how can safe practices be implemented in playgrounds as climate change accelerates and causes temperatures to significantly rise over time earlier this year a team of scientists that included daniel vecellio a doctoral candidate in the department of geography at texas a&m university published research on thermal safety for playgrounds funded by the standards council of canada (scc) national program for playground safety (npps) the thermal comfortable playgrounds: a review of literature and survey of experts" report emphasized how important outdoor areas are for the growth and development of children but also examined what changes can be implemented in playgrounds to make them safer more thermally accommodating areas without exposing children to environmental risks the purpose of this report was to highlight the importance of thermal safety and comfort in playgrounds and the need to consider it in concert with already established playground safety standards such as surface impact attenuation accessibility and structural integrity of equipment among other factors vecellio said this report was part literature review and part survey including those who work in academics childrens health landscape and urban planning playground design equipment manufacturing and installing etc followed by recommendations and guidelines for future playground design taking into account thermal comfort and safety vecellio added vecellio studies land-atmosphere interactions in cold regions biometeorology and how weather and climate affect human health this project was led in part by his masters advisor dr jennifer vanos an assistant professor in the school of sustainability at arizona state university playgrounds may be in compliance with these standards but lack things such as adequate shading green space and water features which could expose children to physiological harm through overheating or other hazards such as sunburns due to more sensitive skin and thermal burns due to prolonged sun exposure of playground equipment he said since the study region for this report was in canada there are other environmental factors that also hinder safety in playgrounds additionally in canada with its prolonged cold seasons thermal comfort in the winter must also be taken into consideration by blocking bitter cold winds and allowing low wintertime sunlight into the play space to ensure year-round comfortable play vecellio noted i was invited by dr vanos to collaborate with drs heather olsen and eric kennedy of the national program for playground safety on this project he added i was excited at the prospect of working on it because it truly encompassed my interest in climate and health and would have a direct impact on creating safer healthier and more inclusive spaces for children and families to get active vecellios main role in the research was contributing to the literature review which helped to provide the motivation for the project and survey the analysis of the expert survey responses and the recommendations for thermal comfort considerations and future advocacy efforts to improve the thermal safety of playgrounds additionally he has and will continue to author peer-reviewed research stemming from the results of the expert thermal comfort survey