Wood chips or rubber surface? La Crosse area safety campaign compiles “toolkit” for developing safe playgrounds

Last summer, a community group in La Crosse was promoting wood chips as a safe surface material for local playgrounds to replace rubber chips from tires.

The group called SPACE has now taken its safety campaign a step further, publishing what it calls a toolkit with advice on building safe play areas. The toolkit was unveiled Wednesday during a news conference at Northside Elementary School in La Crosse.

UW-La Crosse chemistry professor Kris Rolfhus said campus research shows that the rubber being used now at play areas presents hazards.

Rolfhus noted university students have taken samples from playgrounds, which use “shredded tire rubber chip fills, that research has shown has had a number of different chemicals — some toxic — and a desire to reduce exposure to children playing on them.”

Rubber surfaces are also criticized for retaining too much heat in the summer. Members of SPACE promote wood chips to replace rubber or asphalt on playgrounds.

Last August, SPACE announced that wood chips have been used to replace rubber surfaces at Crowley Park, outside La Crosse’s Emerson Elementary School.

UW-La Crosse graduate Grace Koch joined La Crosse Talk PM at that time to discuss a study she did on the toxic chemicals that children interact with on playgrounds that are made up of that tire “mulch.” Koch’s study helped lead the city to convert Crowley Park into wood chips, but many school parks remain with the rubber surface.