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
exposures?
● Which environmental health hazards may adversely affect children while using outdoor
urban playgrounds?
● Why is it imperative to ensure a healthy and safe open space environment for
children’s play and recreation?
● Which measures can minimize children’s environmental exposures and subsequently
associated environmental health risks?
The literature review section investigates children’s specific physical and behavioral characteristics that make them one of the most vulnerable groups to environmental exposures. It attempts to elucidate which nonbiological threats, among the myriad of environmental health risks, are the most frequently encountered by children who use open spaces designated for play and recreation. Moreover, this segment emphasizes the importance of children’s play in a safe and healthy environment for their long-term physiological and psychological wellbeing and delineates potential measures that can
help achieve this goal. It also discusses the current role of environmental/community
6 planners and open space designers in provision of such spaces, as well as the means they could utilize to integrate the environmental health component into their traditional operating approaches. As such, this literature analysis provides an extensive foundation for the next step of the thesis research, which is based on the field survey of children’s playgrounds in relation to environmental health hazards conducted in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1.3.2. Field investigation evaluates playground’s planning and design practices in
Cincinnati, Ohio from the environmental health perspective. The objective of this
research component is to assess venues of environmental exposures that may affect children using public playgrounds in the Cincinnati area. The majority of those playgrounds were designed and constructed by the Cincinnati Recreation Commission.
This research design should serve as a model reflecting similar situations on other urban playgrounds that may be potentially affected by the adverse environmental factors from their surroundings. For the field investigation, 40 randomly selected playgrounds in the
Cincinnati metropolitan area were surveyed for the presence of four major environmental exposures:
1) Ultraviolet radiation evaluated by the presence of natural shade and/or artificial shade
structures on playgrounds and type of surface materials that may affect the amount of
UV reflected into the surrounding space.
2) Air pollution from mobile sources such as highways and other busy roads, as well as
from point sources such as industry, waste incinerators and facilities that emit noxious
odors.
7 3) Pollution from hazardous waste sites.
4) Noise pollution from transportation routes, factories, and airports.
Potential adverse effects from the three latter exposures (air pollution, hazardous waste
sites, and noise pollution) were solely estimated based on their approximate distance
from the individual playgrounds. In addition, playground’s quality was evaluated based
on the presence of noise, obnoxious odors, visual obstructions and beneficial features.
Two different approaches, locality assessments and site evaluations, were selected to
investigate the problems related not only to the playground design, but also to the playground’s placement in respect to mobile and point pollution sources located in surrounding areas (more in detail explained in Chapters 5 and 6):
● Locality assessments - accomplished by using Google Earth satellite/aerial photo
imagery, other geographic information and interactive tools to determine the distance
between surveyed playgrounds and major mobile/stationary pollution sources
(transportation, industry, and toxic waste sites).
● Site evaluations - to estimate playgrounds’ spatial organization for the presence of
shade elements and surface materials (to address UV exposure).
8 1.4 Thesis structure
The thesis consists of seven chapters. The first chapter includes statement of the problem,
the objectives and research questions of this study, as well as concise explanation of the methodology and approach to research. Chapters two, three, and four are based on the literature review and discuss issues related to the children’s health and environmental exposures, the role of urban planners and designers in ensuring safe and healthy children’s play in urban open space environment, as well as potential measures that can improve children’s health and safety in respect to environmental health insults. Chapters five and six confine this problem to the case of Cincinnati, Ohio, and evaluate potential environmental exposures on urban playgrounds in this area. Moreover, they deliberate other non-environmental issues related to placement and design of playgrounds in this urban center, such as zoning, policy, regulations, and financial considerations. Chapter seven includes recommendations, study limitations, and future directions that may help planners and open space designers to consider implementing environmental health
components in their future professional efforts.
9 CHAPTER 2______
CHILDREN’S’ HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT
This section identifies general themes related to children’s health and environmental health issues. It has been increasingly recognized that children’s organisms function differently than adults, making them more susceptible to environmental exposures. Even though there are more and more attempts to address this problem in scientific investigations, educational outreach initiatives, and regulatory actions, these efforts are still largely insufficient and modest in their intensity. Materials reviewed in this chapter discuss existing scientific findings that support the relationship between children’s health and environmental insults, outreach programs designed to raise awareness about this issue, and policies/regulations designed to protect children’s environmental health interests.
2.1 Children and susceptibility to environmental health hazards
Children from all over the world are frequently exposed to health risks from environmental hazards often present concurrently in their indoor and outdoor habitat.
Worldwide, more than 40% of all diseases diagnosed in children under five years of age can be attributed to environmental factors such as polluted soil, contaminated water, chemicals, food, radiation, and intense noise. A mounting body of scientific evidence corroborates the special need for a novel, progressive approach in scientific research and
10 decision-making processes that will take into account the unique susceptibility of
children to environmental risks (WHO).
2.1.1. Biological susceptibility.
Children’s biological systems and functions greatly differ than those of adults. They have
underdeveloped immune system and lungs, as well as specific enzymatic activity, rates of
absorption and metabolization of foreign substances. Children overall eat more food, drink more water, and breathe more air per pound of body weight than do adults and are therefore exposed to greater quantities of pollutants per unit of body weight (ATSDR
1988). The fact that their tissues and organ systems are still in developing stage makes
them more susceptible to neurological damage, abnormal development, hormonal
imbalances, respiratory illnesses, and even cancer (USEPA 1996).
Distinct liver and kidney functions, including related metabolic pathways in the early
stages of childhood, affect break down, excretion, inactivation, and activation of toxic
compounds. Moreover, different stages of children’s growth and development have
distinctive windows of vulnerability to environmental contaminants for characteristic
organ damage from infanthood though adolescence. For example, rapidly developing
brain of younger children may be more sensitive to toxic exposures than largely
developed brain at a later age. Alternatively, adolescents may be more susceptible to
adverse effects of hormone disrupting chemicals that may modify regular pubertal
processes and outcomes. In addition, children have longer life expectancy that gives
11 diseases with long latency period from exposure to appearance of symptomatic sufficient
time for manifestation (Goldman 2000).
Children’s developing lungs are also at greater risk of respiratory damage from the air
pollutants than are those of adults due to greater exposure and higher tissue sensitivity.
Children have greater minute ventilation (flow of air per unit of time) relative to their body surface area when at rest. Moreover, they tend to spend more active time outdoors what further increases their minute ventilation and promotes detrimental mouth breathing that lacks nasal filtration system. Both of this phenomena increase total effective dose to children of inhaled pollutants from the ambient air. Once absorbed into children’s lungs, contaminants may be even more damaging than in adult’s respiratory system due to activation of repair systems that may impede lung growth and maturation (Balmes, 2000).
Epidemiological data has established a positive correlation between exposure to ozone during early childhood and adult lung function observed as a decreased flow at low lungs volumes. Evidence from the longitudinal study has linked exposure to nitrogen oxides and particulate matter with reduced growth rates in spirometrically measured lung function (Balmes 2000). Multiple epidemiological studies associated air pollution with increased respiratory symptoms and exacerbation of asthma, especially among children.
In addition, it was observed that children’s exposure to single pollutants results in detrimental health effects even at exposure concentrations lower than those that cause
effects in controlled animal and human studies (Leikauf 2000).
12 2.1.2. Behavioral susceptibility
Besides biological susceptibility, children increase their exposures to pollutants in the environment by typical age-related behaviors such as hand-to-mouth activity that promotes ingestion of contaminated dust or soil and play close to the ground. Latter behavior not only increases children’s exposure to pollutants in dust and soil but also to any pollutants that form low-lying layers in the air, such as certain pesticide vapors
(ATSDR 1988). Children may also have specific exposure conditions related to the frequency, duration, and location of contact with contaminants through dietary preferences and habits, beverage consumption, and times spent at special locations
(Blancato 2000). Moreover, younger children ages 1-3 recurrently engage in activities that can facilitate soil ingestion such as eating with their hands, eating food dropped on the floor, and putting their fingers and other objects in their mouths. This unintentional pathway of exposure to pollutants may account for significant portion of childhood absorption. Soil-pica behavior is also present among children, although not so frequently as spontaneous ingestion. It includes frequent intentional or unintentional consumption of high quantities of soil (1,000-2,000 milligrams/day) and is more common among children under the six years of age and developmentally delayed individuals. Even though five and six years old children are less commonly to engage in hand-to-mouth behavior, they tend to spend more time outdoors what may increase their risk of soil ingestion. Behavioral investigations discovered that 87 percent of children between one and four years of age prevalently lie or play on the floor, while 50 percent frequently play on grass or dirt
(ATSDR Summary Report 2001).
13 2.2 Children and environmental health issues
The last few decades were marked with the growing increase of pediatric diseases linked
to environmental factors, such as asthma, acute respiratory infections, cancer, neurobehavioral disorders like autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD), as well as certain cancers. Toxic environmental exposures may be in part
responsible for the rapid increase of acute lymphocytic leukemia, the most common form
of childhood cancer, for about 20 percent during the past two decades (Landrigan 1995).
Children’s long life expectancy gives them more time to develop chronic diseases
possibly triggered by early environmental exposures. Several studies propose the
association between the onset of breast cancer at later age and previous exposure to
certain endocrine disrupters like DDT. Current scientific understanding of chronic
neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease suggests their
multistage progress that requires many years to evolve. Toxic exposures sustained in
childhood are more likely to cause these diseases than the same exposures encountered
during the adulthood (Landrigan 1995). Emerging issues such as the effect of endocrine
disrupting compounds on children’s growth and development caused by a number of
persistent environmental pollutants add additional complexity and burden to global and
national health protection efforts. Physical and biological environmental exposures are
responsible for at least three million deaths annually worldwide among children under
five years of age (WHO).
Exposure to airborne pollutants represents one of the most detrimental environmental
hazards to children’s wellbeing. Infants and children, including the special subpopulation
14 diagnosed with chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, and emphysema, are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects caused by indoor and outdoor airborne contaminants. They have greater ventilation rate per body weight and lung surface area than adults, and therefore inhale greater amount of air pollutants into their lungs. Children also have narrower airways and more sensitive, still developing, tissues then adults that make them more susceptible to irritation and inflammation upon the exposure to air pollutants. In addition, they spend more time outdoors, especially during the summer months, when the surface-level ozone levels are usually the highest
(Senate Bill 25). Acute respiratory infections annually kill an estimated two million children under the age of five with as much as 60 percent of them being associated with the environment (WHO).
Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease in the United States, affecting some 4.8 million children below the age of 18 years. It accounted for 3,850 deaths among people under the age of 24, displaying a mortality increase of 118 percent, from 1980 to
1993. In the same period, asthma has become the leading cause of children’s hospital admissions with 28 percent increase over previous years. Overall, more than 25 percent of American children live in areas that do not meet national air quality standards, exposing them to air pollutants that may contribute to asthma and other respiratory problems (USEPA 1996). Even though it is not completely clear what causes asthma, air pollution is considered an important contributor to this problem, in addition to the excessive use of antibiotics and cleaning products (American Academy of Pediatrics,
2000), poor diets, less exercise, and more time spent indoors (von Mutious 2000).
15 Exposure levels to air pollution may vary among different urban populations. Individuals and institutions that respond to the daily smog and ozone alerts provided as mandatory by state and local agencies may limit their outdoor activities and consequently reduce their exposure to ambient air pollutants. The extent of this response is still unclear and depends on the level of education, access to daily media sources, and affluence among the members of urban communities. These socio-economic factors likely influence family’s perception of the air quality as an important attribute for the overall good wellbeing and encourage them to relocate to the areas with cleaner air, as well as provide a smoke-free environment and seek preventive health care (Neidell 2004).
Besides the inhalation, children can be exposed to environmental agents through ingestion of contaminated materials and/or direct skin contact with the contaminants.
Some well-documented cases of such exposures include exposure to lead and arsenic
from industrial and municipal sources or playground equipment itself. Numerous
nationwide daycare, school, and public playgrounds contain metal or wood equipment
painted with deteriorated lead paint that releases paint chips and dust that pose a
significant lead poisoning hazard to playgrounds occupants. In this case, younger
children are at the highest risk as they frequently place their hands in the mouth after
touching the equipment and surrounding surface materials. The U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission (CPSC) evaluation of older equipment installed on 26 playgrounds in
13 cities located in 11 different states across the United States revealed that 20 of them
had elevated concentrations of lead that exceeded 0.06 percent allowable level (CPSC
1996).
16 2.2.1. Pollution from stationary sources
A mounting body of scientific evidence suggest that children’s health may be adversely
affected by the pollution generated from stationary sources such as utilities, chemical and
manufacturing industries, hazardous waste sites, and sewage treatment plants.
Intermittent pollution related to the opening and closing of a steel mill due to the labor
strike was associated with the incidence of asthma and bronchitis in children living in the
mill’s vicinity (Ransom and Pope 1995).
An epidemiological study conducted in Taiwan compared the respiratory health of
children living in an area with active petrochemical manufacturing industries, and
therefore high levels of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and other
aerosols, with those living in a region without any local pollution sources. Children living
in a highly industrialized region had significantly more respiratory problems and asthma
than the children living in a less polluted area (Yang et al. 1998). Another cross-sectional
study monitored children’s exposure to cadmium and lead generated by the local metal
refining industry in Duisburg, Germany. Children living in a vicinity of the industrialized
zone did not have higher cadmium levels than the children in control area, but had higher
lead levels correlated to the ambient levels in that region (Wilhelm et. al. 2005). Similar
results were obtained from a study designed to compare blood samples of children
attending the school near a lead smelter and a control group for the presence of lead.
Children from the polluted area had noticeably higher levels of lead than those from the
rural unpolluted location. Moreover, their urine samples revealed the presence of a
17 specific protein that signifies kidney damage and can serve as an indicator of lead- induced injury (Bernard et. al. 1995).
The case of massive open space pollution in Tacoma, Washington, from a local smelter represents a good example of air pollution migration from the point source into other surrounding environmental media such as soil and water. The smelter released noxious fumes in the air above King County for almost a century before being dismantled in
1990s. After closure, environmental officials have discovered high level of arsenic and lead soil contamination in the surrounding soil. After testing local parks and playgrounds, investigators discovered that nineteen new parks and playgrounds in King County had higher levels of these two pollutants than the state clean-up standards of which one had four times higher arsenic levels than acceptable by the EPA’s standards (Chittim 2005).
Another point source that may pose a significant health problem for open space users are hazardous waste sites. In recent years, more attention has been directed towards the health assessment of sites with known high potential for children’s exposure to contaminants through direct contact with polluted soils and dusts. As children have unique activity patterns and greater susceptibility to metals, nitrates, and other substances that may adversely affect their health, they were given a special consideration in assessment studies designed to investigate human exposures from the hazardous waste sites. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) survey discovered that approximately 3-4 million American children live within one mile of one or multiple hazardous waste sites. Moreover, the analysis of Geographic Information System data
18 has revealed that a significant number of children lives near one or more of 1,255
National Priority List (NPL) sites: 1,127,563 children less than 6 years of age live within
one-mile radius of the sites, representing 11% of potentially affected population. Children who live near such waste sites often have greater exposure and greater potential for developing health problems (ATSDR).
2.2.2. Pollution from mobile sources
Mobile pollution sources include both road traffic including all types of motorized vehicles and off-road traffic such as ships, airplanes, construction machinery, and agricultural equipment. Together, they generate about 75 percent of carbon monoxide pollution, as well as significant portion of other contaminants including nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and many known carcinogens (Scorecard 2005). This type of pollution is recognized as a contributing factor for development of bronchitis, asthma, and other respiratory illnesses.
One study discovered that respiratory performance in children was improved proportionally with the decrease in traffic density of the main road servicing their school district (Wist et. al. 1993). Hospitalization of young children for wheezing bronchitis and asthma also reflected fluctuations in traffic density near their homes (Pershagen et. al.,
1995, Edwards et. al. 1994).). Children living within 90 m radius of busy road were at especially high risk for bronchial problems (Venn et. al. 2001). Similarly, it was found that children who live less than 100 m distance from the major freeways in the South
19 Holland had significantly higher occurrence of wheezing, coughing, runny nose, and
asthma than children living at greater distances from the freeways (van Vliet et. al. 1997).
Among other compounds, auto emissions contain Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
(PAHs), a group of contaminants known to cause cancer. PAHs can be easily transferred
to the surrounding soil and crops because of migration from the air and road run-off. As
such, they do not only represent an inhalation hazard, but also a risk through dietary
intake and dermal contact, which are an important source of PAHs exposure to children
playing in the vicinity of busy roads (Pathirana et. al., 1994). After measuring total PAHs
levels in soil and sand of daycare centers located in the vicinity of roads with high traffic density (18,000 cars/day), Czech researchers discovered significantly higher levels of
PAHs than in the areas with lower traffic density (80 cars/day) (Fiala et. al. 2001).
2.2.3. Exposure to solar radiation
Ultraviolet radiation represents an invisible component of all solar emissions that daily
reach our planet. Based on different wavelengths, it can be divided to UVA (315-400
nm), UVB (280-315 nm), and UVC emits types of UV radiation: UVA (315-400 nm),
UVB (280-315 nm), and UVC radiation (100-280 nm). UVC has very short wavelengths
and, even though the most biologically potent, fortunately does not reach our atmosphere.
On the other hand, UVA and UVB emissions have longer wavelengths that reach the
Earth and are more damaging to human health. The amount of ultraviolet radiation that
reaches Earth’s surface has significantly increased over the past few decades in good part
20 due to environmental changes related to industrialization and resulting pollution. In 2000,
the ozone hole over the Antarctic experienced its biggest expansion ever covering an area of 11.4 million square miles that is more than three times the size of US. Numerous scientific studies pinpoint UV exposure as a main risk factor for development of skin cancers, certain types of eye damage, premature skin aging, and immunosuppression
(WHO 2005).
UVA emissions represent about 90 percent of all ultraviolet radiation that reaches Earth.
This type of radiation can penetrate deeply into the layers of the human skin and may promote skin aging, wrinkling, immunosuppression, cataract formation, and skin cancer.
The intensity of UVA radiation is more constant throughout the year and during the day, as well as less affected by the ozone depletion than UVB radiation. However, it is the
UVB rays that are more potent, having a high amount of energy sufficient to cause photochemical damage on the cellular level and are responsible for sunburn (erythema), eye cataracts, and skin cancer (Sayre 1992). The wavelength range from 306-310 nm that causes sunburn is very similar to the one that contributes to skin cancer risk (298-237 nm) suggesting that incidences of sunburn may indicate a person’s predisposition to develop skin cancer. Moreover, this also implies that a major culprit for the sun-related cancers is UVB radiation, with UVA also contributing to the problem, but to a lesser extent (Nole and Johnson 2004).
Skin cancer is the most common, yet most preventable form of cancer in the United
States. It includes three different types: more benign basal cell and squamous cell
21 carcinoma, as well as more severe malignant melanoma. The first two types are associated with cumulative exposures to ultraviolet radiation and can be easily treated if
detected on time, while melanoma is related to acute incidences of sun exposure resulting
in sunburn. The American Cancer Society estimates that during 2005, about 1 million
new cases of basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma and about 59,600 new cases of
malignant melanoma will be diagnosed. It also predicts that skin cancer will claim the
lives of approximately 10,600 Americans annually (American Cancer Society, 2005).
Overall, more than 90 percent of all skin cancers are attributed to sun exposure and can
be prevented by sufficient sun protection measures. Besides the duration and frequency
of sun exposure, the skin cancer risk depends on skin type, eye and hair color, tendency
to burn and tan, presence of freckles and moles; and the genetic predisposition (Scott et
al. 1997).
The childhood sun exposure is considered an essential contributing factor to the
development of melanoma at the later age. The highest melanoma risk during adulthood
is found among those individuals who were extensively exposed to sun during the earlier
years of their life. Consequently, people with low to moderate sun exposure in adulthood
but high sun exposure during childhood likely have a higher risk of developing
melanoma than those with high sun exposure in adulthood, but with low sun exposure
during the childhood. These findings suggest that sun protection during childhood would
have a greater impact on melanoma risk than sun protection during adulthood and thus
emphasize the importance of the sun protection in early stages of human life (Autier and
Dore 1998).
22 The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that around 80 percent of a person’s
lifetime exposure to potentially harmful solar ultraviolet radiation occurs before the age
of 18 years. Excessive childhood sun exposure followed by severe sunburns increases a
risk of developing a skin cancer, including the most lethal form, the malignant melanoma.
Akin to other environmental exposures, children are generally more susceptible to the
harmful effects of UV radiation than are adults. From the biological standpoint, they have
thinner and highly sensitive skin prone to sun burning, as well as long life expectancy
that increases the opportunities for development of cancer and eye cataracts (USEPA
1996). It has been suggested that the critical period of melanocytic activity that creates
freckles and moles occurs in childhood. This important stage in skin development
signifies a period of vulnerability to the adverse effects of solar radiation as children
exposed to sun light will contain more initiated melanocytes (cells that produce melanin)
that can eventually develop into cancerous cells (Whiteman et al. 2001).
Epidemiological studies strongly implicate solar UV exposure as the major culprit in
development of malignant melanoma with the emphasis on exposure during the
childhood as this may be a period of particular susceptibility to sun-related carcinogenesis (Marks and Whiteman, 1994). The immunosuppressive effect of UV radiation plays a critical role in UV carcinogenesis and likely aggravates the aforesaid trends in cancer formation. (Moyal and Fourtanier 2002). Migration data that tracked people of similar hereditary background to Australian population who moved to Australia after the childhood revealed that they have lesser risk of skin cancer than people who were born and raised in Australia. This study provided strong evidence that the
23 predisposition to skin cancer is largely determined by sun exposure in the first ten years
of life (Armstrong and Kricker 2001).
From a behavioral perspective, children tend to spend time outdoors more frequently and
in longer intervals than adults. Considering their inclination to play in open spaces they
have high probability of UV exposure (USEPA 1996). Moreover, they are frequently
unaware of the harmful effects of UV radiation and unable to protect themselves.
Therefore, they depend on parents and open space planners/designers to provide such
protection. As aforementioned studies suggest, that the risk of skin cancer results in
significant part from cumulative sun exposure received over a lifetime and more
particularly during the childhood (Robinson et al. 1998), more effort was placed to estimate children’s daily unintentional exposure. In public perception, the need for sun
protection is generally associated with the sporadic acute exposure and neglects the
importance of lower-intensity but longer-term UV exposure. The model developed on the
average individual living in Philadelphia predicts that the person will be incidentally exposed to more than 15,000 Minimal Erythema Doses (minimal amount of radiation sufficient to cause temporary reddening of the skin) by the age of 20 and another 25,000
MEDs when they reach the age of 70 by performing normal daily routine activities.
Living in a sunnier setting such as Oakland would add another 15,000 MEDs over a person’s lifetime. The findings also suggest that even a modest UVR protection may reduce the total UV dose acquired over a lifetime by as much as 50%. (Nole and
Johnson 2004).
24 2.2.4. Noise pollution
Our society is becoming increasingly noisy. The unwelcome sounds are being more
frequently recognized as a significant environmental pollutant and number one quality of
life complaint. Even though scientists have been aware of detrimental effects of a very
loud intensive noise on human hearing for a long time, only recently they focused their
research efforts to measure effects of excessive urban noise in respect to health risks.
Number of such studies confirmed the adverse effects of noise on both mental and physical health (Bronzaft 2001). World Health Organization also identifies noise pollution as a serious problem that may interfere with people, and especially children’s daily activities at school, work, home, and during the leisure time. Some of the main health effects of excessive noise are pain and hearing fatigue, hearing problems, annoyance, alterations in social behavior (aggressiveness), disruption of speech communication, sleep disturbances, cardiovascular problems, stress hormone imbalances and associated effects, and lower performance at work and school (WHO 2005). Children
are at the highlighted risk of non-auditory noise health effects: they have undeveloped
cognitive ability to comprehend and anticipate sound stressors from their environment. In
addition, they lack mature strategies to cope with such external insults. Review of
numerous research studies shows that urban noise has the strongest negative effect on
behavior, sleep, and cognitive performance in children with often-irreversible
consequences for this vulnerable population. Children chronically exposed to excessive
noise had difficulty concentrating, poorer auditory discrimination and speech perception,
memory needed for processing demanding tasks, and poorer reading ability and school
25 performance on national standardized tests. Two European studies revealed that children living close to an airport had significantly higher levels of endocrine stress hormones than did the children living in a more quiet area. In addition, children of all ages exposed to excessive noise showed higher level of annoyance and irritability (Stansfeld and
Matheson 2003).
Data collected in countries across the European Union suggest that about 40 percent of residents is exposed to road traffic noise at levels higher than 55 dB(A) and 20 percent is exposed to levels higher than 65 dB(A) during the day. During the night time, more than
30 percent of people living in European countries is exposed to levels higher than 55 dB(A). These measurements greatly exceed WHO’s guidelines for community noise which call for less than 30 dB(A) during the night to ensure optimal sleep and less than
35 dB(A) in the classrooms to provide adequate learning environment (WHO 2005).
Literature suggests that the most common sources of urban noise pollution are traffic, airports, emergency vehicles, industry, construction sites, buildings air-conditioners, emergency power generators, and nightclubs. In one study, residents living near busy roads indicated noise to be the greater indoor traffic-related nuisance than other types of vehicle-generated pollution such as exhaust fumes, odors, and dust (Williams and
McCrae 1995). Even though a substantial amount of interest was focused on the effects of urban noise on the people living in home environment, only a few studies looked at the noise effects on the users of outdoor recreational areas. Study that measured noise perception in recreational setting next to the airport showed positive relationship between the noise exposure and level of people annoyance. Number of noise events generated by
26 the aircrafts was associated with the total manifestations of annoyance, especially if it
crossed a certain threshold (Aasvang and Engdahl 2004, 994).
2.3. Policies and regulations that address children’s environmental health issues
A majority of existing pediatric environmental health regulations recognize that children
are distinctively vulnerable to environmental exposure due to their rapid state of growth
and active development of many critical organ systems and tissues. They also understand
that children often have greater exposure to environmental chemicals than adults because
they consume more water and food per body weight, breathe more air at much faster rate, and spend more time in direct contact with potentially hazardous environmental
compounds. Pediatric regulations and policies are concerned with children’s exposure to
environmental toxins, which may cause disruption of normal development, permanent
irreversible neurological damage, and initiation of chronic lifetime diseases like cancer.
They recognize that children have unique exposure patterns as well as sensitivities and,
accordingly, use different scientific approach to study interactions between environment
and children’s health. The objective of such regulations is, among others, to develop
specific environmental standards to protect children regardless their socio-economic and
ethnic background, as well as outreach and educational programs to inform public about
the environmental issues that may be ever more damaging for children. Some of their
common goals are to ensure that all EPA’s standards reflect a higher risk to children,
establish new scientific research approaches specific to children’s health, develop new
27 policies and regulations, increase educational and outreach efforts, encourage families to
make informed decisions regarding their own children, and provide necessary
funding/grants for the aforementioned research and educational efforts. The majority of
children’s environmental health legislation introduced to the House of Representatives
were referred to the other House Committees with little or no action taken. One of the
exceptions is the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), unanimously passed by Congress
in 1996, that specifically takes into account children's unique vulnerability to pesticide
exposures. In addition, it mandates all food pesticide standards, provides special
protection for infants and children, and supports the use of safer pesticides and alternative
pest-management practices (Environmental Protection Agency 2000).
The School Environment Protection Act (SEPA) was first introduced in November 1999
by Senator Torricelli (S.1716) in both the U.S. Senate and House to tackle the problem of
pesticide applications on school grounds. This Act has emerged as a product of multilevel
negotiations between environmental organizations, lawn care industry, mosquito control
activists, children and labor services, chemical and pest management industries, and
agricultural representatives to addresses importance of children’s play and recreation in
safe and healthy environment on school grounds. It provides basic levels of protection for
children and school employees from the use of pesticides in both public school buildings
and open space areas. It requires public schools to implement safer approaches to pest
control known as integrated pest management approach (IPM) that relies more on
prevention and biological treatments than on sole use of synthetic chemicals. Moreover, it entails pest management contractor to inform parents and school staff prior pesticide
28 application. Experiences gained from this effort to minimize the use of hazardous pest control chemicals validate it economically and effectively, therefore providing valuable information for other nationwide institutions interested in this approach to pest control
(SEPA 2005).
The Children’s Environmental Protection and Right to Know Act was introduced to the
House of Representatives in 1997 (H.R.1636) and reintroduced in 1999 (H.R.1657) by
Representative Waxman. It calls for the revision of all existing ambient air quality standards known to cause adverse health effects in infants and children. It requires adjustment of all air quality standards and control measures that may not adequately protect this most vulnerable population. This process includes reevaluation of exposure patterns, specific susceptibility of infants and children, adverse health effects, and simultaneous exposure to multiple contaminants, such as criteria and other toxic air pollutants. This Act relies on the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as other federal and state agencies for regulatory inputs, research and data collection, and other programs and services that affect the children’s environmental health. It employs contemporary principles, practices, and methods developed by public health professionals trained in the fields of epidemiology, human health effects assessment, risk assessment, and toxicology. This Act encourages more research and assessment studies, optimization of Toxic Release Inventory reporting, and establishment of effective outreach and educational programs. It also accentuates the importance of information dissemination and suggests that all schools and daycare centers should be notified whenever any primary ambient air quality standard exceeds its limit. Such notifications should be distributed to all athletic organizations, public park agencies, and recreational facilities,
29 and should include restrictions for exercise and other outdoor activities during such
period (Senate Bill 25, 2001; United States House of Representatives 2001).
The Right-To-Know-More and Pollution Prevention Act of 1997 was introduced by
Senator Lautenberg (S. 769) and represents an addition to The Toxic Release Inventory
(TRI) reporting system developed by the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-
Know Act of 1986. In general, it requires expansion of TRI reporting requirements from
just manufacturing to the entire industrial sectors, provision of more detailed information
from each facility, and monitoring of greater number of toxic substances released from
the facility, especially those that may present a significant risk to children’s health. Most
importantly, it emphasizes the need to reevaluate and adjust current monitoring,
reporting, and outreach approaches to protect children’s health. This Act recognizes the
specific vulnerability of children and the need of policies to reflect this vulnerability by
setting new TRI reporting thresholds for chemicals that may pose a significant risk to
children's health due to their persistence in the environment, potential to bioaccumulate in
the body, disrupt normal function of endocrine systems, and/or cause other health
damage. The new strategy is beneficial in improving the amount of information available
to parents and other caregivers about substances and potential exposures and risks present
in their communities. In addition, this Act advocates pollution prevention as one of the
most efficient ways to avoid hazardous exposures in the first place. It strongly encourages
improvements and initiatives in the data collection and dissemination among the families
and caregivers and does not impede state and local regulations to adopt the laws that will
curb pollution even more in the interest of children’s health (Children’s Environmental
30 Health Network 2005).
Executive Order 13045: Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and
Safety Risks of 1997 signed by Bill Clinton instructs all federal agencies to prioritize
identification and assessment of environmental health risks that may markedly affect
children, as well as ensure that their policies, programs, activities, and standards address this unique risk to children. Moreover, it asks independent regulatory agencies to
participate in the implementation of this order and to comply with its requirements.
Overall, this Order requests assembly of a special Task Force responsible for
restructuring and reassessment of all previous research and decision-making efforts and
approaches based on the children’s vulnerability to environmental pollutants. It gives
firm deadlines and guidelines to the Task Force to reevaluate current scientific evidence,
regulations, and other pertinent information and generate a report that will emphasize the
missing gaps in existing research methods, as well as weaknesses in current regulations
related to adverse environmental health risks in children. This report would serve as a
foundation for future research coordination and integration, promote information sharing
between academic and private sectors, as well as encourage information dissemination to
public. Moreover, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) should be made aware of the evaluation of environmental health effects on children for the premeditated regulation, explanation why would proposed regulation provide better children’s health protection that the current one, proposal on practical reasonable alternatives, and development plans for emergencies by the issuing agency (Clinton
1997).
31 The aforementioned Presidential Executive Order does not merely recommend or
advocate environmental health protection in respect to children, but calls for immediate
action and response to growing problem of children’s environmental health issues. It asks
all federal agencies that deal with health and pollution issues to actively include and
address children’s unique vulnerability in their assessments and decision-making
processes, as well as directs independent Task Force to evaluate this issue. Therefore, it
sets the ground for new research and evaluation approaches on all levels, including policy
implementation and regulation. It gives higher priority to newly proposed legislations that
offer feasible and relatively easily achievable solutions to children’s environmental health
problems.
In conclusion, the majority of proposed regulations that address children’s environmental
health are mostly concerned with the lack of scientific research data that investigate
routes of exposure, absorption patterns, health consequences, and dose thresholds, as well
as with the Toxic Release Inventory reporting and information dissemination systems, listing of toxic substances, and public access and pollution prevention planning. Even though they have good agendas, the lack of legislative support hinders any significant progress in the establishing new and more stringent measures protective of children’s health. Therefore, it is still largely up to a concerned individual, specific interest groups, developers, or local government to investigate a potential environmental problem that may adversely affect children’s health and act in accordance with their current interests.
One of the main positive results of these regulations and corresponding outreach campaigns is an increase in the awareness about the children’s environmental health
32 among parents, caregivers, and pediatricians. For example, growing number of day care centers monitor ozone and smog alerts before deciding when and for how long should they take the kids play outside. Unfortunately, design and placement of public open spaces designated for children’s play and recreation are still largely unaffected by these policies and, therefore, leave children users mostly unprotected.
33 CHAPTER 3______
CHILDREN AND URBAN PLAYGROUNDS
Children are the most frequent and dedicated users of open space, whether it is only their backyard, nearby creek, grass field, or a public park with playground. They have an indigenous drive to spend as much as possible time outdoors in a wonderful world of discovery and spontaneous play. Their internal instincts tell children the same thing that scientists do, after many years of tedious research, that active play and recreation in open spaces is essentially important for their physical and mental health. Due to increased urbanization and changing leisure trends that occurred over the past two centuries this innate children’s need was restricted to different types of leisure – either more passive play in enclosed settings or controlled play in urban parks with playgrounds incorporated in the build environment. Many recent city redevelopment initiatives gave an opportunity for introduction of such new small islands allocated to children’s play and recreation, placed on empty lots created by the land-use conversions. Many of such newly formed opportunities for play spaces were initiated with the best intentions, but unfortunately did not take into consideration many other environmental factors related to the playground locality, such as vicinity of busy highways, noisy airports, and even polluting factories.
These adverse factors may not only affect quality of the playground, but also the health of its occupants. Therefore, this section discusses such urban open spaces and environmental health issues that may affect their anticipated purpose to provide children with a healthy and safe environment for play and recreation.
34 3.1. Importance of children’s play and recreation in open spaces
The importance of play for the overall development of children was recognized form the days of Greek philosophers throughout the recent history. Through the unrestricted play, children learn about the world around them what further helps them to develop healthy bodies and attitudes, as well as convey their emotions and shape personalities (Patton
1996). Active outdoor play has an important role in providing sufficient physical activity to children that may be facing obesity problems, as well as overall beneficial amount of daily exercise that is often insufficient in sedentary urban conditions of living. Moreover, such play also promotes proper sensory and motor development in children (Pellegrini and Smith 1998). Play also encourages creativity, imagination, and improvisation skills and builds up a strong foundation for the later academic achievements in reading, writing, mathematics, and sciences. Recent research suggests an important link between children’s play and cognitive growth and school academic performance (Bergen 2002). In addition to providing sheer joy to children, play is essentially important for their social and emotional learning, facilitating cooperation, compassion, impulse control, reduced violent behavior, and better emotional and social adjustment (Coplan and Rubin 1998).
Children’s play, and therefore the above mentioned associated benefits, are challenged in the modern-day societal construct due to the lack of outdoor spaces, fear of safety and violence in public parks, changes in social structure and family employment trends, cuts in recess school sessions, as well as artificial and inert atmosphere on many playgrounds.
Moreover, majority of children nowadays spend between 40-50 hours in institutional,
35 commercial and other day-care settings which rarely provide adequate outdoor play
spaces that can provide the same experiences as more complex localities that contain both
contemporary playgrounds and a natural environment component (Rivkin 1990). An
extensive review of studies related to the children’s activities by Fjørtoft revealed that
more sedentary approaches to play, often defined as a passive game in front of a TV,
video, and other electronic media, is not only correlated to the increased risk of obesity in early childhood but also with the motor development problems in children. Despite this trend, a majority of surveyed Norwegian children ages 3-7 expressed the preference for outdoor play, as well as complained about the lack of suitable places and unstructured environment for activities such as climbing, building dens, sliding, and other type of play
(Fjørtoft 2001).
3.2. Urban playgrounds
A playground can be defined as a recreational area specifically designed for children users to provide them with an open space area and appropriate play equipment that stimulates their social and physical development. An urban playground is a playground placed within a built environment and besides the traditional format they are frequently constructed as a part of community centers, churches, public housing development, school grounds, and private backyards (Patton 1996). Many of these new playground urban settings consist of isolated, often repetitive, pieces of equipment placed on a monotonous surface and do not reflect any of the qualities associated with being outdoors and exploring the natural environment. Such playgrounds are often called commercial
36 playgrounds, as they are focused on the provision of physical safety and high level of parental/childcare provider supervision rather than other components of children’s play like unrestricted exploratory, imaginative, and improvisational activities. In addition, parents almost exclusively decide when and where to visit a commercial playground, and closely supervise their children in play, often marginalizing the children’s preferences, and decision-making process during the activities. Instead of being a spontaneous event with a dose of unpredictability, children’s play has become more formalized and organized event primarily designed to satisfy parental expectations. Therefore, commercial playgrounds, even though offering safer play in controlled environment, do not necessary provide a desirable play from the children’s perspective (McKendrick
2004). A study conducted among two to six years old children revealed that the implementation of plant material and other landscape elements on top of the playground equipment further stimulated children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development not observed in previously provided child-care institutions (Herrington and Studtmann 1998).
Unlike children, adults place a great value on playground safety that is commonly achieved through on-site rules, monitoring, regulations, legislation and guidelines
(McKendrick 2004). Over the years, this concern and design improvements have been primarily focused on the safety of playground equipment and surface materials with the little mention of the surrounding environment, either from an environmental health perspective or presence of a play-supportive “sense of place”. These trends are not only driven by the concerned parents, but also by the developer’s fears of litigation in a case of physical injury, which represents an additional obstacle in development of more holistic
37 children playgrounds that offer lots of exploratory undirected play opportunities in
relatively safe circumstances.
Traditional urban playgrounds often represent the only opportunity for many urban children to play outdoors and get any physical activity. As such, they are predisposed to
frequent use, as well as more susceptible to vandalism and misuse. Therefore, the city officials often face a difficult task to ensure adequate number of safe playgrounds, necessary funding for their construction, as well as their placement and incorporation at diverse locations throughout the already often overbuild city raster (Spencer 2005).
Under such conditions, it is not always easy to provide more than a repetitive, monotonous, safe and predictable playgrounds constrained by the already defined borderlines of build environment. That may be in part a major reason while children often tend to disregard the use of traditional urban playgrounds and choose contemporary playgrounds with mixture of materials and play points or seek fun elsewhere in the neighborhood in often less safe but more challenging places (Brown and Burger 1984,
604).
3.3. Environmental health issues on urban playgrounds
As a part of urban redevelopment movement and re-zoning that affected many American cities over the past few decades, as well as public health efforts to curb obesity epidemic, local officials supported the introduction of numerous new playgrounds throughout the city communities. Even though this attempt had the best intentions, many of such playgrounds were constructed on locations that may predispose its occupants not only to
38 various adverse environmental health conditions, but also to ambient setting that may
discourage its desired purpose. The most common external sources of pollution that may affect urban playground locality include the vicinity of busy roads, industrial facilities, hazardous waste sites, sewage treatment plants, and contaminated rivers and streams.
After being released from these sources, contaminants may affect local air quality,
migrate into the soil or simply settle down on the play equipment in a form of dust
particles. Considering the patterns of children behavior, as well as their increased
susceptibility to experience adverse health effects of these pollutants, these types of
exposures may represent a serious threat to playground occupants. In addition to direct
health hazards, such pollution sources may create undesirable and unpleasant feelings
about the playground location that reduce the frequency of its use by producing loud and
irritating noise, noxious smells, or visual obstructions and intimidating build landscapes.
It seems that many recent efforts of playgrounds development and revitalization in many
urban centers have taken into consideration only micro-environmental conditions within
the very perimeter of the playground with the emphasis on playground equipment/surface
materials and overlooked number of the above-mentioned external factors that may be
detrimental to children’s health and safety.
A growing interest in children’s environmental health that developed over the past decade
prompted researchers to start monitoring pollution on school and public playgrounds.
Among available literature on this topic, a number of studies investigates safety of
playground equipment, surface materials, chromated-copper-arsenic (CAA) treated wooden elements, and lead contamination, while just very few address other external
39 environmental risks. The actual cases of playground contamination from external sources
such as local hazardous waste sites, local traffic or industry suggest that such incidences
may be more common than previously thought and should be explored more in depth. For
example, study performed in Hong Kong revealed high levels of heavy metals in
playground dust generated mainly by the local traffic (Ng et. al. 2003). Measurements
obtained over a two-year sampling period from the upper soil layer of kindergarten
playgrounds in the Czech Republic revealed the presence of not only heavy metals
known to cause a wide range of health damage, but also Polycyclic Aromatic
Hydrocarbons (PAHs) recognized as a probable carcinogens. One of the most damaging
PAHs, benzo(a)pyrene, was found at almost all sampling locations in different cities countrywide, and likely placed numerous children at increased risk to develop cancer by unintentional soil ingestion (National Institute of Public Health 1999). Cross-sectional
study that assessed lead exposure in children six to nine years of age attending schools
and living near the largest smelter complex in Mexico found high levels of lead in dust
obtained from local playgrounds. Children were primarily exposed to high concentrations
of lead through soil/dust ingestion and inhalation at the monitored places and had
equivalently higher levels of these contaminants in their bodies (Garcia et. al. 2001).
Over the years, a number of schools and kindergartens have discovered that they are
located in the vicinity of or sometimes directly on top of contaminated land. Considering
that many such institutions suffer constant financial cutbacks and deficits, they are often
forced to choose more affordable but potentially health damaging solutions such as
purchasing cheaper properties with a previous history of contamination or industrial use.
40 In some cases, schools officials receive such properties as donations from the state or local governments and other benefactors, and are therefore unaware of the potential health risks luring in their yards. Sometimes, due to monetary considerations, they employ uncertified or inappropriately trained environmental specialists to evaluate
environmental health risks. Because of such omissions, it may take years to discover the
environmental problem on school and kindergarten properties and by the time they get
resolved, children are the ones who suffer the most from many yet unknown health
consequences (Generation Green 2005). In one such case, residents of Riverside,
California, became aware of a Superfund toxic waste site in their neighborhood only after an exceptionally rainy season in 1978 caused highly contaminated lagoons to overflow around schools and their homes. Polluted rainwater containing remains of thirty four million gallons of chemicals dumped into lagoons from an old acid pit site contaminated the whole neighborhood, including all playgrounds. Many parents reported health problems in their children such as higher incidence of asthma, skin rashes, and
headaches. Further investigation of this problem conducted by the Child Proofing our
Communities Campaign in 2002 discovered that over 1,195 public schools and their
playgrounds in five different states are placed within a half mile of a State or Federal
toxic waste site (Center for Health, Environment, and Justice 2005). Remediation or
clean up of toxic waste sites often requires coverage of area that not only includes the old facility or waste landfills but also the adjacent surroundings. In the case of RSR Lead
Smelter in West Dallas that operated between 1936 and 1984, EPA’s testing found lead concentrations in soil from backyards and school playgrounds to be around nine times
41 higher that those in soil samples from the control area (Texas Center for Policy Studies
1999).
Research suggests that the only use of shade may not always offer absolute UV protection as it usually shields an individual only from overhead sunrays while leaving them exposed to UV radiation reflected from the surrounding surfaces. Some natural and man-made materials such as snow, sand, bright-color surfaces, water, ice, and concrete can reflect up to 90 percent of solar radiation (Skin Cancer Foundation 1992; Cummings et al. 1997). The tree canopies and buildings significantly influence relative solar irradiance at the pedestrian levels, and consequently affect individual’s daily exposure dose. (Grant and Heisler 1996; Brown et al. 1994). Field measurements and model predictions suggest that places commonly perceived as shady can in reality receive a noteworthy 40-60 percent of UVB irradiance measured under direct sunlight. A model describing the association between tree shade in residential neighborhoods and risk of erythemal UVB exposure implies that at certain latitudes tree cover with up to 50 percent coverage provides ultraviolet protection factors (UPF) of less than two. A higher UPF of
10 was achieved at all latitudes with 90 percent tree cover. (Grant et al. 2002). In addition to more common shade elements such as trees and buildings, shade can be provided by canopies, beach umbrellas, and other specially designed materials (Cummings et al.
1997). As average tree cover of medium-size urban centers in Texas, Ohio, California,
Kansas, Alabama, New York and Pennsylvania covers from less than 10 percent to 37 percent total area (Rowntree 1984) it is clear that shade provision from this source often may not be sufficient to achieve desired protection level.
42 The intensity and spectrum of UVR emission at the Earth's surface is affected by temporal, geographical and meteorological factors such as daily time of exposure, season, latitude, altitude, cloudiness, and surface reflection (Frederick et al. 1989). Therefore, some countries such as Australia and New Zealand, which are located near one of the largest wholes in ozone layer experienced an approximate 10% per decade increase in
UV radiation since the late 1970s (Marins 2001). These higher levels of year-round exposure place their inhabitants at higher risk of developing skin cancer and other types of health damage. This is the main reason why they have become leaders in not only sun protection-related research, but also in planning/design innovations and outreach programs aimed to protect their citizens and especially children from the solar radiation
(www.sunsmart.org.au). Even though this problem is less intense and therefore gained less attention in the rest of the world, many international and US institutions have develop comparable programs and initiatives to tackle this problem. Considering that majority of people accumulate 80% of their total sun exposure dose during the first 18 years of life (Stern et. al. 1986), US Environmental Protection Agency and other public health institutions established sun safety action steps that, among other recommendations, advise children to avoid midday sun exposure (from 10AM-4PM) (EPA 2005). This advice in part counteracts campaign endorsed by the majority of public heath officials to tackle growing problem of obesity in this country by encouraging children to spend more time outdoors to fulfill their physical activity needs. This contradiction can be resolved by introduction of novel, innovative approaches to planning and designing open spaces designated for children’s play and recreation that would use combination of natural
43 shading elements, artificial covers, and less-reflecting surface materials to optimally protect children from damaging UV radiation.
Sun protection can be achieved through the changes in behavior or use of design planning/design solutions. A number of studies discovered difficulties in achieving adequate behavioral changes such as applying sunscreen lotion, limiting time spend outdoors, or wearing hats and protective clothing (Diffey 2001). Moreover, people tend to have more leisure time and opportunities for recreation and tourist vacationing, what further increases their prospects of excessive sun exposure. Despite the availability of sun protection campaigns and outreach efforts, some follow-up studies are finding that people are not closely following these recommendations for sun protection (Yoram et al.
1995; Robinson et al. 1997). These observations emphasize the importance of design solutions such as extensive landscaping and shading, as supplemental to behavioral attempts to minimize sun exposure on children playgrounds.
44 CHAPTER 4______
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND PLAYGROUNDS IN CINCINNATI
Cincinnati, officially proclaimed a town in 1802, was founded on the naturally very resourceful land that supported rapid development of farming and associated commerce.
From a small farmer’s city, it soon expanded into a blooming manufacturing center well connected with other bigger urban hubs by water, road, and railroad transportation. Such good connectivity with its surroundings, as well as availability of resources supported rapid growth of industrial establishments that reached almost 10,000 at the end of 19th
century (Nelson and Runk 1894). Soon after, a number of other industries began to
emerge in Ohio, such as iron-production, paper mills, breweries, and coal mining.
Followed by the new employment opportunities in manufacturing and fast economic
growth, Cincinnati’s urban and industrial development, as well as residing population
greatly increased over the years (Ohio Historical Society 2005). However, such rapid and
often inadequately managed expansion often had detrimental consequences for the
surrounding environment of which some can be observed until this very day. In addition,
Cincinnati still has very active industry and high-density traffic infrastructure, further
contributing to pollution conditions in this city. This section investigates the current
affairs specifically related to Cincinnati’s playgrounds, as well as how the present state of
environmental pollution in this city may affect the health risks of its children.
45 4.1. Local authorities that oversee health and safety on playgrounds
The foremost authority overseeing the majority of playgrounds in Cincinnati is the
Cincinnati Recreation Commission (CRC) established in 1927 to provide recreational, cultural, and educational opportunities for all city residents under the supervision of
Cincinnati’s City Council. CRC is responsible for maintenance of public playgrounds, including some located in the perimeter of schools and other public institutions. Another non-profit organization, the Cincinnati Recreation Commission Foundation, was founded in 1996 to supplement services provided by the CRC and was funded through the charitable donations of public, companies, and organizations. Its goal was to improve the quality of life for all Cincinnati residents and direct donated funds to development of new recreation programs and activities that the city budget was unable to support. As a part of this initiative, they initiated two major programs related to the children’s playgrounds:
Restoring Pride in Our Playgrounds aimed to revitalize a number of neglected playgrounds and 1000 Hands Playgrounds project designed to build new elaborate playgrounds accessible to physically disabled children exclusively using volunteers as the construction workforce. The latter initiative has resulted so far in six new outstanding inclusive playgrounds located in different communities (City of Cincinnati 2005). The response of volunteers for the each individual project was more than impressive, reflecting profound public interest in the provision of safe and innovative outdoor play areas accessible to all children. In just one of the project, construction of playground in
Price Hill, more than 2,000 volunteers gathered over the five days to build 12,000-square foot playground (Ramos 2002).
46 County park services are responsible for the maintenance of playgrounds located within the parks in their district. For example, Hamilton Park County District supervises and repairs all the playgrounds within the boundaries of their parks or nature preserves.
Private playgrounds in ownership of daycare centers, schools, churches, hospitals, or other institutions are usually inspected and maintained by the staff themselves with the exception of audits required in institutions that receive federal and/or state funding. An institution may assess the safety of early childhood playgrounds by appointing a certified playground safety inspector to verify playground safety and compliance with the
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and Consumer Product Safety
Commission (CPSC) requirements. Upon the inspection, satisfactory playground may receive certification by the National Playground Safety Institute in affiliation with the
National Recreation and Park Association. Inspectors usually assess only the safety of playground equipment, surface materials, and toxicity of plants and rarely address the presence of shade elements or external detrimental factors such as vicinity of busy highways that may affect children’s health and safety (Playcare, Inc. 2004).
In 2000, a Cincinnati Post reporter completed a survey of all 115 playgrounds managed by the Cincinnati Recreation Commission and discovered that 86 of them had some kind of safety issue, while 43 had completely unusable equipment. In response to this finding,
CRC proposed to close smaller playgrounds and direct their limited funds to fewer ones that were already in better shape. This suggestion tarnished their long-term image as being playground-friendly, which in 1970s lead to an initiative to provide play areas within walking distance of homes in all Cincinnati’s neighborhoods (as such Cincinnati
47 had more playgrounds per capita than any other major American city of that time). Public
reaction was instant and overwhelming: closing playgrounds is not an option! (Conte
2000a). Moreover, their budgetary allocations were put into question, as well as
administrative and decision-making procedures. Council members requested a full report
on safety hazards at CRC’s playgrounds and called for the reassessment of CRC’s policies and approaches (Conte 2000b). Other critics of CRC’s practices accused them of giving a higher renovation priority to playgrounds in upper-scale neighborhoods or to those that are highly visible to visitors and public (Conte 2000c). The above addressed issues reflect an often-encountered divergence between the mounting requests for playground’s repair and revitalization from different communities and budgetary
constrains that many city park and recreation services face nowadays. Even though CRC
is trying hard to prioritize projects based on the level of safety risk for playground
occupants, for some community members that may not be sufficient enough as their
children have to face daily the risk of an injury. Considering the above mentioned
disconnect between public demands for safe playgrounds and lack of means to provide
such spaces, it is easer, but still not acceptable, to understand why is so little attention given to the external environmental factors such as solar radiation and pollution on playgrounds. These external influences rarely cause immediate observable effects in
children, and more likely have long term, accumulative health consequences that may
materialize later in life. This may be in part a reason why they receive less attention than
the risks of physical injury that may be a more immediate concern to worried parents.
48 4.2. Environmental health issues that may affect playground safety in Cincinnati
The main environmental issues that may adversely affect playground users in the
Cincinnati area are (1) air pollution from mobile or stationary sources, (2) vicinity of
toxic waste sites, and (3) noise pollution generated from airports, highways, and
industries. This section will address each of these individual risk situations for Cincinnati
to understand the potential extent of hazard for children. The health risk to children highly depends on the extent of exposure including the duration and frequency, distance from the pollution source, type of toxic emissions, microenvironmental conditions of the locality, as well as children’s overall health status and genetic predisposition. Some
residential neighborhoods have a higher number of industrial facilities located within
their district and therefore are likely at the higher risks of developing health problems
associated with the environmental exposures.
4.2.1. Air pollution
A study conducted by the American Lung Association in 2004 showed that Cincinnati’s
air is among the dirtiest in the nation, lagging even behind Chicago and New York. The
biggest culprits for air pollution in this area are high levels of ozone and particulate
matter that contribute to asthma attacks, lung, eye, and throat irritations, as well as
premature death (Klepal, 2004). Cincinnati took 11th place among the metropolitan areas
most polluted by year-around particle pollution and ranked 17th among the cities polluted
by short-term particle pollution (American Lung Association 2004). Even though
49 Cincinnati was not ranked among the top 25 most polluted areas for the ozone, it has not
been in compliance with the new federal air quality standards for this pollutant. Seven
Tri-state counties including Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, Warren, Boone, Campbell, and
Kenton, specifically received failing grades for particulate matter and ozone (Klepal
2004). In Cincinnati, the top particulate polluters are electric utilities (Environmental
Working Group 1997). In addition, the Ohio Environmental Council proclaimed that about 23 % of Cincinnati’s area total population lives in a diesel “hot spot” characterized
by the continually high levels of toxic air pollutants released from diesel-powered
vehicles. The city was at the top of the list of 119 communities impacted by diesel
hotspots (Ohio Environmental Council 2004).
The natural Resources Defense Council (1996) estimates of mortality attributable to air
pollution in 239 American cities, found that Cincinnati has:
• Risk ratio for cardiopulmonary mortality: 1.11
• Adult cardiopulmonary attributable deaths: 617
• Attributable deaths per 100,000 population: 44
• Rank by number of attributable deaths: 22 of 239
Hamilton County ranked 22nd among all others metropolitan statistical areas based on
estimated annual cardiopulmonary deaths attributable to particulate air pollution.
High levels of smog also represent a significant problem in the Cincinnati metropolitan
area: from 1995-2001 this area had 42 smog alerts lasting 104 days, 27 1-hour
exceedences, and 456 24-hours exceedences. Smog is created by chemical interaction of
50 nitrogen oxides generated from fossil fuel combustion, and volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) emitted from gasoline, paints, and solvents, in the presence of sunlight and high temperatures. Its excessive formation is not only linked to industries and power plants, but also to the residents’ individual activities such as excessive use of cars, lawn mowing, using charcoal grills, or filling the tank during the day in the summer months. The most responsible contributors to nitrogen oxide pollution in the Cincinnati area are industrial sources with 72 percent of the total emissions. Individual consumers account for only 1 percent of total released nitrogen oxides and traffic for another 10 percent. With respect to VOCs, residential consumption of household consumer products is responsible for 29 percent of their release, and traffic for additional 32 percent (Conte 2000).
Cincinnati is located in Hamilton County, one of the oldest and the most polluted counties in Ohio. To assess the trends of current toxic air pollution in Cincinnati area on a larger scale, Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission compared the City’s annual chemical releases with emissions from six other metropolitan areas of similar size and physical characteristics. The assessment reveals generally similar trends between
Cincinnati and other municipalities: steady decrease in toxic air pollution releases until
1998, when utilities started reporting their share what caused sharp increase in emissions
(Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission 2004, 14). The American Lung
Association (2004) estimates that the following numbers of people from different at-risk groups are being affected by air pollution in Hamilton County: emphysema: 9,951; adult asthma: 45,615; pediatric asthma: 17,820; chronic bronchitis: 27,590; and cardiovascular disease: 183,126.
51 In Hamilton County, the major causes of air pollution are on-road/off-road vehicle
transportation and fuel combustion for utilities or industry. Hamilton County
Environmental Services monitors and records quantities of air pollutants released by
stationary sources such as power plants, chemical plants, and other manufacturing
facilities, as well as area sources like gas stations and dry cleaners. Other important
contributors to air pollution in Hamilton County are mobile sources such as automobile
and other transportation. Currently, Hamilton County has 459 facilities that produce and
release toxic pollutants into the air, with utilities representing a greater source of air
pollution than industry (Hamilton County Environmental Services 2004). The extent of
air releases of some most common air pollutants from mobile and stationary sources has a
similar pattern as in other such counties nationwide. Miami Fort Generating Station is a
coal-operating utility plant open in 1960. It is the major air pollutant in Hamilton County
as it releases almost 12 times more contaminants in the air than the next facility on the
list of dominant air pollution contributors in the area (Hamilton County Regional Planning
Commission 2004).
4.2.2. Hazardous waste sites
More than 85,000 recognized or suspected abandoned and unregulated nationwide sites
contain hazardous waste that may adversely affect environment and human health. Out of them, EPA selected 1,300 as Superfund sites eligible for clean up based on the type of contamination and severity of damage they may pose to the surrounding area and local residents. The Superfund program was initiated in 1980 by the federal authorities to guide
52 identification, prioritization, selection, and remediation process for hazardous waste sites
across the US. Such sites frequently include abandoned warehouses, industrial facilities,
processing plants, and landfills that improperly disposed generated waste often
containing highly toxic components such as mercury, arsenic, chromium, lead, pesticides,
and numerous organic pollutants (Envirohealthaction 2001). They are usually discovered
by the companies or individuals who handle hazardous materials, local or state
governments, citizens, environmental stakeholders, and similar organizations. The
Superfund program relies upon a variety of classification systems to determine priority
sites in the gravest need for clean up. One of them is the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation and Liability Information System (CERCLIS) that provides
information on recognized or suspected hazardous waste sites from National Priority List
(NPL) and the stage of clean up process. The second one is the NPL that registers all
contaminated sites of high priority for clean up due to potential or existing releases of
hazardous substances or pollutants in the environment.
In addition to hazardous waste sites, there are almost 600,000 less severely contaminated
sites called brownfields. These sites are usually selected for redevelopment, expansion or
reuse but have to await the assessment of health and environmental risks associated with
the known or suspected presence of certain pollutants at chosen localities. These sites often include neglected industrial or commercial properties frequently located in older urban areas (Environmental Protection Agency 2006). As many contaminants can migrate from brownfield sites into surrounding environment and groundwater supply, they may not only adversely affect the health of local residents but also the local
53 economy and real estate values. Moreover, they pose a health risk for children, as they may use the site as a playground or for exploration (Envirohealthaction 2001).
The Cincinnati Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area includes 12 counties: four in Ohio
(Brown, Clermont, Hamilton, Warren), six in Kentucky (Boone, Campbell, Gallatin,
Grant, Kenton, and Pendleton), and two in Indiana (Dearborn, Ohio) (Center for Urban
Economic Development 2005). Out of sites that are or are being considered for selection as NPL sites, the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability
Information System (CERCLIS) Database has information on 46 sites located in the
Greater Cincinnati area (2 in Brown County, 3 in Clermont County, 18 in Hamilton
County, 4 in Warren County, 3 in Boone County, 2 in Campbell County, 0 in Gallatin
County, 0 in Grant County, 4 in Kenton County, 0 in Pendleton County, 2 in Dearborn, and 0 in Ohio County) (CERCLIS database 2006). Due to the nature of contamination and type of containment, all of these sites represent a significant risk for the local environment and population. For example, in Reading, Hamilton County, Pristine Inc., an incinerator for liquid wastes, disposed up to 10,000 drums and 13 bulk storage tanks containing various highly toxic contaminants that overtime leached into the surrounding soil and into Mill Creek watershed. In Kings Mill, Warren County, The Peters Cartridge factory manufactured cartridge ammunition was the major culprit for severe lead contamination that over time migrated into Little Miami River and posed a serious threat to local fisheries and several municipal drinking water wells. Newport dump in Campbell
County, Kentucky, served as an unregulated waste dumpsite and landfill for many years.
Eventually, numerous contaminants such as heavy metals, volatile organic compounds,
54 solvents, and PCBs leached out of the dump into surrounding soil, groundwater and surface water. The problem of contamination at this site was even more critical considering that about 1,200 people live within 1-mile radius of the site and use nearby river and banks for play and recreation (Environmental Protection Agency 2004).
The query of Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s HazDat Database that offers not only complete exploratory listing but also a geographic display of hazardous waste sites in respect to environmental hazards, roads, schools, and other important geographic point reveals 72 hazardous waste sites in the same metro area. The HazDat database includes higher number of hazardous waste sites than the CERCLIS database because their site identification and classification process is contingent upon a wider range of contaminants than considered in selection of NPL sites (ATSDR, 2006).
4.2.3. Noise pollution
Cincinnati is a typical metropolitan area continually exposed to urban noise generated by traffic, airports, industries, emergency vehicles, and other noise generators. Greater
Cincinnati is serviced by two airports: one of them is the International Cincinnati/
Northern Kentucky Airport (CVG) and the other is Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport.
CVG originates from the early 1940 when it served as a training field for military pilots.
Later on, when the city’s air traffic needs outgrew limited services offered by the floods- prone Lunken Airport, it was gradually transformed into a municipal international airport.
The first expansion on 148,000 square feet occurred in 1960s to accommodate jet
55 aircrafts, but over the next ten years, it spread out to total 480,000 square feet and included two new terminals. Soon after, it became an official hub for Delta airlines and from 1980 to 1987, increased the number of gates from 10 to 40. In addition, CVG became a package-sorting hub for DHL, which invested $220 million to expand the airfield, accommodate two million pounds of cargo nightly and accommodate over 60 aircrafts at the same time. In 1992, newly build concourse B increased the number of gates to 50. Overall, CVG is proclaimed one of the nation’s fastest growing airports for over the past 10 years, during which the number of passengers that use its services has more than doubled. It provides 680 daily departures to 140 destinations worldwide and has ongoing plans for further expansion in the upcoming years (Cincinnati/Northern
Kentucky International Airport 2006). Lunken airport (LUK) is Cincinnati’s oldest municipal airport dating from the early 1920s, when it was also proclaimed to be the largest municipal airport in the world. Its historic significance has faded over time due to limited capabilities for further expansion, as well as high susceptibility to flooding from the Ohio River. LUK is still an important support airfield that handles general and corporate aviation traffic in the region on a 2,000-acre airfield. Unfortunately, it is currently under a large pressure from the newly developed/redeveloped residential communities whose expansion is rapidly approaching airport perimeter to either reduce the levels of noise by installing advanced noise-control systems or minimize the number and type of service flights (Cincinnati transit 2006).
Besides the airport-generated noise pollution, traffic is considered the most important culprit for continual urban noise pollution. This problem highly represented in Cincinnati
56 metro area considering that it has multiple and highly used traffic opportunities. Besides
five interstates that pass through the city (75, 74, 71, 275, 471), it has six expressways
(Old Fort Washington, New Fort Washington, Norwood Lateral, Ronald Reagan Cross
County Highway, Sixth St. Expressway, and Butler County Veterans Highway) and numerous extremely busy roads (Cincinnati transit 2006). Cincinnati also has an active
railroad system that services passenger trains, tourist-attraction trains, and cargo/freight
trains.
57 CHAPTER 5______
ANALYSIS OF CINCINNATI’S PLAYGROUNDS WITH RESPECT TO
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH EXPOSURES
5.1. Methods
The first part of field investigation includes locality assessments of randomly selected playgrounds in the Cincinnati metropolitan area using Google Earth satellite/aerial photo imagery (Figure 1). The goal of this research section is to estimate the presence of potential environmental exposures from dense traffic, industrial and other sources of toxic chemical releases, as well as hazardous waste sites near playgrounds in the
Cincinnati area. Google Earth, a public geographic high-resolution application that provides 3D satellite imagery of the Earth and offers various interactive options such as overlaying and distance measurements, was used to provide the desired information.
Figure 1. Google Earth generated map with exact locations of all forty randomly selected playgrounds in Cincinnati metro area analyzed in this study.
58 The exact location of 40 surveyed playgrounds, either randomly selected from the
Cincinnati Recreation Commission’s list of 115 playgrounds or discovered by chance while visiting different Cincinnati’s communities (complete list available in Appendix
8.1), was recorded on the Google Earth map using a placemark feature (Figure 2).
Playground
Figure 2. Identification of playground in Burnett Woods (Clifton) with the Google Earth graphic satellite imaginary.
Besides the surveyed playgrounds, the following features were also placemarked in
different symbols on the Earth Google map:
● Major roads, state roads, and interstate highways. For this study, major roads include
two or four line roads with high traffic densities that are of special importance for the
local traffic (in Google Earth application they are highlighted in yellow).
59 ● Pollution sources were located by using their geographic coordinates (longitude and
latitude) and/or addresses (±0.2 mile) available in 2003 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI)
Database that offers detailed information on industrial and federal facilities known to
release toxic chemicals into environment. Data file type 4, available at
http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/tri03/data/index.htm, was used to obtain detailed
information on pollution sources in multiple Cincinnati’s counties.
● Hazardous waste sites. They were also located by using their geographic coordinates
(longitude and latitude) and/or addresses (±0.2 mile) available the ATSDR HazDat query,
available at http://www2.atsdr.cdc.gov/gsql/siteact.script. Considering that only a limited
number of hazardous waste sites (18) had corresponding geographic coordinates or
addresses available in the ATSDR database only number of them were relevant for this
study (Table 1).
The Google Earth measure tool that provides distance measurements from selected
placemarks to other points on the map (or other placemarks) was used to evaluate the
actual distance between the playgrounds and transportation routes/pollution
sources/hazardous waste sites within the 1-mile radius. The literature review suggests that mobile/point pollution sources within this arbitrary selected distance likely pose a higher
health risks to children living/playing nearby than sources at greater distances.
60 Table 1. List of 18 hazardous waste sites with corresponding geographic coordinates obtained from the ATSDR HazDat query (ATSDR, 2006).
SITE NAME COUNTY LATITUDE LONGITUDE
NORTHSIDE SANITARY LANDFILL, INC BOONE 40.0283 -86.2733 THIRD SITE BOONE 39.9500 86.2633 WEDZEB ENTERPRISES, INC. BOONE 40.0453 -86.4723 NEWPORT DUMP CAMPBELL 39.0707 -84.4912 BASF CORPORATION HAMILTON 39.1333 84.4667 BFI BOND ROAD SANITARY LANDFILL HAMILTON 39.2617 84.8017 CITY BUMPER SITE HAMILTON 39.1031 84.5514 DUPONT LOCKLAND WORKS HAMILTON 39.2342 84.4481 ELDA LANDFILL INC HAMILTON 39.1867 84.4933 GULF OIL CO US HAMILTON 39.1750 84.7650 KELLY KOETT INSTRUMENT COMPANY HAMILTON 39.1178 84.5319 PRISTINE, INC. HAMILTON 39.2361 -84.4372 QUEEN CITY BARREL COMPANY HAMILTON 39.1000 84.5750 WINTON RIDGE LANDFILL HAMILTON 39.1900 84.5197 FIRESTONE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS CO. HAMILTON 40.0394 -85.9961 FEED MATERIALS PRODUCTION CENTER HAMILTON 39.2995 -84.6883 BUTTERMILK PIKE RESIDENTIAL MERCURY KENTON 39.0559 -84.5918 PETERS CARTRIDGE FACTORY WARREN 39.3507 -84.2422
5.2. Results
Roads
All forty selected playgrounds in Cincinnati area have at least two or more major roads passing through the 1-mile perimeter around the playground. Two playgrounds in Sawyer
Park have the highest number of nearby major roads (12) within the 1–mile distance, which is not surprising considering their location close to the downtown and important state/interstate highway junctions (Figure 3).
61
14 12 10
8 6
4 Number of playgrounds of playgrounds Number 2 0 123456789101112
Major roads
Figure 3. Selected playgrounds in Cincinnati area grouped by the number of major roads passing through the 1-mile perimeter around them.
Out of 40 playgrounds, 87.5 percent (35) has one or more state routes passing within the one-mile radius from their location and 70 percent (28) has one or two interstate highways transversing the same perimeter (Figure 4 and 5). Only 3 out of 40 analyzed parks are surrounded with only major local roads at the selected distance. Only two playgrounds are located within 1-mile distance from the Cincinnati’s municipal airport (LUK). A surprisingly high number of playgrounds (13) is located near one or two heliports mostly associated with the hospitals except the two Horizon’s heliports located close to the Lunken Airport.
62 2 1 5
0 ST RD
6 1 ST RD 11 2 ST RD 3 ST RD 4 ST RD 5 ST RD
15
Figure 4. The diagram represents selected playgrounds in Cincinnati area grouped by the number of state roads (ST RD) passing within the 1 mile radius.
7 12
0 HWY 1 HWY 2 HWY
21
Figure 5. The diagram represents selected playgrounds in Cincinnati area grouped by the number of highways (HWY) passing within the 1 mile radius.
Pollution sources
Eighty five percent (34) of playgrounds had at least one TRI-registered pollution source located within the 1-mile radius. Thirteen playgrounds have only one source within the 1- mile radius, while others had somewhere between 2 and 12 (Figure 6).
63
14 12
10 8 6
4
of playgrounds Number 2 0
123456789101112 Pollution sources
Figure 6. Playgrounds in Cincinnati area grouped by the number of pollution sources present within 1-mile radius.
Among six playgrounds that do not have any pollution sources at this distance, only two
(Mt. Airy Forest and Stanbery Park) also do not have any pollution sources present at the
greater distance of 1-2 miles. All other playgrounds have diverse number of pollution
sources ranging between 1 and 32 (Appendix 8.2). The lowest number of pollution
sources was found for Schmidt Fields playground located on the bank of Ohio River,
while the highest number (32) was found for the playground in Bond Hill.
Hazardous waste sites
Only three hazardous waste sites were located within the 1-mile distance from number of
surveyed playgrounds in Cincinnati area. Herron Avenue Drum Site is located 0.78 miles
from the Northside Plaza playground and 0.77 miles from the playground at the corner of
Colerain and Shepperd. Kelly Koett X-ray company site is located only 0.34 miles from
64 McMicken playground and 0.63 miles from playground at the corner of McMicken and
McMillan Street. BASF chemical manufacturing plant site, currently in the final stages of remediation, is located within the 1-mile distance from five playgrounds (0.68 miles from
McMicken, 0. 86 from MtWashington, 0.87 miles from Withrow, and approximately 1 mile from Avondale and Hirsh Recreation Center).
5.3. Conclusions
The analysis of 40 surveyed playgrounds in Cincinnati metro area reveals that the majority of them are situated in locations surrounded with densely traveled transportation routes. Some of the playgrounds (Camp Washington, Massachusetts, Sawyer park) are even located directly next to or under the busy interstates, which not only poses the health risks from exposure to vehicle exhausts but also exposes occupants to unpleasant noise and repulsive sensations of the site. In addition, numerous playgrounds were situated directly next to the busy 4-line roads without any vegetational or artificial barrier to minimize the adverse effects of local traffic. Such settings likely evoke negative feelings among the potential users and discourage them from visiting the playground despite the well-designed playground equipment. All three sites surrounded with only major roads are located in highly residential area. This finding is not so surprising for a highly urbanized locale such as Cincinnati. The present contradiction between the city growing demand for additional or expanded traffic routes to accommodate rising vehicle transportation and desire to provide sufficient number of public playgrounds for children of all neighborhoods in already very limited available green spaces poses a very difficult task for planners and urban designers who are supposed to mediate this problem. Besides
65 the ground transportation, the vicinity of airports seems to affect only two playgrounds
(Lunken and Marian L. Ahlering) that are located within the 1-mile distance from
Cincinnati’s municipal airport. Much higher number of heliports associated prevalently
with the inner city hospitals may occasionally disrupt the children’s play in nearby parks.
Intensive transportation near the playgrounds likely generates enough continual noise and
occasional distressing sounds (emergency vehicle sirens, honking, misuse of brakes) to
disrupt children’s, what is supposed to be serene, play and focus from the important
physical and developmental activities.
In respect to vicinity of TRI-registered pollution sources, the majority of playgrounds
have at least one such facility within the 1 and 1-2 mile distance. In both ranges, some
playgrounds have only a few pollution sources nearby, while the others are surrounded
with numerous highly active industrial facilities. In some instances, such facilities are located very close to the playgrounds (around 0.2-0.5 miles) but do not necessary release high quantities of highly toxic chemicals continually in the surrounding environment. On the other hand, even though some facilities are more distant from the playground, they may release significant quantities of hazardous emissions in the local environment at the constant intervals and therefore pose higher risk to children than some sources closer to the play site. Some playgrounds located near the higher number of pollution sources in addition to multiple densely traveled roads and highways such as Roselawn, Camp
Washington, Massachusetts, Ludlow Avenue, and Bond Hill should be more closely evaluated for the environmental health safety risks to children occupants. Therefore, the health risk associated with the vicinity of industrial facilities and other pollution sources should be evaluated on the per case basis and include not only distance parameters but
66 also the type and quantities of emitted contaminants. Only then can corresponding
environmental health assessment give better indication of potential risks associated with
the children’s use of open spaces. Even though the health risks associated with living and
playing in the close vicinity of hazardous waste sites are fairly unknown, just the nearby
spatial presence of such potential hazardous sources may call for extra caution and more scrupulous evaluation of health safety related to the playground location.
The above-mentioned recommendations suggest that professionals responsible for placement and design of playgrounds should receive a special training in recognizing and evaluating environmental health problems present near the playgrounds or seek assistance from environmental health specialists. If they suspect the presence of environmental health insults in the proximity to the playground, they should request collection of quantitative measurements to assess the quality of play area. For example, soil and dust from playgrounds near highways can be tested for the presence of heavy metals and
PAHs, while ambient noise can be monitored by noise dosimeters placed at the site. Such information would reveal the actual extent of children’s exposure and help determine corrective measures. To avoid occurrences in which no innovative planning and design interventions can remedy adverse environmental conditions on the playground, the optimal, bar far reached solution would be an establishment of regulations that would legally prohibit placement of playgrounds in the immediate vicinity to mobile/point pollution sources known to release toxic emissions. Such regulations would also require certain environmental prerequisites for playgrounds placement such as presence of green or residential corridors between playgrounds and industrial/commercial districts or highways.
67 CHAPTER 6______
ANALYSIS OF CINCINNATI’S PLAYGROUNDS WITH RESPECT TO SOLAR
EXPOSURE
6.1. Methods
Analysis of forty randomly selected playgrounds in Cincinnati metro area (figure 6) was conducted between June and October 2005, between 10 AM and 4 PM. This time interval was selected for data collection because it has the strongest ultraviolet emissions during the day. EPA and other federal agencies that developed sun protection programs advise public and especially children, to limit their sun exposure and therefore their activities in a shade-free environment during that time period.
The actual time of each site visit was randomly determined to reflect different range of times during high sun exposure interval. Each site visit lasted for up to 30 minutes and was performed when no children where around or were directly visible in the frame during photographing. In order to determine the children’s opportunities for UV exposure at each of selected playgrounds the following observations were recorded with both digital camera and hand-drawn graphic representation:
● Date and time of survey
● Types of shade sources
● Presence and approximate amount of shade during the survey
68 ● Types of surface materials (type, color, distribution).
● Other related observations.
Classification of surveyed playgrounds by the type of shade they provide included the
following characterization:
● No shade of any kind
● Natural shade (trees, shrubs, vines)
● Artificial shade (building, cloth, plastic)
● Shade element on playground equipment
● Combination
Classification of surveyed playgrounds by the type of surface cover included:
● Organic loose material (ex. wood chips, mulch)
● Inorganic loose material (ex. sand, gravel, shredded rubber)
● Unitary synthetic materials (ex. asphalt, concrete)
● Combination
Schematic map of surveyed playgrounds included detailed representation of all natural and artificial elements that occupied surveyed space such as trees and playground equipment in their approximate measurements. The following two graphic examples represent highly shaded (Figure 7) and shade-free (Figure 8) playgrounds as noted in the survey document.
69
Figure 7. Digital photograph and schematic map of Dogwood Park in Cincinnati.
Figure 8. Digital photograph and schematic map of Devou Park (Volpenhein Pavilion) in Greater Cincinnati Area.
70 Selected playgrounds were evaluated for the presence of different types of shade element in respect to playground perimeter or surface area specifically designed for the placement of playground equipment with strictly defined borders either by the use of different surface material or by other separation barriers. The following classification was used to estimate the presence of shade at playgrounds:
● No trees in the playground perimeter - there are no trees of any kind in the perimeter of playground.
● Trees in the playground perimeter – there is one or more trees or tall tree-like shrub growing in the perimeter of playground.
● Trees adjacent to the playground perimeter – one or more trees or tree-like shrubs growing in the immediate vicinity of the playground perimeter – very likely to throw some shade at certain times of the day.
● Trees outside the playground perimeter – one or more trees or tree-like shrubs growing at certain distance from the playground perimeter, but still close enough/big enough that they may throw some shade at certain times of day (not more than 10 meters distance).
6.2. Results
Out of total 40 playgrounds analyzed, 82.5 percent (33) had no trees within boundaries of playground and 17.5 percent (7) had one or more trees within the playground perimeter.
71 Half the playgrounds (20) had trees adjacent to the perimeter that were likely to throw some shade during certain times of the day/year, while 60 percent (24) had some trees growing outside the playground perimeter at various distances but still close enough to possibly throw some shade on the playground. One site received shade from the adjacent high-rise building and one site from the overarching bridge. 52.5 percent of playground equipment had some sort of roofing element but considering their very limited sizes the real purpose of their installment and design is unlikely associated with the provision of shade for equipment users (Figure 9).
Figure 9. Playground equipment at Pleasant Ridge Community Center with roofing elements.
In respect to surface materials, the majority of playgrounds have different shades of
wooden chips (70 percent). Of fourteen sites that have compact rubber surface, 71.4
percent (10) had darker shades that tend to absorb more UV radiation than the lighter colors, which are known to reflect large portion of received solar radiation into the surrounding environment. In addition to the wooden chips, one playground had surface partially covered with plastic grass-like carpet, and another was completely covered with small gravel.
72 A random survey of selected playgrounds in the Cincinnati area conducted during the summer between 10 AM and 4 PM when solar radiation is the strongest revealed that
65.8 percent of playgrounds had no shade at all at the time of survey. Therefore, if a child was to visit the same playgrounds during this period she would be likely inadequately protected from the sun exposure. Number of cases that had some trees growing adjacent or in certain proximity to the playground boundaries likely received sporadic accidental shade ( meaning that the trees were planted at different times and for different purpose than providing a shade for the playground but are still somewhat useful for this task).
The survey also reveals that type and size of trees inside/outside playground perimeter plays a central role in quality of shade provision. Some trees 12-15 meters distance from the playground equipment cast an excellent shade on the play area as they have wide, dense canopies and sufficient height. Older, well-established trees had better performance in shade provision that younger ones. It was also observed that playground equipment
(especially metal and plastic) tends to overheat when exposed to direct midday sun and therefore has limited use. This, provision of shade would be useful not only for protecting children’s health from the sun exposure but also for extending the usability of playground equipment.
6.3. Conclusions
The survey of 40 playgrounds in the Cincinnati metropolitan area revealed that a majority of them offer insufficient protection from sun exposure during the summer months due to the lack of design and planning interventions in and around the play areas. The natural
73 vegetation provides the majority of shade at children playgrounds. Trees do not always offer absolute protection from UV radiation and their shade provision efficiency highly depends on the type of tree and planting density (Grant et. al. 2002). Therefore, even though approximately half the playgrounds do receive some amount of shade from the trees located adjacent or at further distance from the playground boundaries, this may not be sufficient to provide desired sun protection (such accidental shade forms can be often
observed as occasional shadows in narrow bands, irregular shapes, or translucent
patterns). Incorporation of wisely selected trees into the perimeter of playground would
likely offer more consistent, deeper shade coverage and overall better sun protection than
the sporadic shade contours from the more remote trees. One such playground next to the
Scioto Hall at the University of Cincinnati (Figure 10) may serve as an excellent example
of proper tree selection and incorporation into the play area that offers sun protection
benefits while simultaneously reduces risks associated the safety issues and maintenance
costs.
Figure 10. Multiple trees incorporated in the perimeter of playground next to the Scioto Hall at the University of Cincinnati offers excellent sun protection throughout the day.
74 Taller trees with little undergrowth and wide, dense, umbrella-like canopies would be
optimal for shade provision at the playgrounds. Implementation of tree vegetation not only offers sun protection, but also improves microclimate conditions on the playgrounds making them more appealing for the extended use especially during the summer months.
In addition, it can serve as a noise reduction barrier, as well as eye-soothing motive in
often visually unpleasant build environment. Even though the proper inclusion of tree
vegetation on children playgrounds seems the perfect mission for landscape architects,
they are often left out of the whole design, development, and implementation process.
Informal interviews with landscape architecture and playground equipment companies revealed that their services are often offered separately and are not inclusive of each
other. To minimize the initial costs of projects, playground clients often appoint only
playground equipment company to come and install the play elements at the selected location. Such companies rarely offer landscaping services or provide consultation on the
site selection in respect to the surrounding environment. Some companies offer inclusive
packages that provide both playground equipment installation and area landscaping at
higher cost. Informal interviews with the institutional playground providers revealed that
inspectors who conduct periodic state audits are prevalently concerned with the safety of
playground equipment while they pay little or no attention to the shade provision or the quality of the surrounding environment.
Even though half the playground equipment had some kind of roofing elements, considering their size they were likely insufficient to offer adequate sun protection and had more design purpose. Various design solutions such as implementation of wide-
75 ranging roofing elements on the playground equipment (Figure 11) or installation of overarching shade structures and canopies (Figure 12) may offer year-around protection
from UV radiation.
Figure 11. Playground equipment with wide roofing element (Burke Company, LLC, New Jersey).
Figure 12. Children’s playground completely covered in shade provided by the overarching canopy made of UV resistant cloth (Shade ‘N Net, Arizona).
Considering that children tend to be very active while using playground equipment and
often continually move from one spot to another, as well as play around the equipment,
76 the smaller roofing elements may be insufficient to offer desired UV protection.
Therefore, the latter innovation may be superior to the roofing elements, as it not only
provides continual and complete sun protection but also has additional benefits: it extends
the life of equipment, prevents equipment overheating, and extends the usability of playground in different weather conditions/seasons. The last benefit would help balance disparity between playground design and the actual usability of play area that was observed in this research study: even though the play elements were thoughtfully selected and placed in the space, they were rarely attended by children during the midday hours as they were overheated and directly exposed to the intense sun.
The literature review revealed a general lack of guidelines for the proper incorporation of shade elements in open space environments that would help professionals such as playground equipment designers, landscape architects, and planners to address this issue.
The comprehensive literature on advantages and disadvantages, as well as cost analysis on different type of shade elements is very limited. In addition, public awareness and consequent demand for such installations is still insufficient to put adequate pressure on responsible officials that could eventually bring up set of regulations for provision of shade in open spaces and especially playgrounds. On the contrary, many international and national organizations have recognized the problem of UV exposure as noteworthy for the future health of all people and have therefore implemented various research, outreach, and regulative initiatives to address this issue. The World Health Organization has initiated UV protection program called INTERSUN in order to provide and disseminate information about safe sun practices, monitor scientific observations related to UV
77 emissions, and among other goals, collaborates with other agencies (WHO 2006).
Australia and New Zealand have tackled this issue to the greatest extent and have not
only developed various methodologies to measure sun exposure and effectiveness of different shade structures, but have developed special programs and policies designed to protect children for damaging solar radiation (Giles-Corti et al. 2004; Schofield, et al.
1991). Therefore, the major task of open space/playground designers, landscape architects, and planners should be to bring this awareness to their professional fields and try to develop and incorporate new methods and approaches to designing and planning open spaces and playgrounds.
78 CHAPTER 7______
CLOSING STATEMENTS
Comprehensive literature review, as well as research analysis reveals the general lack of focus on safety of children’s outdoor play in respect to environmental insults from nearby pollution sources.
7.1. Recommendations
This analysis reveals that a number of playgrounds in Cincinnati area may be situated in locations that may place children at the increased health risks from environmental insults.
Even though it may be very difficult to estimate the actual risk as it depends on many factors such as duration and frequency of exposure, personal socio-economic profile, type of pollution sources, it needs to be addressed more thoroughly by planners and open space designers responsible for playground allocation and installation. The evaluation of surrounding environment from the environmental health perspective should become a vital component in decision-making process related to the placement of play/recreational areas for children, especially in highly urbanized locations such as Cincinnati where potential exposure problems are likely to be more frequent than in less built-up areas.
Depending on the perceived health risks, the solutions for this problem may range from minor modifications such as posting of pollution alerts at the playgrounds and implementation of vegetation, to more drastic measures such as playground relocation.
79 The task of planning and designing public and institutional playgrounds often faces
significant limitations including demand for high levels of safety, lack of available
optimal locations for the construction of new playgrounds, financial considerations, and/or local political and planning tendency. In addition, some of the following factors may deter the introduction of potentially beneficial features on playgrounds such as the implementation of plan material within and around the children’s playgrounds:
1. Maintenance cost. It is much more affordable and easier to maintain a single, uniformed playground surface such as layer of compressed rubber or even shredded wood than combination of different materials exposed to residues from vegetation such as fallen leaves, branches, and fruits.
2. Implementation cost. Good quality landscaping services can be very expensive.
3. Safety issues. Potential fear of physical injuries associated with the falling branches or
fruits, children climbing onto the trees, and similar situations, followed by the fear of
litigation, may ward of many developers to include plant elements on the playgrounds.
4. Crime prevention. Intensive planting within and around playground may offer hideouts
to individuals with criminal attentions and give them an opportunity to closely approach
potential victims unnoticed.
In response to these diverse requests, many playgrounds lack appropriate landscape
infrastructure and consist of bare surface areas containing one or more blocks of
playground equipment.
Even though many of the above-mentioned factors can be resolved by proper selection
and distribution of plant material, they are in part the reason why many playgrounds
80 stand bare in urban landscapes. This trend may not only affect the microenvironment and overall quality on the playground but also expose its users to damaging solar radiation.
Planning and design practices that provide an abundance of shade not only around the playgrounds, but also incorporated it within the playground boundaries, may provide multiple benefits for children’s physical and psychological health. Therefore, professionals working on such projects should give shade elements implementation a higher priority and more consideration than it has been done so far.
7.2. Study limitations
The literature search revealed very limited availability of materials and methods that directly address issues discussed in this thesis. Even though some scientific research papers did measure migration of pollutants from their sources and their possible effects on children living near such sites, very few address directly the problems associated with children’s exposures on playgrounds. This problem is even more emphasized in open space design and planning literature, which rarely discusses their practices and approaches with respect to environmental health issues (except the problem of physical injuries which is well represented in numerous sources). Therefore, the literature review offered very few methodologies and guidance on investigating environmental health exposures on playgrounds from the planning and open space design perspective.
Consequently, the research techniques used in this paper are exploratory in their effort to measure the best potential risks to children from environmental insults present in their surroundings. As such, they evaluate existing situations in urban open spaces designated
81 for children (presence of built and natural elements/structures in and at certain distances
from the playground) and use this information in reference to general health risks to
playground users. This risk highly depends on many other factors such as duration and
frequency of use, personal behavioral and physical protection, as well as individual socio- economic and health background, all of which were not included in the analysis at this time.
Data collection on Cincinnati playgrounds with respect to environmental health exposures was obtained by using the Google Earth application, instead of GIS software.
The main reason for such selection was the lack of adequate CAGIS’s (Cincinnati Area
Geographic Information System) record collection on the precise location of children playgrounds around the city neighborhoods combined with the relative inaccessibility of corresponding satellite imaginary at the time of survey. Even though applications like
ArcGIS are superior to Google Earth in some respects like providing more advanced tools and options, the latter program is freely available and simple to use with satisfactory resolution for general needs. For example, all 40 analyzed playgrounds were immediately visible on the Google Earth-generated map while distance tool combined with the manually entered records provided a sufficient mean to answer the research questions posed in this Thesis. The biggest drawback of using this application to obtain the desired information was the need to rely on other database and data analysis software for the data input and processing.
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89 APPENDIX A: Field reports from surveyed playgrounds in Cincinnati area
W DESCRIPTIONS
W DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS
W SPATIAL MAPS
Playground equipment
Surface materials
Vegetation
Other materials
90 1 BURNETT WOODS
Date: 5/13/05 Time: 15:30 Shade at the time of survey: None Surface material: black/red/white compacted rubber Comments: Some trees outside the perimeter
N
91 2. UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI (Scioto Hall)
Date: 5/13/05 Time: 15:23 Shade at the time of survey: Plenty - from trees and buildings, shades the playground equipment Surface material: grey gravel Comments: Trees have shorter trunks, big radius, and thick canopy Situated between two tall buildings – additional shade
N
92 3. Sawyer Park I
Date: 5/13/05 Time: 16:35 Shade at the time of survey: Cloudy Surface material: Compact rubber in dark red/black colors Comments: Shade likely provided by two overarching bridges
N
93 4. Sawyer Park II
Date: 5/13/05 Time: 16:55 Shade at the time of survey: Cloudy Surface material: Compact rubber in dark red/black colors Comments: Some short shrubbery and trees adjacent to the playground
N
94 5. Newport (Corner of E. 3rd St. and Park Ave.)
Date: 5/13/05 Time: 18:00 Shade at the time of survey: None Surface material: Wooden chips under equipment/grass around Comments: Potential accidental shade from the trees planted next to sidewalk or building
N
95 6. Mt. Storm
Date: 5/16/05 Time: 10:20 Shade at the time of survey: Cloudy Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: Densely planted trees with big canopies are likely providing some shade.
N
96 7. Linwood Park (Corner of Eastern Ave and Russell)
Date: 5/16/05 Time: 11:42 Shade at the time of survey: None Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: -
N
97 8. Schmidt Recreation Center
Date: 5/16/05 Time: 12:01 Shade at the time of survey: Some but does not reach playground equipment Surface material: green carpet, wooden chips, grass Comments: -
N
98 9. Leblond Recreation Center
Date: 5/16/05 Time: 12:14 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Compact rubber in dark shades Comments: -
N
99 10. Park on Ludlow Ave
Date: 5/11/05 Time: 9:50 Shade at the time of the survey: Completely in shade Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: Older well-established trees with extensive canopies adjacent to playground
N
100 11. Ault Park
Date: 5/11/05 Time: 11:10 Shade at the time of survey: Plenty of shade Surface material: Brown mulch, red/brown compact rubber Comments: Trees adjacent/outside the perimeter provide partial shade
N
101 12. Withrow High School (Dana exit)
Date: 5/11/05 Time: 11:35 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Compact red/brown rubber Comments: -
N
102 13. Corner Madison/Ashland
Date: 5/11/05 Time: 12:00 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Brown wooden chips Comments: -
N
103 14. Corner of Eden and E. Danniels
Date: 5/11/05 Time: 12:10 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Compact rubber in dark red/black colors Comments: Tall tree with small narrow canopy planted at the perimeter – does not provide almost any shade
N
104 15. Camp Washington Community Center (1201 Stock Ave)
Date: 5/11/05 Time: 12:45 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Brown wooden chips Comments: -
N
105 16. Massachusetts (Next to I-75, Exit Hopple)
Date: 5/11/05 Time: 12: 48 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Light brown wooden chips Comments: Next to highway – noisy and likely bad air quality from car emissions
N
106 17. Devou Park (Volpenhein Pavilion)
Date: 5/11/05 Time: 13:10 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Very light wooden chips Comments: -
N
107 18. Goebel Park (Covington)
Date: 5/11/05 Time: 13:30 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: Close to interstate
N
108 19. Evanston Recreation Center (Corner of Gilbert and Hewit)
Date: 5/14/05 Time: 14:08 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Blue rubber Comments: -
N
109 20. Hyde Park East Commons (Corner of Erie and Marburg)
Date: 5/14/05 Time: 14:30 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Shredded wood Comments: -
N
110 21. Salway Playground (42505 Spring Grove Ave.)
Date: 5/19/05 Time: 14:00 Shade at the time of survey: Some shade from threes adjacent to playground but do not cover equipment Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: Next to busy road/ loud and noisy
N
111 22. Northside (Corner of Hamilton and Palm)
Date: 5/19/05 Time: 14:42 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Rubber in darker shades Comments: Small trees/seedlings planted close to playground’s perimeter, insufficient to provide shade for the playground
N
112 23. Mt. Airy Forest
Date: 5/19/05 Time: 15:00 Shade at the time of survey: Partial shade (does reach equipment) Surface material: Shredded wood/rubber Comments: Trees adjacent to playground perimeter older with tall wide canopies throw shade on the equipment even though the tree trunks are 6m/12m distance.
N
113 24. Corner of Colreain and Shepherd
Date: 5/19/05 Time: 15:10 Shade at the time of survey: No shade at all Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: -
N
114 25. AVONDALE
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 12:50PM Shade at the time of survey: No shade Surface material: Compact green rubber Comments: -
N
115 26. HIRSH RECREATION CENTER
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 12:56 Shade at the time of survey: Partial Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: Nice tall trees with big canopies
N
116 27. MARTIN LUTHER KING PARK
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 13:07 Shade at the time of survey: Majority in shade Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: -
N
117 28. BOND HILL
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 13:15 Shade at the time of survey: Partial Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: -
N
118 29. PLEASANT RIDGE COMMUNITY CENTER
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 13:35 Shade at the time of survey: None Surface material: Compact dark-brown rubber Comments: -
N
119 30. PLEASANT RIDGE PARK
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 13:40 Shade at the time of survey: Partial Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: -
N
120 31. ROSELAWN PARK
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 14:15 Shade at the time of survey: Partial Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: Many well established trees
N
121 32. MADISONVILLE RECREATION CENTER
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 14:27 Shade at the time of survey: No shade Surface material: Darker brown wooden chips Comments: -
N
122 33. CORNUELLA
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 14:32 Shade at the time of survey: Partial on edges, no shade covering equipment Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: -
N
123 34. DOGWOOD PARK
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 14:55 Shade at the time of the survey: Almost completely in shade Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: Well-established trees with wide canopies incorporated
N
124 35. LUNKEN AIRPORT
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 15:19 Shade at the time of survey: None Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: -
N
125 36. MARIAN L. AHLERING RECREATION COMPLEX
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 15:25 Shade at the time of survey: Almost completely in shade Surface material: Wooden chips/compact blue rubber Comments: -
N
126 37. Mt WASHINGTON
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 15:40 Shade at the time of survey: Very little shade Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: -
N
127 38. STANBERY PARK
Date: 10/3/05 Time: 15:47 Shade at the time of survey: Almost all in shade Surface material: Wooden chips Comments: -
N
128 39. McMICKEN/McMILLAN
Date: 10/5/05 Time: 15:14 Shade at the time of survey: Very little shade, no shade on equipment Surface material: Grayish compact rubber/wooden chips Comments: -
N
129 40. McMICKEN
Date: 10/5/05 Time: 15:25 Shade at the time of survey: Compressed darker-green rubber Surface material: No shade at all Comments: -
N
130 APPENDIX B: Data sets for Google Earth analysis
Table 2. Number of different roads within 1-mile radius from individual surveyed playgrounds in Cincinnati area.
MAJOR STATE PLAYGROUNDS INTERSTATES AIRPORTS HELIPORT ROADS ROADS
Burnett Woods 7 3 1 0 1 University of Cincinnati 9 0 1 0 2 Sawyer Park I 12 5 2 0 0 Sawyer Park II 12 5 2 0 0 Newport 10 3 2 0 0 Mt. Storm 5 3 2 0 0 Linwood Park 3 2 0 0 2 Schmidt Fields 4 2 0 0 0 Leblond Rec Center 4 2 0 0 0 Ludlow Avenue 8 3 2 0 0 Ault Park 5 1 0 0 2 Withrow High School 3 1 1 0 0 Corner Madison/Ashland 2 4 1 0 0 Corner Eden/Danniels 2 2 1 0 2 Camp Washington 4 3 2 0 1 Massachusetts 4 3 1 0 1 Devou Park 7 2 1 0 1 Goebel Park 7 3 1 0 1 Evanston Rec Center 4 2 1 0 0 Hyde Park East Common 2 1 0 0 0 Salway Playground 5 1 1 0 0 Northside Plaza 2 3 2 0 0 Mt. Airy Forest 2 2 1 0 0 Colerain/Shepherd 4 3 1 0 0 Avondale 3 2 1 0 0 Hirsh Recreation Center 3 2 1 0 0 Martin Luther King 3 2 1 0 0 Bond Hill 5 2 1 0 0 Pleasant Ridge Comm C 3 2 1 0 0 Pleasant Playground 3 2 1 0 0 Roselawn Park 3 1 0 0 0 Madisonville Rec Center 6 0 1 0 0 Cornuella 7 0 0 0 0 Dogwood 3 1 0 0 0 Lunken Airport 3 2 0 1 2 Marian L. Ahlering 3 2 0 1 2 Mt Washington 5 0 0 0 0 Stanbery Park 3 0 0 0 0 McMicken/McMillan 8 3 1 0 1 McMicken 8 3 1 0 1
131 Table 3. Number of TRI-registered pollution sources within 1-mile or 1-2 mile radius distance from surveyed playgrounds in Cincinnati area.
PLAYGROUNDS TRI FACILITIES < 1 mile 1-2 miles Burnett Woods 2 23 University of Cincinnati 1 14 Sawyer Park I 1 5 Sawyer Park II 1 5 Newport 2 4 Mt. Storm 10 15 Linwood Park 1 6 Schmidt Fields 1 1 Leblond Recreation Center 14 Ludlow Avenue 11 10 Ault Park 3 10 Withrow High School 1 13 Corner Madison/Ashland 2 3 Corner Eden/Danniels 3 9 Camp Washington 12 9 Massachusetts 11 8 Devou Park 0 6 Goebel Park 0 7 Evanston Recreation Center 1 4 Hyde Park East Commons 0 24 Salway Playground 7 19 Northside Plaza 5 17 Mt. Airy Forest 0 2 Corner Colerain/Shepherd 2 12 Avondale 1 7 Hirsh Recreation Center 1 9 Martin Luther King 2 21 Bond Hill 9 32 Pleasant Ridge Comm Cent 3 27 Pleasant Playground 4 27 Roselawn Park 12 25 Madisonville Rec Center 3 15 Cornuella 1 14 Dogwood 4 5 Lunken Airport 1 3 Marian L. Ahlering 1 4 Mt Washington 0 0 Stanbery Park 0 0 Corner McMicken/McMillan 7 12 McMicken 5 15
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