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Angry parents remove dangerously overheated playground mats
NY Daily News ^ | July 22, 2008 | JEFF WILKINS, ELIZABETH HAYS and RACHEL MONAHAN

Posted on 07/22/2008 11:55:31 AM PDT by Alouette

These city playgrounds aren't for child's play.

Black rubber mats designed to break a child's fall turn blistering hot in the summer, soaring to higher than 165 degrees, a Daily News investigation found.

Doctors at two city hospital burn units reported seeing 16 to 18 young children with playground burns a year, mostly from the mats under junglegyms and sliding boards.

"I have nightmares," said Anne Casson, whose toddler son, Will, ditched his shoes at Carl Schurz Park on the upper East Side one day last May.

(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: danger; nannystate; playground
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To: Alouette
"And you could fry an egg on them in the summer."
1 posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 2:55:32 PM by Alouette

I don't think PETA will let them do that anymore.

61 posted on 07/22/2008 12:44:03 PM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: RetSignman

When I said “pole”, it was really more of a PVC electrical conduit, with a big ol’ crack on one side...


62 posted on 07/22/2008 12:44:11 PM PDT by gridlock (Al Gore wants YOU to live like the Flintstones while HE lives like the Jetsons. .. (FREE LAZAMATAZ!))
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To: Cicero
Over hot, black asphalt.

You had heat?? During the Wisconsin glaciation we had to play on ice. Damn global warming, made you all a bunch of softies.

63 posted on 07/22/2008 12:45:30 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: WayneS
"Alligators. Don’t forget the alligators."

The crocodiles ate all the alligators on our playground just before the flesh eating bacteria did them in.

64 posted on 07/22/2008 12:46:03 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: WildcatClan
"The reason they are black is, I would assume, is aesthetic, mainly because they are not intended to ever be seen. I have never seen just black mats. We always put a light mulch over them usually 4 inches but dependent mainly on the type of mulch used. I think the smart schools, playgrounds etc. just use mulch and nothing else. In my experience, sand is a no-no. It quickly becomes cat poo and where there are kids, they are going to throw sand. The school is quickly filled with kids with eye injuries, sand and cat poo. :)

Oh, so in otherwords, you are one of those Liberals.
Kids throwing sand is bad right? Never mind kids falling or landing in it at the bottom of a slide, after all, a cat may have poo'd in it. (not likely, cats knew better to hang around playgrounds where evil little kids might swing it by the tail and launch it into the wading pool)

Of course Liberal nanny's can never fathom the thought little johnny can be so cruel.

65 posted on 07/22/2008 12:47:47 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Slapshot68

...and painful cuts and puncture wounds from the pieces of the used, cut-up steel belts which used to reside IN those tires...


66 posted on 07/22/2008 12:48:33 PM PDT by WayneS (And now I shall return to my hovel and cling to my guns ... until it is time to go to Church)
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To: WayneS

“...and painful cuts and puncture wounds from the pieces of the used, cut-up steel belts which used to reside IN those tires...”

LOL, no they pull the steel belts out...but I get your point. Replace one hazard for another.


67 posted on 07/22/2008 12:50:15 PM PDT by Slapshot68
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To: Charlespg
Whats wrong with good old fashioned sand?

There might be some rocks in the sand and the kids could bruise their feet or knees. The same thing with the wooden playscapes that are now plastic. Too many splinters from the wood, so everything changed to plastic. The bad thing is that the plastic breaks after years in the sun and cuts the kids.

It's for the "kids".

68 posted on 07/22/2008 12:50:19 PM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (A vote for any Democrat from BO on down the ticket is a vote for $10 a gallon gas.)
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To: abigkahuna

Lake?

Your duck droppings were in a LAKE?

We had to take them straight from the duck!!!

Okay, that’s enough. Now I have disgusted even myself...


69 posted on 07/22/2008 12:50:43 PM PDT by WayneS (And now I shall return to my hovel and cling to my guns ... until it is time to go to Church)
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To: WayneS

Or just shove the shell in the “Y” of a tree branch!

Or take a small marble and tape to the bottom of a shell - throw it in the air and when it lands - “bang”! (Although we were “smart???” enough to take out the pellets first).


70 posted on 07/22/2008 12:51:40 PM PDT by 21twelve (Don't wish for peace. Pray for Victory.)
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To: Cicero

And then whine about the childhood obesity epidemic. Don’t forget to leave out that final step.


71 posted on 07/22/2008 12:52:30 PM PDT by Hoffer Rand (0bambi: the audacity of hype)
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To: Arrowhead1952

Problem is, most plastics ALSO get blistering hot in the sun in the summer time.

They should have just stayed with good ol’ galvanized steel, wood and concrete for play ground equipment.


72 posted on 07/22/2008 12:52:58 PM PDT by WayneS (And now I shall return to my hovel and cling to my guns ... until it is time to go to Church)
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To: 21twelve

We weren’t...


73 posted on 07/22/2008 12:53:38 PM PDT by WayneS (What the hell is wrong with these people?)
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To: Knitebane

“I wore an onion on my belt....which was the style at the time...you couldnt get those white ones, you could only get those big yellow ones.................now where was I........oh yeah, the important thing was I was wearing an onion on my nelt, which was the style at the time, you couldnt get those... (trails off)”


74 posted on 07/22/2008 12:55:09 PM PDT by weegee (Obama loves America like Bill loves Hillary.)
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To: Knitebane
Whats wrong with good old fashioned sand?

>>Sand gets tracked into the SUV carpet.

Barack Obama doesn't call children "punishments" for nothing.

75 posted on 07/22/2008 12:57:49 PM PDT by weegee (Obama loves America like Bill loves Hillary.)
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To: gridlock

[PVC electrical conduit???]

We would died to have electrical conduit, our barbed wire had an electrical charge pulsing through it but it made us tough...tough and Pi$$ed off.


76 posted on 07/22/2008 1:00:14 PM PDT by RetSignman (DEMSM: "If you tell a big enough lie, frequently enough, it becomes the truth")
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To: WayneS

LOL! Actually - only when we did the marble trick. I mean, shooting at the BACK of them with your BB gun was obviously safe!


77 posted on 07/22/2008 1:00:36 PM PDT by 21twelve (Don't wish for peace. Pray for Victory.)
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To: WayneS

I remember the old practice field at high school had sverything made out of steel and concreted into the ground. The extra point / field goal posts were on the goal line an no cushions on them either.


78 posted on 07/22/2008 1:03:29 PM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (A vote for any Democrat from BO on down the ticket is a vote for $10 a gallon gas.)
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To: Alouette
Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said signs were posted in playgrounds warning against going barefoot.

"We're not going to remove [the mats]," Benepe told The News. "Our playgrounds are the safest in the world."

Well, then. No problem. After all, children never fall down or sit down - besides, you could take eggs and meat to the park and cook them lunch while they're playing.

No one, it seems, has been taught critical thinking. No one thinks a thing through, like "If I do this, what might be ramifications?"

And even worse, when there's proof of harmful consequences, they brush it off as if that will somehow make it okay.

And besides, they have a sign up!

79 posted on 07/22/2008 1:04:47 PM PDT by maine-iac7 (No trees were killed in sending this message but a large number of electrons were terrible agitated)
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To: AU72
1. Played baseball un-supervised, no helmets.
2. Bicycles without helmets.
3. Roller skates without knee-elbow pads, helmets.
4. Swimming in pre-EPA rivers.
5. Ice skating/hockey on somewhat frozen ponds, no helmets.

I'll bet you even rode in the back of the station wagon.

80 posted on 07/22/2008 1:04:52 PM PDT by Alouette (Vicious Babushka)
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