone currently involved in writing playground performance standards understands industry innovation is moving at break neck speed. This is a good thing for children. The ASTM F15.29 Subcommittee wanted to minimize the likelihood of life-threatening or debilitating injuries from innovative non-traditional equipment by directing designers and manufacturers to apply all general performance requirements in all the Sections leading up to Section 8 of the standard and evaluate the equipment for any potential hazards.

CPSC staff has serious concerns about the implication of exempting all equipment, not of a specific type, from all of the equipment performance requirements currently contained in Section 8 and 9. CPSC staff believed this ballot item did not provide the guidance required to adequately eliminate or reduce the potential risk of injury from “non-traditional” equipment. CPSC staff believed this proposal provides a loophole that may allow potentially hazardous products to enter the marketplace. The basis for their concerns were spelled out in 3 points within the CPSC staff’s written comment to ASTM F15.29 Ballot F15 (12-03), Item 6, dated May 10, 2012:

“1. Section 8, Equipment, contains performance requirements for the following specific types of playground equipment: balance beams, climbers, upper body equipment, sliding poles, slides, swings, swinging gates, merry-go-rounds/whirls, roller slides, seesaws, spring rockers, log rolls, track rides, roofs, and stepping forms. The equipment types, however, are not defined in Section 3, Definitions. This leaves their definition open to interpretation and could allow equipment to be considered to pass the standard by a manufacturer, test lab, or consumer who asserts that the equipment was not mentioned specifically. For example, there is no definition for “balance beam.” If someone were to place a long, flat beam between two posts, 20 inches from the ground, could that person then claim it was not a balance beam because it is more than 16 inches from the ground, and therefore, covered by the proposed exemption? If the answer is “yes,” then CPSC staff strongly disagrees and feels this exemption would seriously undermine the spirit of the voluntary standard.

2. The “Climber” and “Upper Body Equipment” sections have generally served as the
“catch-all” categories for equipment that does not fit elsewhere. This exemption will allow equipment to avoid even those requirements.

3. This ballot item states that nontraditional equipment need only meet the “general performance requirements.” There is no section for “general performance requirements; however, Section 5, “General Requirements,” contains only three specific requirements limited to age grouping, anchoring, and small parts (15 CFR 1501); and Section 6 “Performance Requirements,” contains a limited number of performance requirements. As written, it is unclear how Sections 5 and 6 apply and whether Sections 9–15 apply at all.

CPSC staff believes that rather than exempting nontraditional equipment from most aspects of the standard, a more appropriate method of dealing with any issues of nontraditional equipment would be to focus on the hazards posed by the equipment. For example, one of the newer types of playground equipment, perhaps one considered by the subcommittee while discussing this ballot item, is an overhead spinner that children hold while spinning. The 1990 COMSIS report suggests that merry-go-rounds should be speed limited and that “the maximum allowable magnitude of centrifugal force must be less than or equal to the magnitude of force that the user is capable of supporting with his/her arms…”; and section 8.8.6.2 of the voluntary standard requires a maximum velocity for a merry-go-round. Section 8.3.1.1 of the voluntary standard requires that handgrip devices have a certain diameter to maximize grip strength of children. CPSC staff believes that these overhead spinning devices should combine these two requirements for overhead spinners, rather than exempting them from all but “general performance” requirements. In this example, staff believes it would make sense to have a section that applies to “upper body equipment” and “spinning equipment”; the overhead spinner would then be subject to both, while the merry-go-round would be subject to “spinning equipment” and perhaps a new section for “moving platforms.” CPSC staff believes that focusing on the hazards posed by the equipment’s design or movement would address the issues of nontraditional equipment more appropriately than exempting that equipment from all but the most basic requirements.”

The CPSC staff acknowledged over the past few years the design of playground equipment has undergone some radical innovations. They are in favor of innovations in playgrounds and believe playgrounds serve an important function in childhood development. They state in the letter,

“Playgrounds should allow children to develop physical and social skills, and part of that development includes testing the limits of their skills. Innovation is important for this, as children need new challenges. Staff believes it is important that new, innovative playground components should still follow the safety recommendations and standards that both CPSC staff and ASTM have worked to refine over the past several decades.”

The CPSC staff stated their concern with new innovations that are labeled as “climbers” and yet these climbers appear to be used by children as a sliding surface. Their initial concern with this type of equipment was the lack of time between when the product is released in the marketplace and the time required to create any kind of reliable injury statistics specifically pertaining to what may be considered by some as slides and labeled as climbers by a designer/manufacturer. Another issue they raised was how these new designs are identified, categorized, and finally entered into the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database by someone with little or no experience in all the current types and variation of public play components. The NEISS system has been around a long time and this coding system may need to be looked at again for its relevance to today’s circumstances. The current coding system makes it difficult for the CPSC to differentiate data for these products from that of traditional slides. CPSC staff was made aware of incidents described as involving slides (such as “slid off side of slide,” “fell off slide while sliding down”), yet further investigation revealed the product involved was called or labeled as a “climber. Our major concern with trying to define these new types of play equipment is the definition needs to be very vague to not become design restrictive beyond the intended design use. The problems arise when the standards writing organizations begin to try to create performance specifications that are not design restrictive yet still address the injury patterns on a particular type of play event. It seems to me that what we call something is not the answer. The bigger issue seems to me to be how the users play and interact with it that is most important when it comes to the assessment of safety issues versus the need for challenge and risk in the play environment.
Many of us may remember a product labeled by almost everyone in the industry as a “banister slide.” They are still being sold today. Jay Beckwith recently pointed out in his Playground Professionals column that during the R and D on this component the designers/manufacturers asked, “How are the kids supposed to use this?” His response was something like don’t worry, they will figure it out. The point is, we cannot will a child to do anything the same way each and every time in an open free play environment. Once they figure out how they can use it, which may be the designer’s intended design use, they will master it. Then when boredom sets in they will begin to look for other ways to interact and use it the next time, and the next time after that, and so on. Usually this kind of process and experimentation evolves into more risky play behavior as the user’s desire to experience the thrill of the challenge. I challenge you to go out and play and try this little experiment. Go to a local playground that has a balance beam. Walk across a balance beam once or twice. Then try it again with your eyes closed. Which was easier? What were you thinking when you had your eyes closed? Could you do it? Did you peek? Were you scared? Did you feel your pulse rate increase? As we get older our desire for this kind of excitement unfortunately begins to dwindle but not in children. Most thrive on this kind of excitement and challenge. Imagine this same “balance beam” experience if the designer places a properly designed handrail on each side of the beam. It would be much safer and almost guarantee a successful outcome regardless of your balance skills or whether or not you had your eyes closed. Building codes and ordinances take this approach for the health and safety of the general public in residential, public institutions and commercial buildings. This is not the approach to be taken in the design of a public playground or the development of playground safety performance standards. We want as much safety factored into the design as necessary but as little as possible to address debilitating and life-threatening injuries. The concept for “not too much and not too little” causes the angst being felt by playground owners, designers, manufacturers and all who inspect, maintain and repair these facilities. Injury data has led to some play components requiring handrails and handgrips on access components and guardrails and barriers on platforms above a certain height. Have we gone too far? Does anyone think a child would find a balance beam with handrails challenging or fun? I think the child is more likely to climb up on the handrails and attempt to walk across them. I would call this “unintended design use” or “reasonable foreseeable misuse” with “unintended consequences.” Ultimately we come back to the point of determining how much safety or risk is enough and how much of either is too much.

Play equipment definitions versus its intended use and reasonable foreseeable misuse

Is a banister slide really a slide? Is an inclined board of say 20 degree slope constitute a slide in the traditional form? What slope is necessary before you truly can have any kind of meaningful sliding experience? If this board doesn’t have a point of reduced gradient or 4 inch side rails with proper slide exit heights and transition platform of at least 14 inches deep does it mean it is not a slide? This gets to the CPSC staff’s concern. How does an inspector evaluate a piece of equipment when it does not meet all the requirements for a specific piece of equipment based on what the designer calls it or what an inspector labels it? I would agree that a slide with only 20 degree slope would not be used for sliding as much as it might be used for climbing. What slope is required before a child will involuntary begin to slide down the surface because of gravity?
In Part 2 I we will look at the CPSC’s traditional definition of a slide and the reasonable foreseeable misuse of the slide from a child’s perspective. I will present some options to consider on how to evaluate a piece of equipment regardless of labels.