If Erin Carr-Jordan were to write a "How I spent my summer vacation" piece, it might be labeled "not suitable for children."
That certainly is how the Arizona State professor and mother of four would describe the subject matter: play areas laden with dirt, mold and bacteria that she has been checking out at fast-food restaurants throughout the nation's heartland.
"Kids should not be playing in this," she said. "This shouldn't be happening at places that are supposed to be safe havens."
Over the past two months, Carr-Jordan has crawled through tubes, taken swab samples and shot video with her phone at scores of fast-food rec areas, including a McDonald's PlayPlace in south Minneapolis.
"It was really dirty, from a visual perspective, as are 90 percent of the ones that I've seen," she said. "Pretty much pervasively, they are in an unsafe condition. Someone asked me, 'What surprises you most?' What surprises me is when they're clean."
The manager of that McDonald's, Teela Williams, said the play areas are cleaned every night at closing time. In addition, she said, "Once a week, someone comes in to detail-clean them -- mats and tunnels, everything thoroughly."
Burger King officials told the Chicago Tribune that its standards require "daily, weekly and monthly cleaning of playground equipment, pads and foams," as well as professional cleaning on a quarterly basis. Chuck E. Cheese has eliminated ball pits, requires that "all existing play equipment is cleaned with sanitizer" and has hand sanitizer dispensers in its play zones.
Whatever the franchises are doing, it's not enough to satisfy Carr-Jordan, who is combining a cross-country trip with her husband and four children and the play-area once-overs.
