A two-year-old Long Island boy died Saturday (2oth March 2010) after getting his neck caught in the cord of a window blind. According to local news reports, the boy was playing with another child when he became tangled in the cord. His father and medical professionals were unable to revive him.
The report continues as follows;
This sad event underscores the dangers that the cords on blinds and shades pose to young children. Last December, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Window Covering Safety Council joined together to “recall for repair” 50 million Roman shades and roll-up blinds. Since then the CPSC has announced the recall of 400,000 more shades and blinds. And a number of major retailers have joined the recall as well.
In the past twenty years there have been 200 fatalities from blind and shade cords, says the CPSC. Other groups say the number is higher. Parents for Window Blind Safety, an advocacy group, reports that a child dies every two weeks from strangulation on corded window treatments.
Read the story here.
Currently in the United States pressure has been forced on the Government to take notice of the needless deaths of babies and toddler each year through strangulation on window blind cords. However, the result is a massive recall of the window blinds and shades, leaving families with the choice of having no blinds at all, or replacing them with expensive cordless blinds
In the UK no such policy is in place, the Government publicly stating that it’s the responsibility of parents, blind manufacturers and fitters to ensure the safety of children. While this is a matter of common sense, the reality is very different in the home, with young children demonstrating time and again how quickly they can get into serious difficultly with the cords of window blinds and shades.
Please lend your support to our campaign to have a recognised safety device brought to market and fitting in all homes, businesses, nurseries, doctor’s waiting rooms, etc, where there are window blinds and shades present.
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