About the Canadian Standards Association
Canadian Standards Association (CSA) is a membership association serving industry, government, consumers and other interested parties in Canada and the global marketplace.
CSA aims to enhance public safety, improve quality of life, preserve the environment and facilitate trade.
The Canadian Standards Association is a division of CSA Group, which also consists of CSA International for product testing and certification, OnSpeX for consumer product evaluation services, and QMI for management systems registration. For more information visit www.csa.ca.
CSA publishes the CAN/CSA-Z614 Children’s Playspaces and Equipment standard
— an important guide for Canadians to use in the prevention of child injuries through proper playspace design and maintenance. The standard is part of CSA’s ongoing efforts to promote education about playspace hazards.
CSA has more than 2,000 published standards, covering a wide range of products, from electrical, plumbing and oil and gas industries, to hockey helmets, visors and playground equipment.
Why Follow the CSA Standards?
The CSA Playground Safety Standards have been proven to identify playground hazards and reduce accidents and injuries when their recommendations have been followed.
The CSA requires playground equipment to meet standards determined to ensure the safety of playground equipment. Head entrapments, string entanglements, trip zones and unsafe heights are among the hazards addressed and remedied in the CSA Playground Safety Standards.
For years, no standard was in place to ensure playgrounds across the country were as safe as possible. In 1990, CSA released its first edition of the "Children's Playspaces and Equipment standard"—marking the beginning of a growing safety trend in the playground industry.
Sixteen years and three editions of the standard later, thousands of new and old playgrounds in Canada have been built or retrofitted to meet CSA standards and thousands of injuries have been prevented. These standards set the bar for safety requirements for Canadian playgrounds.
By following these standards, Questic ensures every project we are involved meets stringent standards of safety.
CAN/CSA-Z614 Children’s Playspaces and Equipment standard
The most recent edition of the Z614 standard, released in 2003, applies to a wide variety of playspaces and equipment and has been updated to include new requirements.
This standard contains recommendations on technical requirements and practices applicable to the design, manufacture, construction, installation, maintenance, and inspection of children's playspaces and equipment for use in public playspace. It includes:
- Coverage for new playspaces and equipment
- Protection for additions and replacement parts of existing playspaces and equipment
- Requirements for all equipment
For more information on the standard of the CSA, check out the CSA website or click on the titles below to read the full articles.
CSA Standards Proven an Effective Tool in Identifying Hazardous Playground Equipment by New Research Published in Canadian Medical Association Journal
CSA Releases Third Edition of Playspaces Standard
