Hot playground mats worry parents

NEW YORK, July 21 (UPI) -- Some New York parents say the city should remove black mats from under play equipment at local parks because they get dangerously hot in the summer.

The rubber mats, intended to soften the impact of a child falling, can heat up to more than 165 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer sun, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.

Doctors at two New York medical centers said they see as many as 18 cases involving youths burned at playgrounds each year.

"It is unconscionable that the city continues to install products in playgrounds that hurt the most vulnerable park users -- small children," Geoffrey Croft of N.Y.C. Park Advocates said.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told the newspaper warning signs are visible in the parks to alert parents not to let their children take off their shoes.

"We're not going to remove (the mats). Our playgrounds are the safest in the world," Benepe said to the Daily News.