Hot playground equipment warnings

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The summer months are all about getting outside and enjoying the outdoors, especially if you're a kid, but parks can be dangerous in the middle of the day when the sun heats up the metal on the playground.

KRQE News 13 went out and measured the heat of some playgrounds around Albuquerque in the mid-morning hours and found pretty high numbers.

"Even in a healthy child, if we're talking about temperatures up above 150 degrees, I think there is the potential for 1st or 2nd degree burns within a few seconds of contact," says Dr. Aimee Smidt, Pediatric Dermatologist from the University of New Mexico.

In News 13's findings, the temperature of a grey colored slide at 9:30 a.m. in the morning reached surface temperatures of 150 degrees. The black seat of a swing wasn't much cooler at 130 degrees. 

On the second day of research, readings were taken an hour earlier at 8:30 a.m.  The slide was almost 60 degrees cooler at around 90 degrees.  The monkey bars and the swing faired better at around 10 degrees cooler from the day before.

"You might imagine a small child going to a structure to climb up a ladder, they touch the ladder, they'd immediately back off, but if you were to place a child say on a hot slide where they couldn't get off immediately, I think that potential might be greater," adds Smidt.

Parents also try to eliminate the possibility of being around hot equipment by monitoring the time they go to playgrounds.

"We try to come out here early, especially this summer, it's been really hot we've been avoiding the slide, the slide has been very hot," says Victoria Dixon with her two kids at an Albuquerque park.

The best recommendation from experts is the earlier you go out, the better. You should also try to find shaded playgrounds.

"Shade structures can be very valuable because they reduce the surface temperature of the structure as well as the air temperature by something like 15 degrees," says Smidt.

The American Academy of Dermatology is trying to prevent kids from getting burned in further efforts of offering grants to schools and other groups that build playgrounds in the shade.