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UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:___________________ I, _________________________________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in: It is entitled: This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ Planning urban playgrounds from the environmental health perspective: site selection and design in the Greater Cincinnati Area A Thesis submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Community Planning in the School of Planning of the College of Design, Architecture Art, and Planning 2006 by Anamaria Bukvic B.S., University of Zagreb, Croatia, 1998 M.Sci., University of Cincinnati, 2001 Committee Chair: Dr. Carla Chifos ABSTRACT This study investigates the problem of children’s exposure to environmental hazards in open spaces designated for play and recreation from the planning perspective. It brings a new level of awareness about children’s environmental health issues into the planning profession and emphasizes the role of planners in addressing this problem through provision of safer and healthier outdoor environments. For the field investigation, 40 randomly selected playgrounds in the Cincinnati metropolitan area were surveyed for the presence of four major environmental exposures: ultraviolet radiation, air pollution from mobile and stationary sources, pollution from hazardous waste sites, and noise pollution. The analysis of surveyed playgrounds in the Cincinnati metro area reveals that the majority of playgrounds has insufficient shade options and is situated in locations surrounded with densely traveled transportation routes and at least one pollution source within the one-mile radius. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of my dear mentor and friend, Dr. Carla Chifos, who provided the enthusiastic supervision of my research and coursework during the course of my study. I am also indebted to Dr. David Edelman for his help and understanding that were essential in pursuit of my degree. In addition, I would also like to thank to Dr. Glenn Talaska for his helpful guidance and efforts to assist me in reaching my educational and career goals. He has provided invaluable support in my transition from the field of environmental health to planning, as well as in my research endeavors. I would like to acknowledge Duraid Daas who shared with me his perspective and experiences from the open space planning, as well as to thank all other planning faculty and student colleagues for their unlimited support and enjoyable discussions that have made this journey such a wonderful experience. Lastly, but the most importantly, I am forever indebted to my husband and our, currently three-year old son for their love, understanding, everlasting patience, and encouragement without which none of my achievements would have been possible. Moreover, I would like to thank to my dear parents who offered their unlimited support for my educational and personal endeavors over the years, even though many miles away. TABLE OF CONTENTS: CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 3 1.1. Problem statement 3 1.2. Research questions 5 1.3. Research approach 6 1.4. Thesis structure 9 CHAPTER 2: CHILDREN’S HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT 10 2.1. Children and susceptibility to environmental health hazards 10 2.1.1. Biological susceptibility 11 2.1.2. Behavioral susceptibility 13 2.2. Children and environmental health issues 14 2.2.1. Pollution from stationary sources 17 2.2.2. Pollution from mobile sources 19 2.2.3. Exposure to solar radiation 20 2.2.4. Noise pollution 25 2.3. Policies and regulations that address children’s environmental health issues 27 CHAPTER 3: CHILDREN AND URBAN PLAYGROUNDS 34 3.1. Importance of children’s play and recreation in open spaces 35 3.2. Urban playgrounds 36 3.3. Environmental health issues on urban playgrounds 38 CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND PLAYGROUNDS IN CINCINNATI 45 1 4.1. Local authorities/regulations that oversee health and safety on playgrounds 46 4.2. Environmental health issues that may affect playground safety in Cincinnati 49 4.2.1. Air pollution 49 4.2.2. Toxic waste sites 52 4.2.3. Noise pollutions 55 CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS OF CINCINNATI’S PLAYGROUNDS WITH RESPECT TO ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH EXPOSURES 58 5.1. Methods 58 5.2. Results 61 5.3. Conclusions 63 CHAPTER 6: ANALYSIS OF CINCINNATI’S PLAYGROUNDS WITH RESPECT TO SOLAR EXPOSURE 68 6.1. Methods 68 6.2. Results 71 6.3. Conclusions 73 CHAPTER 7: CLOSING STATEMENTS 79 7.1. Recommendations 79 7.2. Study limitations 81 BIBLIOGRAPHY 83 APPENDIX A: Filed reports from surveyed playgrounds in Cincinnati area ………... 90 APPENDIX B: Data sets for Google Earth analysis …………………………. 131 2 CHAPTER 1 ______ INTRODUCTION This study investigates the problem of children’s exposure to environmental hazards in open spaces designated for play and recreation from the planning perspective. It brings a new level of awareness about children’s environmental health issues into the planning profession and emphasizes the role of planners in addressing this problem through provision of a safer and healthier outdoor environment. Moreover, the literature review, research data, and resulting recommendations presented in this thesis should provide a strong foundation for planners and open space designers to understand and deal appropriately with the problems related to the creation of healthy open spaces dedicated to children. 1.1 Problem statement Growing body of laboratory and epidemiological data is showing negative implications of various environmental factors on children’s health. Children represent a particularly vulnerable population group that is more susceptible to adverse environmental insults then adults due to their physiological, developmental, and behavioral characteristics including biological sensitivity, exploratory behavior, and diet. Their organism absorbs, metabolizes, and distributes environmental chemicals in a unique manner, all of which further limits their ability to effectively biotransform and eliminate these compounds from the body. Moreover, children have a natural drive to explore the world around them through touch, taste, and movement. These increased opportunities for direct contact with 3 contaminants place them at the additional risk for chemical exposure. Therefore, it is essential to provide children with a healthy and safe environment to play, learn, and recreate. Considering that children generally spend more time outdoors than adults, the preventive environmental health recommendations should in large part refer to open spaces designated for children, primarily playgrounds. Unfortunately, current local and state regulations, national research and policy agenda leave children largely under-protected (Bearer et al., 1994). Although they tend to regulate playground equipment and surface materials to prevent physical injuries, they fail to address playgrounds’ safety from the environmental health perspective. Recent environmental changes such as global warming, ozone depletion, as well as air, water, and soil pollution likely have direct or indirect adverse effect on children’s health. Few of such influences have been extensively documented in scientific literature and include the impact of air pollutants (from either point or mobile sources) on incidence of allergies and asthma (Berti et al., 2005; Gordian et al. 2005) 3), the link between sun exposure and incidence of skin cancer (English et al., 1997, Armstrong and Kricker, 1993), as well as the positive relationship between exposure to environmental chemicals and neurodevelopmental disorders (Colborn, 2004). To minimize children’s exposure to environmental hazards and optimally protect their health we need to reassess the current approaches to open space planning, especially playgrounds, as well as reevaluate the actual health risks for children beyond just physical safety associated with the use of playground equipment. The development of a 4 new methodology that would include environmental health components may be critical to municipal initiatives focusing on the development of new, as well as the revival of existing playgrounds in an environmentally safe and sustainable fashion. 1.2 Research questions Based on the literature review and the research component, this project aims to address the following questions: 1. Should planners integrate environmental health components when designing recreational open spaces and playgrounds for children? 2. Which environmental health issues associated with the urban playgrounds are most harmful to children’s health? 3. What planning and design innovations can increase environmental health safety in an open environment designated for children’s play and recreation? 4. Does this issue have enough substance to deem legislative support? 5. Does the current placement and design of playgrounds in Cincinnati, Ohio, put its users at the higher risk of developing health problems due to the environmental exposures? 5 1.3 Research approach The research approach to this study is comprised of the following two components: 1.3.1. Literature review of scientific literature, journals, books, and web resources that addresses the following questions: ● Why is it fundamentally important to protect children’s health from environmental