As a new school year gets underway, President Obama launched a major back-to-school campaign aimed at keeping kids in the classroom. To piggyback his campaign, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) focused on promoting better safety.

Last week the chairman of the CPSC, Inez Tenenebaum, released the “Back to School Safety Checklist” to encourage parents and schools to create a safer school environment for children. A portion of the checklist is focused on playground safety, and urges school officials to have their playground inspected including the safety surfacing.

"Let's keep kids in the classroom and out of the emergency room," said Tenenbaum. "Parents and
school officials should make it a priority to check for hazards at home and at school."

The CPSC is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.