Playground Safety Surfacing Should Prevent A Easy Fall From Becoming A Debilitating Injury

Human beings have an amazing physical frame which is flexible strong and possessed of an innate ability to heal itself when injured or affected by disease. This contributes to our visceral rejection of most forms of protective equipment, we just do not like the idea that we need to do anything to protect our self in everyday life. It is no wonder then, the the notion of installing playground safety surfacing so that children can fall and not risk serious injury just seems like overkill.

The safety profession is fully aware that most of our protective regulations and polices came about at the expense of someone who was injured, or worse, in the past. Even though we understand it academically, we still resist the idea that we should take care to avoid injury. We do not actually have a death wish, but we want to be thought of as daring and willing to take chances.

Taking chances is a way we demonstrate our bravado, and we even convince ourselves that it is a natural means of learning. In addition, almost anything we do to increase protection will require resources of some kind. With an aversion to being identified as weak afraid, and the natural desire to avoid costs wherever possible make the advances made in protecting ourselves all the more amazing.

Thus it is all the more remarkable that we managed, as a society, to reduce the maximum speed for our highways. Certainly there was no dearth of statistical information proving that not only would there be fewer accidents, but the mishaps that occurred would result in lesser injuries, yet it was a difficult effort. Even adding in the savings of driving slower, and the fact that driving slower cost nothing, it took years and heated debate to enact.

There has been, however, one example of the introduction of protective gear that has gained nearly universal acceptance. The wear of a hard hat at construction sites has circumvented the usual derision and resistance that most protective outer wear endures. The hard hat, early on, became inextricably associated with the hard work and professionalism of working men and women in construction, and thus is seen as a kind of status symbol.

So we have a dilemma when dealing with issues of protection for any segment of the population, but nowhere is the conundrum more complex than when it deals with children. Absolutely no one would deny that it is the responsibility of adults everywhere to take measures to keep our world safe for our children. But still the same resistance exists whenever there are attempts to make changes based on the attempt to increase the safety of the little ones.

Ironically, we have no problem enforcing our professional sports players use of protective equipment, yet translating that to everyday life is not a foregone conclusion. When bicycle racers decided that there needed to be some form of protective gear that would help them prevent head injuries, there was no standard for helmets. Once they became available, it was still an enormous effort to convince the population as a whole that riding a bicycle risks some very serious injuries and that a simple helmet can prevent them; it was still a hard sell.

Still the responsibility to protect children is a real one that must be taken to heart. The idea of installing playground safety surfacing faces the same difficulties any safety product has encountered. While arguments against the product largely centered on first the psychological resistance; parents did not have it when they were kids and they survived, and financial, there is an additional cost to install it. As with all sound safety practices, this will take hold and be the way of the future, to the benefit of children everywhere.

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