The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has been pushing for safety regulations for the cords connected to window coverings on blinds and shades. Although, the industry has had ‘voluntary’ standards in place, this has not stopped strangulation’s, deaths and injuries from occurring to children involved in window blind accidents each year. The proposed regulations will include certain types of vertical blinds, pleated shades and horizontal blinds. Any blinds with continuous loop cords are considered dangerous.
The Dangers Associated with Window Blind Cords
The danger of window blinds and shade window coverings is little known to parents, until the unthinkable happens. In the blink of an eye, a child can become entangled in the cords on certain vertical, horizontal and pleated shades and strangle. It only takes an instant.
The Facts on Window Blind Safety
• Children strangle on window covering cords every two weeks in the U.S.
• Children between the ages of seven months old and eight years old have strangled on window covering cords.
• Injuries can be catastrophic or deadly.
• Surviving children may never walk or talk again.
• A child can lose consciousness within seconds and can die in less than one minute.
It’s not a widely publicized issue, yet children are injured and killed each year in window blind cord incidents. According to the online legal publication Law360, between 1999 and 2010, at least 11 children under the age of five years old have died in window blind accidents across the United States. In 2010, there was a voluntary recall on over a half million Roman shades due to a toddler’s strangulation.
Proposed Safety Rules
While some industries certainly have cleaned up their act with voluntary standards, the window covering industry has yet to rise to the occasion. Children are still getting injured, strangled and killed in these defective blinds and window covering cords. The CPSC is now calling on the Federal Register with proposed rulemaking to increase the safety and address the dangerous defects that these types of blinds currently have.
If have lost a child or if your child has been injured or has suffered from a catastrophic injury due to a defective product, contact a skilled personal injury lawyer as soon as possible.
