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Home › Articles › General Safety Issues › Are Your Windows Safe?

Are Your Windows Safe?

Mini Blind and Cord Cautions

By Melinda Copp

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Some newer blind styles don't have any outer cord or are equipped with cord safety features. For example, Hunter Douglas has new blinds that use a battery-operated remote control system that allows you to raise or lower shades by pressing a button instead of pulling a cord. And other styles use a single, retractable cord that remains at the same length whether the shade is raised or lowered, making it harder for children to reach. They also offer a safety tassel on all horizontal blinds that is designed to break open under pressure if a child gets entangled in the cord.

Many other window-covering manufacturers have created safer blinds that don't use outer pull cords. The Home Safety Council has recognized Levolor's cordless blinds for their safety innovations. If you do have a looped outer cord on your window coverings, Lowe's and the Window Covering Safety Council offer a free safety kit that allows you to cut the loop and make two individual cords. For more information, call (800) 559-2555 or visit www.WindowCoverings.org.

Inner Cord Strangulation
These safety kits reduce the risk of outer cord strangulation; however, they do not completely childproof blinds.

"Safety kits might reduce the risk, but they don't completely eliminate it," says Linda Kaiser, founder and executive director of Parents for Window Blind Safety and a mom whose toddler daughter died from a window covering strangulation accident. "And they give parents a false sense of security."

Safety kits protect your child from getting strangled by the outer cords when the blinds are down completely. But when you raise the blind, the cord gets longer because as you pull them up the blinds are lifted from the bottom. When the blinds are raised completey, the cord hangs down and creates a strangulation hazard. And when the blinds are down, your child can potentially pull enough cord length from between the slats to loop around his neck.


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