The deaths of three children led the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to issue a recall of over 5 million window blinds, according to the CPSC web site.
The three incidences include a 4-year-old girl who was strangled by a vertical blind cord in 2006. In 2007, a 1-year-old boy became entangled and strangled in the loop of a roll-up blind that had fallen into his crib, according to the Baltimore Sun. A year later, a 13-month-old boy was found with his head between the inner cord and the cloth on the backside of a Roman shade.
Here’s a video discussing the window blind recall…
The primary purpose of the recall is to fix the window blinds lack of an inner cord stop device to prevent the accessible inner cords from being pulled out by someone, especially young children.
Companies such as IKEA, Pottery Barn Kids, and Expo Design Center have removed the window blinds from their shelves.
Our firm, which only handles injury law, has written extensively about product recalls, so this issue is of great concern to us.
In order to prevent this type of tragedy, Good Housekeeping Research Institute provided some important safety tips:
1. Keep cords out of reach from children.
2. Do not place cribs, beds, toys, or furniture of an infant or toddler beneath or near a window or window treatment.
3. Cords should be looped up and away from the reach of children at all times.
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