Lead in Playground Equipment in Indonesia

Between September and October 2019, the Nexus3 team visited 32 playgrounds in Jakarta, Indonesia. In each playground, painted play equipment (e.g., climbing bars and frames, posts, railings, ramps, rockers, see-saws, slides, swings, etc.) were examined and physical details, e.g., colour of painted surface, substrate type (metallic, wooden, plastic, fibreglass, etc.), including the condition of painted surface (new, old, visible chipping off or flaking) were documented.

The Nexus3 team visited 20 playgrounds categorised as child-friendly public open spaces, built and managed by the local governments, and 12 playgrounds that were built and managed by private apartments or malls.

In situ lead content analysis was performed on painted surfaces using a portable ElvaX ProSpector Type 1 X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer. For a complete description of the materials and methods, please see Appendix A.

This study shows that:

• 82 out of 119 or 69% of analysed pieces of playground equipment contained total lead concentrations above 90 parts per million (dry weight);
• 81 out of 115 or 70% of bright-coloured painted surfaces contained lead concentrations above 90 parts per million (dry weight); and
• The highest lead concentration detected was 4,170 ppm in a yellow-coloured combined playground equipment—slide and swing—at a public playground in West Jakarta, Indonesia.