IS YOUR BACKYARD PLAYSET SAFE?
It's that time of year again; it's slowing warming up, flowers are starting to bloom and kids are anxious to get outside and play. If you are like the many families in the Chicagoland area that have a backyard playset, you will want to ensure that your playset is safe before your children or any of their friends play on it this spring and summer.
Within the last year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a recall to repair Adventure Playsets' Wooden Play Sets, which posed a specific fall hazard due to the plastic coated lumber on the horizontal ladder (monkey bar/swing beam) weakening over time due to rotting whitewood. CPSC advised consumers to stop using this type of playset immediately unless otherwise instructed.
The Chicago Tribune reported that new industry standards for backyard playground equipment no longer permit the flawed design that places swings or other equipment under the monkey bars/swing beam. The new standards were developed by a committee of manufacturers, retailers, safety advocates and consumers who have been studying injuries related to monkey bars since the early 1990s. The increased interest in notifying consumers about the specific hazards related to play sets with monkey bars came about three years ago when a four-year-old Utah boy fell off the monkey bars on such a playset and became entangled in the trapeze hanging below.
