[Contamination of public children's playgrounds in Hannover with helminth eggs]

Fifty-two public sand pits on children playgrounds in Hannover were investigated for the presence of parasites. A large proportion (63.5%) of these playgrounds were contaminated with parasite eggs. Eggs from Toxocara spp., Toxascaris leonina and other common helminth parasites were found in 55.8%, 9.6% and 26.1% of these playgrounds, respectively. A total of 208 sand samples were collected, and 30.8% of them contained eggs from Toxocara spp. (24.5%), Toxascaris leonina (2.4%) or other common helminths (9.1%). In 45.1% of the Toxocara positive samples, the eggs were embryonated. Eggs from Toxocara spp. were found in 33.0%, 31.0% or 14.0% of samples from districts with low, medium or high numbers of dogs per hectare, respectively.