It is a sad truth that sometimes it takes a tragedy to raise our collective awareness. Last weekend, a toddler from Long Island was playing with another child and somehow got his neck tangled in a cord or chain from the window blinds, and died. Even more unfortunate, this is not an isolated incident. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, since 1990, 200 children have died after becoming tangled in these cords.
If you have infants or small children in your life-whether they live with you or just visit your home, please take a few minutes right now to look at what you have covering your windows.
Products made 
after 2001 have progressively become safer, and ideally, cordless products should be used in households with small children. Am not trolling for business here, but if your shades are not of this century, you’re probably due for replacements anyway, but I will address that in a future post.
More immediately, and perhaps more feasible are fixes you can do right now. Realize that a 5-foot long roll-up or Roman shade, when pulled all the way up, has about 7 feet of loose cord. Tucking that cord into the shade may be convenient but is not effective. You can forget to do it, and it can be easily dislodged.
For blind cords, a pair of cleats will keep cords tightly tethered and out of reach; I found them at Home Depot for $1.69 per pair. For continuous/looped cords, you can either cut the cord and install tassels on the ends, or installing a cord tensioner-a mechanism that attaches to the window frame, that keeps cord close to frame-check with the mfg of your blinds for availability/details.
Today’s post takes it title, and some of their safety tips from a program run by the Window Coverings Safety Council. They offer free retrofitting kits and safety information in both English and Spanish, http://www.windowcoverings.org . Just to see what they’re about, I ordered some of kits a few days back, but have n0t received them yet.
Please consider this info, both for your home, and to pass it on to anyone you know with children in their life-and thanks.
