National program comes to town to help make playgrounds safer

By Shayna Coleon
Advertiser Staff Writer

The National Program for Playground Safety is on O'ahu to teach 40 state and county employees playground safety standards and awareness.

The University of Iowa- based organization offered a Safety School training session last week, and will start its first SAFE certification classes today and tomorrow in Hawai'i, said Donna Thompson of the National Program for Playground Safety.

Susan Hudson, educational director of the National Program for Playground Safety, says that 200,000 children are injured nationwide on playgrounds each year.

In Hawai'i, an average of 60 children a year are sent to the hospital because of playground injuries, said Dan Galanis, epidemiologist for childhood injury prevention for the Department of Health's injury prevention program.

Because there is no federal legislation to require playgrounds to meet safety standards, Thompson said it is the state's responsibility to maintain safe playgrounds according to standards in the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Handbook for Public Playground Safety.

Thompson said after Hawai'i received a C-minus in the program's two-year assessment of 3,000 nationwide playgrounds in 1999, state and county officials asked the organization to come to Hawai'i.

Once certified, the official Hawai'i trainers can assess local playgrounds and offer their expertise to local agencies immediately, said Therese Argoud, the childhood injury prevention coordinator for the Department of Health's injury prevention program, and a training session participant.

The National Program for Playground Safety's Web site offers details.