Watch Out for Parasites, Unsanitary Conditions at Kids’ Splash Parks, CDC Warns

As summer heats up across the United States, many people are flocking to “splash parks” where toddlers and young children can play and cool off in shallow pools or water jets without having to worry about drowning in a swimming pool.

But the facilities can be a breeding ground for dangerous parasites, bacteria, and other types of contamination, according to a new public safety advisory issued today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Splash parks are increasingly popping up in city parks, private clubs, and larger water parks. The areas typically include jets where kids can spray water and fountains that shoot water or dump it from buckets onto the children standing below. Many parents feel safer having children play there compared to a shallow wading pool or larger pool, where drowning can occur in mere seconds.

But the fact that so many young children, most of them not toilet-trained, gather at splash parks raises the risk of bacterial contamination that goes largely unnoticed and unregulated by local public health officials, the CDC said in a report.

“Splash parks are designed to allow young children … to play in the water with little risk for drowning,” the report said. “Splash parks are often easily accessible, unmonitored, free for visitors and unregulated.”

Recent Bacterial Outbreak at Splash Park

A recent outbreak of cryptosporidiosis, a condition caused by exposure to the bacterium Cryptosporidium, resulted in cases of watery diarrhea among patrons of one splash park, the CDC said. The unnamed splash park where the outbreak occurred was not properly maintained and lacked adequate hygiene facilities and ultraviolet disinfection technology, which is an effective way to prevent the spread of the bacteria, according to the CDC.

Public health officials are advising local and state governments where splash parks are operated to consider increasing efforts to stop the spread of waterborne illness at the facilities.

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