Use The Brain

Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Use The Brain
2
Wed, 12-16-2009 - 8:46am

50 million blinds recalled as strangulation hazard

Tue Dec 15, 2:37 pm ET


WASHINGTON – The government and the window covering industry on Tuesday recalled more than 50 million Roman-style shades and roll-up blinds because of the risk children may be strangled by the cords.


The Consumer Product Safety Commission said five deaths and 16 near-strangulations from Roman shades have been reported since 2006, while three deaths connected to roll-up blinds have been reported since 2001.


Roman shades can become dangerous, the CPSC said, if a child's neck gets stuck between the exposed inner cord and the fabric on the backside of the blind, or if the cord gets wrapped around a child's neck.


Roll-up blinds pose a strangulation threat if the lifting loop slides off the side of the blind and a child's neck becomes entangled on it, or if a child neck's gets between the lifting loop and the roll-up blind material.


There has been a serious dumbing down of the people in America and we should be worried about it.  We no longer have to think for ourselves because someone else out there is going to do it for us.


It doesn't take much thought to recognize the strangulation hazard regarding the cords in window blinds. Probably a chimpanzee could understand that concept. So what do you do? Do you not put blinds in the windows if you have small children? Use curtains perhaps? Do you tie the cords up so that they don't dangle within a child's reach? Do you absolutely never put a child's crib near a window with a dangling window blind cord?


No!  You wait until your child dies and/or some manufacturer, industry or consumer group tells you that a product has risks associated with it.


For crying out loud, people, what has happened to common sense? Imagine the cost to this industry (the window blind manufacturers) that must now recall 50 million of their products and what? Throw them away? Replace them? All because a handful of parents were irresponsible?  And yes, I said irresponsible. Not using common sense to provide for the safety of a child is irresponsible. It shouldn't be up to the window blind companies to protect my children because I have sense enough to keep said product from harming my child.


Now, if the blinds had a tendency to fall out of the window and land on babies' heads that might be different. But blinds come with cords. That's how they're work.


When I was little my mother had metal venetian blinds. She bundled the cords up and secured them with a clothespin. When my son was little I had mini-blinds. I bundled the cords up and secured them with a clothespin. And I still do that today because I have cats who like to play with the cords and I realize they could become entangled and hurt themselves.  I don't expect the window blind industry to go to extremes to protect me.


This is getting out of hand and it could cost more people to lose their jobs or companies to go out of business. Life comes with a certain amount of risk. From the minute we pop from the womb there are opportunities for us to get hurt. But because we are a higher life form we are supposed to have the ability to look around us, see potential danger and protect ourselves and our loved ones from it. If we keep relying on the government to do this for us, we can expect to lose the ability to reason for ourselves.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2009
In reply to: ddnlj
Wed, 12-16-2009 - 9:28am
Ya know....you just can't "idiot proof" the world.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
In reply to: ddnlj
Wed, 12-16-2009 - 12:29pm

Got to agree!