What would we do without “researchers”?
How badly a child is hurt depends not only on how far they fall, but also the type of surface they land on, researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto found after some school playgrounds in the city were resurfaced.
Part of the great basketball court conversion?
So the field of broken glass, concrete rubble, rusted steel and jagged metal wasn’t an ideal playground when I was a kid?
There doesn’t seem to be any data on falling out of home-made tree forts or having said forts falling out of trees. And I didn’t wear a helmet either. (explains a lot I guess)
Yep. I’ve been saying this all along, but I just didn’t have the research to prove it. You just can’t put a price on the value of research findings such as this.
Ah, but have they proved the statement, “it ain’t the fall that hurts you, it’s the sudden stop at the end”?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Quick, somebody cut these researchers a check for grant money! Our children’s lives hang in the balance.
Won’t SOMEBODY think of the children???
Force them to wear hockey helmets. Oh, and kill Don Cherry! /sarc/tator
I wonder if the research was peer-reviewed.
Can I get some grant money to research whether winters in Iowa are colder than winters in Silicon Valley?
Now that the wise guys discovered that falling down can be hazardous to your offspring and the no doubt difficult research is successfully completed, the government should supply new research money to figure out why the hell is the water wet and another pressing challenge why is it that no one ‘seen the air.
While they are at it, maybe see what’s up with the climate.
I need to be sent to a re-education camp … I still believe that sand was the material of choice when I was a kid … like before the playground science.
this just in from scientists.
overeating may lead to obesity , more research grants required.
But the children are still being hurt. Because you can never be too careful, we should ban playgrounds. And gravity.
And children. You can never be too careful. Anyway, I don’t think these people really like them. For one thing, they insist on exhaling.
Well Diane Francis had part of the solution to this right?
Fewer kids, means fewer injuries. Simple.
And infinity squared? Yeah, sand always seemed to work for me as I flew off the swing set as high and as fast as I could work it up to.
What about PLAYGROUND PLAGUE?
I haven’t seen any of the peer reviewed ‘science’ on this but it is rumored 100% of kids that suffered a fall on ‘a playground surface’ during the period 1840 to 1865 have all subsequently died within 90 yrs of the incident.
Several University science organizations & lobbyists are hounding governments for funding saying ‘it’s all about the children’ and they want to stopped the fear mongering rumors.
You missed the most important recommendation. “More studies are need to determine which surfaces cause the greatest injuries.” I recall a Jerry Reed song that says need to collect my welfare check pay for my cadillac. Oh sorry doing useless studies is not really welfare.
get Al Gore to change the law of gravity at the UN
it’s just that easy
“How badly a child is hurt depends not only on how far they fall, but also the type of surface they land on, researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto found after some school playgrounds in the city were resurfaced.”
You know,the same thing occurs with adults,the farther we fall,the more likely we are to get hurt. This is one of the reasons you will usually see window washers on highrise buildings in all our major cities using a safety line.
We in the construction field always suspected the height/hurt thing, but until this study, we weren’t really sure. That is, if you can extrapolate child research to adults.
Good work there, Toronto.
The Journal of the Blatantly Obvious, published monthly by the Ministry of Silly Walks.
These research types do good work as well. For example they have determined that:
1. Bears shit in the woods
2. Smoking weed mellows out most users.
This whole experiment sounds very ethically dodgy to me. I mean, however did they persuade the parents to sign the waivers?
Did they at least provide helmets?
Never rule out the human factor.
You could make playgrounds as safe as possible (I’m not arguing that safety is NEVER a concern), kids could still get hurt.
I argue that some parents use the playground as another baby-sitter and don’t watch as children leap from high spots or do other stupid things. The failure to be vigilant or teach kids proper etiquette (wait in line, don’t push, ect.) leads to injuries and poor attitudes. I’m not saying all parents do this, only some.
just my thoughts.
Hey, scientist, you wanna get funding?
Here is what you say:
31. “…for the children”: Used by liberals to justify anything particularly outrageous. Works so well that 99% of the population automatically believe it, even when it is either completely inapplicable or even contrary to the interest of children.” [NaperBille] [A.L.Byers]
From the ‘The AT Readers’ Complete Lexicon of Political Speech’
By Lee Cary
Okay I given the article I might actually be able to get funding for this. My theory is that the ill effects of drinking beer and eating pizza while watching sports can be offset by having lots of sex with supermodels.
Think I can sell it?
Dmorris – your comment about extrapolating the findings to adults is just a hypothesis, until proven. As you say, further research (grant money) is required.
This research seems to outdated on arrival.
The newest party line is that playgrounds combined with meat consumption by children leads to aggression, especially among young males and results in frenetic “play” activities when recess arrives.The latest research has determined that playgrounds must be restructured as ecologically correct “calming zones” with lots of grass cover, small unclimbable trees, plus no “artificial anti-nature” physically demanding ways of having fun. A complementary vegan diet is also necessary to reduce loud, boisterous, activities while in the calming zone and every other area of the school and those parents who notice the onset of rickets and reduced brain function in their children must be reassured this is “completely normal, natural, and proof that their children are as one with nature”.
Some of you guys are missing it, when children fall and hurts themselves studies have proven that excessive CARBON is being emitted!
Did you know that an injured child can produce up to 500% more carbon through screaming and crying while in pain?
We’ve proven the proof!
We can’t let this suffering of children go on any longer! Public school ashphalt most go now!
At each injury incident you’ll have an adult
rushing to help this injured child because he/she is exceeding their daily allotted carbon exhaling through crying. Not to forget the crowd of onlookers, more excess carbon being emitted, tsk tsk.
So that’s what this is about, we just want all children to be safe, to sit quietly in the shade of big green trees, reading, and not hurting themselves ’tis an honorable solution for the planet, we’re doing it for them.
“The children are safe and we did it the green way!”
/
I find this “study” suspect, and think it was funded by BIG HELMUT
The next study has to do with how likely it will be that particles of sand get into the childrens eyes. Opthamologists are lining up for this one. All children will be required to wear ski goggles under there CSA approved helmet, elbow pads, knee pads……my head hurts
Obiwan Kenobe:
You could make playgrounds as safe as possible (I’m not arguing that safety is NEVER a concern), kids could still get hurt.
Not at my daughter’s school. I asked her earlier this year what they did at recess, wondering if some of things I did as a child – flip baseball cards, play marbles, etc. – were still popular. Nope, none of the above. Then, knowing there was a baseball diamond at her school, I asked “Well, don’t the boys at least play baseball?”.
“Nope – the principal banned bats.”
KevinB
That epidemic of ‘liability’ is alive and well in BC.
The same reason were given at my son’s old school.
They were finally allowed to play soccer, after many parents’ complaints that thee was nothing for active young, healthy, energetic boys to do. We argued that it was better for them to ‘get it all out’ at lunch, vs hyperactive boys in the class….
Still, they got some ‘trouble’, when the youngest students would stray on the field, in front of the goals, getting hit by kicked balls. Imagine that?
The school system is full of mother hens and dimwits, from yard/hall monitors, to jaded teachers, and bureaucratic admins.
No wonder the private school system is thriving!
It’s funny when you take that particular quote out of context, but the surfaces they were actually comparing may have some legitimacy in being studied. You didn’t include this part:
“Children who fall off playground equipment and land on sand may be less likely to break an arm than if they land on wood chips, Canadian researchers say.”
Given, the matter may be somewhat trivial in the grand scheme of things, but I actually would have actually thought sand to distribute energy less well.
Would the same general rules apply to drunks and drug addicts? I want to make sure I get my money’s worth. How about pushed from moving cars?
“we should ban playgrounds. And gravity.”
Our neighbourhood park used to be home to a large hill that the local kids used for sledding, skiing, etc. In the winter, during all kinds of weather, the hill resembled an ant hill with dozens of kids having a ball. Some genius decided that the hill was too high and steep and injuries could result. The city spent God knows how much money having the hill moved a few yards and drastically reducing the slope. Kids no longer play on the hill and its covered in weeds.
But on a positive note, nobody gets hurt.
Have y’all noticed that playgrounds don’t have swings anymore? Just those big, plastic coated metal “climbing” structures which are basically stairs with a bridge in between. Maybe a slide you have to push the kids down because its too shallow for them to get all the way to the bottom unassisted.
When was the last time you saw a gaggle of kids riding their bikes on a Saturday morning -without- adult supervision? What a sucky country.
It is easy to poke fun at something like this, but it was not obvious to me that a playground should be surfaced with sand, rather than with wood chips. I see a lot of merit in research that helps us design safer playgrounds for our kids. It is unfortunate that the report writer used language that makes legitimate work sound banal.
I remember some of the fun playgrounds I played in as a kid, and I also remember kids who were injured by poorly designed equipment. I suspect that if modern parents were to bring their kids to playgrounds as they existed in the early 1950’s, they would not permit their kids to play there.