At a rate of once a month, a child dies from being strangled by the cords on window blinds.
Although manufacturers have installed various safety measures over the past 25 years or so, The New York Times reports that the Consumer Product Safety Commission is trying to step up pressure on the industry. The commission, prodded by a Missouri mother whose daughter died in a strangulation accident, has asked manufacturers to eliminate the risks from window blind cords or possibly face mandatory regulations.
Efforts to address the issue are being overseen by a task force including regulators and consumer advocates, working with members of the industry. The industry has promised a fix by this fall but consumer advocates have been frustrated by the proposals they have seen so far from manufacturers.
“It was my understanding that we were eliminating the hazard,” said Carol Pollack-Nelson, a safety consultant on the task force. “Now they are talking about reducing the hazard. We don’t want reduced strangulation. We want no chance of it.”
The essence of the debate comes down to a question of economics: As the Times put it, “how much should manufacturers, and ultimately consumers, be required to pay to prevent the maiming or death of a child?”
Industry officials say the consumer advocates’ position is unrealistic. “The objective is to minimize the hazard as much as possible,” said Ralph J. Vasami, executive director of the Window Covering Manufacturers Association. “I don’t know if you have it in your power to eliminate every hazard for every product.”
Some of the safety consultants who believe the industry is dragging its feet have threatened to quit the task force but the CPSC chair, Inez Tenenbaum, is urging everyone to stay on.
One potential fix is cordless blinds. However, as is often the problem when industries address safety hazards, manufacturers complain that such blinds are far too expensive — at retail, they can cost twice as much as blinds with cords — and will hurt sales.
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