Is there a future for corded window coverings?
Window coverings have long been a staple in homes, providing privacy, light control, and aesthetic appeal. However, what many may not realize is that these seemingly harmless household items can pose serious safety risks, especially to children.
- On average, about nine children under 5 years of age die every year from strangling in window blinds, shades, draperies, and other window coverings with cords.
- There were more than 200 incidents involving children up to 8 years old due to strangulation hazards from window covering cords during 13 years from January 2009 through December 2021. A child died in 48% of those incidents.
- Injuries varied from a scar around the neck to quadriplegia, and permanent brain damage. (Data from CPSC’s website)
To address these concerns, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted to approve a new federal standard, giving the window covering industry 6 months to comply with the new law. The vote on November 2, 2022, was won with a 4 to 0 vote.
The new rule demanded the custom window covering industry eliminate the use of any products with free-hanging cords, free-hanging tilt cords, inner cords, and multiple cord connectors on all made-to-order window treatment products.
WCMA files a lawsuit
The Window Covering Manufacturers Association filed a lawsuit on November 30, 2023, challenging the CPSC’s rule. Their reasoning is based on the fact that there has been a substantive effort by the industry to advance child safety. Which has proven to give results. WCMA argues that the CPSC has overlooked the voluntary standards the window-covering industry has taken on and the effects coming from that.
U.S. Court of Appeals Vacates the CPSC Rule
On September 13, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals vacated the CPSC’s rule on custom window coverings. The court agreed with WCMA that CPSC failed to provide an opportunity to comment on the underlying incident data, conducted a flawed cost-benefit analysis that ignored the enormous harm that the rule would have caused the multibillion-dollar custom window coverings industry, and selected an arbitrary effective date for the rule. The CPSC acknowledges that the industry will need at least 2 years to develop completely new products. So the six-month effective date would make it impossible for the window covering industry to create proven safe replacement products.
WCMA’s voluntary standard
In the meantime, the Window Covering Manufacturers Association did agree to some updated voluntary changes that it says will require the vast majority of window coverings sold in the U.S. to be cordless or have inaccessible or short cords by June 1, 2024.
This revised standard will create a leap forward for the safety of our children.
How Can I Create a Safe Environment for my Children?
No matter the rules and regulations within the window covering industry, there are steps you can take today to create a safe home for children and pets.
- Avoid any corded window coverings as much as you can. The safest products that we recommend at SunCoast Blinds are plantation shutters, motorized shades, or cordless shades.
- Never put corded window coverings in the kid’s room, especially not close to a crib or furniture they can climb on.
- If you can’t afford to remove corded window treatments. Make sure to cut the cords as short as possible to prevent any disaster.
- Anchor all existing cords to the floor or wall.
- Remember that a child choking is a silent death.
having a cord or not on a shade should be the buyers decision.
What if there are no children in home.
Blinds with cords should warn and REQUIRE cord to be attached to a surface/floor if children present. If a child get hurt its the owners/parents who are at fault by not following instructions. When getting into car & not wearing seatbelts if one gets injured in a crash its not as if no one warned you.
Lucis has a valid point. How many children that died from window treatments, were placed in a baby bed under a window by their parent. More than 30 years ago, I was on an advisory board of a major blind mfg. co. that was looking for ways to prevent this very situation.
Exactly! I have no children so this is a non issue for me. What IS an issue is mobility. I can’t lean over to lift a blind all the way up by hand. This new law blindsided me. I kept seeing cordless blinds and just thought they were a trend. Now I need to replace several blinds and can’t find what I need. The cordless blinds should be an option for those who want/need them rather than yet ANOTHER requirement to supposedly safeguard other people’s children from what amount’s to careless parenting.
I definitely agree with the above. I have no children but I do have disabilities where cordless blinds do not work. Cordless should be an option not a requirement. They are not only more expensive they are inconvenient. As far as the statistic on how many children are harmed yearly, there are far more injured by our big phara and government collusion over the last decade but we don’t outlaw them. Get the government out of our homes and personal consumer decisions. Let the buyer beware. Put the warning labels on like anything and everything else.
How will we comply with ADA for accessible reach range with no cords?
I also wonder how this is not an ADA issue. I had to replace my blinds last summer and the best I could find then was a cord that is one piece and has to attach to the side of the window. I have a mobility issue that makes even this very difficult to do and because I can’t move enough to pull the cord in a smooth steady way the gear on one the new Levelor’s has snapped, and I don’t know yet if they will replace it. When I was purchasing the blinds and brought up my issues with not being able to work non corded blinds the suggestion was to buy motorized ones which cost $100’s of more per blind. This is a ridiculous overstepping of the government over something that should be a consumer choice issue.
I absolutely agree!!! I’m short, and medical disability on top of that and need the corded blinds! I cannot reach cordless blinds to put them up and down, and to open my windows. I can’t reach across my sink, behind the couch, above my head in bedrooms and bathrooms. They even made it illegal for strings on curtains now to pull across behind my couch.
I had 3 children, and with good parenting, none of my kids, cats, or dogs or any that came over to my house ever used the strings on curtains and blinds to play with. Hundreds of years with corded blinds, and us good parents have to suffer because others don’t take care of their kids.
Need to take the new cordless apart and “Jimmy rig” them into being corded. Ridiculous. Otherwise anyone that has arthritis, short, disabled etc can never lift and release their blinds or close their curtains ever again. Can’t open my windows either without breaking the blinds if they can’t be put up or down with a cord. What has happened to this world?? Cordless is NOT ADA COMPLIANT OR ACCESSIBLE
I DO AGREE .OLDER ,SENIOR CITIZENS ARE BEING PENALIZED BECAUSE OF LAZY PARENTS AND PET OWNERS.THESE ARE THE TYPE OF PEOPLE THAT GIVE THEIR KIDS DEVICES TO KEEP THEM STILL BECAUSE ARE TO BUSY TO RAISE /SUPERVISE THEIR KIDS NOW WE OLDER DISABLED PEOPLE SUFFER.SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS WE LIVE IN NOW.
The no-cords rule is just another example of poorly-reasoned over-regulation. Only a small subset of customers will have small children or pets AND have the blinds in a location where the cord could be a hanging hazard – and even for them, hanging incidents are rare. Why shouldn’t I be able to get corded blinds for the windows behind my kitchen sink, a location a child would not even be able to access, let alone hang himself? I don’t have children in my house, but I do have windows in rooms laid out such that I cannot reach behind furniture to push cordless blinds all the way down. Let customers decide what they need and which safety risks apply to their situations. Don’t make a blanket decision for everyone!