Are Playgrounds Hazardous To Your Health?

A research has found that playground equipment contain high amounts of the toxin lead.

16:43 26 January 2016

Paint on playground equipment contain high amount of the toxin lead, which is up to 40 times the recommended level, a study, which was published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, has found. Scientists, who said that the levels pose a significant risk to young children, tested the content of paints on play equipment at 50 parks in England.

 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has listed lead as one of the top 10 “chemicals of major public health concern.”

 

Based on the rules drawn up in 1997, paints used for playgrounds should not contain more than 0.25per cent lead. However, one park in Plymouth, which was built in 2009, has playground equipment that contains 10per cent of the chemical element.

 

Expert Dr Andrew Turner said the levels were "completely avoidable". He added that the general consensus in the US and many European countries today was for paint to have a lead level of around 0.009per cent. "You'd expect the older playgrounds to be more dangerous as people have become more aware of the dangers of lead, but our findings suggest that this isn't the case.”

 

The effects of lead can cause neurological and cognitive problems.