Over 50 percent of the playground equipment in the nation's parks are poorly maintained and pose a danger to children, a consumer advocacy group said yesterday.
The group called on governments at all levels to improve the safety of the equipment and prevent playground injuries.
To ensure children's safety while having fun, the Consumers' Foundation inspected playground equipment in 94 parks in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung cities.
PHOTO: CHEN TSEH-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The results showed that more than 50 percent of the equipment was riddled with problems including improper surfacing, a lack of detailed instructions and unsafe spacing between equipment.
"It is surprising to learn that all rotating playground platforms at sampled playgrounds are uneven and the connecting bolts are loose, and over 90 percent of elevated equipment does not have protective guardrails," said Huang Shian-ping (黃獻平), general manager of Taiwan Children's Commodities R&D Center as he showed pictures of unsafe playground equipment.
According to Huang, the most common playground hazards include inadequate fall zones, inadequate spacing between playground equipment, absence of guardrails, dangerous protrusions and entanglements that can impale or cut children, openings between posts, ladder rungs or deck levels that can entrap children.
"We often see parents play on the seesaw or swings with their children, which can also be dangerous. The equipment is not designed for adults, and fully-grown people can damage the equipment," he added.
Terry Huang (黃怡騰), secretary general of the foundation, expressed disappointment over the failure of the government to improve the safety of playground equipment.
"The foundation did the same examination last April and the results showed the same unsafe playground equipment as this year. The Children's Bureau under the Ministry of the Interior and local governments should not ignore this issue and put our children in great danger," he said.
Attorney Mark Chang (張智剛), who serves on the board of directors in the foundation, said that playground injuries are often the result of reckless play by children.
However, parents may overlook the responsibilities of those in charge of the playgrounds.
According to Article 3 of the National Compensation Law (國家賠償法), the government is liable for injuries or deaths caused by poorly maintained public facilities, Chang said.
In addition, equipment manufacturers may violate Article 276 and 284 of the Criminal Code (中華民國刑法) on liability for accidental injuries or deaths if their product is substandard, according to Chang.
To provide basic knowledge about playground safety, the foundation is giving out free brochures that discuss common playground hazards and recommended actions. For more information, call the foundation at 02-2700-1234 or go to their Web site at http://www.consumers.org.tw.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching