Latest Window Blind Tragedy in the UK

Aaron O’Connell

Three year-old Evie Mid­dle­ton died on last Fri­day after­noon after becom­ing entan­gled in the cords of a win­dow blind at her home.

Despite the efforts of para­medics to ressusi­tate her, she was pro­nounced dead after arriv­ing at the Pin­der­fields Hos­pi­tal in Wakefield.

Ten tod­dlers have died as a result of stran­gu­la­tion in win­dow blind cords in the United King­dom since the begin­ning of 2010 and a total of 21 since 1999. The British Blind and Shut­ter Asso­ci­a­tion have made great efforts to pro­mote win­dow blind safety with their “Make It Safe” cam­paign but the fre­quency of these deaths has been increasing.

Greater pub­lic aware­ness is needed and it is now time that gov­ern­ments get involved and high­light the prob­lem. One child’s death is one too many.

50 Seconds Can Change Your Life

Aaron O’Connell

29.12.2011

IT takes about fifty sec­onds to make a cup of tea or cof­fee. It also takes about fifty sec­onds to send a text to a friend. But did you know that an inno­cent child can have its poor life cut short by stran­gu­la­tion in an unsafe cord or chain oper­ated win­dow blind in fifty seconds?

The length of time I have quoted above is cor­rect. Sta­tis­tics have shown this to be true. Indeed it is also proven that that unfor­tu­nate child will have lost con­scious­ness in approx­i­mately ten sec­onds when it is hang­ing from win­dow blind cord or chain and unable to sup­port its own weight.

The Sta­tis­tics

In 1998, in a sam­ple of hos­pi­tals in the 15 Mem­ber Sates of the Euro­pean Union, 129 chil­dren were hos­pi­talised due to an injury involv­ing a win­dow blind loop or drap­ery cord. In the United King­dom, it is esti­mated that one or two chil­dren die every year after becom­ing entan­gled in the cords of a blind. More recently, the Com­mis­sion has become aware of ten fatal acci­dents involv­ing chil­dren aged between 15 and 36 months that occurred in Ire­land, Fin­land, the Nether­lands, the United King­dom, and Turkey in the period 2008 to 2010. Here in Ire­land there have been eight fatal­i­ties, four of which have occurred in the last four years.  In the United States 119 fatal­i­ties and 111 near-misses involv­ing corded win­dow cov­er­ings were reported to have occurred since 1999. In Canada, 28 fatal­i­ties and 23 near-misses have been linked to the same prod­ucts since 1986. In Aus­tralia, at least 10 chil­dren have been acci­den­tally stran­gled by blinds cords since 2000. How­ever, these fig­ures cap­ture only a part of the prob­lem, as many such acci­dents are not reported.

 Research indi­cates that most acci­den­tal deaths involv­ing blind cords hap­pen in bed­rooms and the chil­dren con­cerned are aged between 16 months and 36 months. Over half these acci­dents hap­pen to chil­dren around 23 months. Although fully mobile at that age, chil­dren find it dif­fi­cult to free them­selves if they become entan­gled in the cords, as their heads still weigh more in pro­por­tion to their bod­ies com­pared to adults, and their mus­cu­lar con­trol is not yet fully devel­oped. In addi­tion, their wind­pipes have not yet fully devel­oped and are thus smaller and less rigid than in adults and older chil­dren, so that they suf­fo­cate more quickly if their necks are constricted.

 The Solutions

Now, I’m not propos­ing that we mon­i­tor our chil­dren 24/7. That’s impos­si­ble, even with mod­ern tech­nol­ogy. It doesn’t take the newest of gad­gets to make corded win­dow blinds safe from our chil­dren.  What I am sug­gest­ing is that there are sim­ple and effec­tive solutions.

 Each type of oper­at­ing sys­tem must be treated sep­a­rately. A safety solu­tion for a chain-operated blind isn’t suit­able for the oper­at­ing sys­tem of, say, a cord oper­ated blind. I have addressed this issue in my web­sites, windowblindsafety.ie and childsafety.ie, where suit­able and effec­tive solu­tions are pre­sented for each dif­fer­ent type of win­dow blind.

 The Options

Let’s take a look at the options available:

Fig­ure 1

Chain oper­ated win­dow blinds, typ­i­cally roller, ver­ti­cal lou­ver, roman and mono-command vene­tians, should be made safe by installing a ten­sion device (See Fig­ure 1). Once installed cor­rectly this will hold the chain taut (under ten­sion) and won’t require fur­ther con­sumer participation.

Fig­ure 2

 Win­dow blinds, which are oper­ated by pull cords, require a num­ber of solu­tions to make them safe from stran­gu­la­tion. Firstly, the tas­sel needs to be replaced with one that will break away when a child gets entan­gled in the loop. Then an accu­mu­la­tion device (for exam­ple a cleat) is required that will allow the con­sumer to tie off the cords out of reach of young chil­dren (See Fig­ure 2). This solu­tion requires con­sumer par­tic­i­pa­tion, there­fore it is vital that it is used, par­tic­u­larly when the blind is raised and the pull cord is at it’s longest.

 The inner cords of cord-operated blinds are of par­tic­u­lar dan­ger to chil­dren. Mario “MJ” Williams Jr died in Octo­ber in the US after he became entan­gled in the inner cords of a Roman blind. Please refer to “US Safety Plans Too Lax” on my web­site. The solu­tion in this case would have been to install break­away clips which would elim­i­nate the haz­ardous loop when the weight of a child is applied to the cord.

Fig­ure 3

Inner cords in venet­ian blinds are also a dan­ger. The solu­tion in this instance is to install cord stops (See Fig­ure 3). One cord stop is required per cord and these will pre­vent a loop from being cre­ated in which a child can fit its head. It is imper­a­tive that these stops are posi­tioned cor­rectly, ide­ally within 150mm on the head rail. If a child pulls on the inner cord of a blind the cord stops will raise towards the head rail and will not be able to go any fur­ther. A haz­ardous loop will not be created!

The safety solu­tions that I have cov­ered above are cost effec­tive. They cost from €1.50 to €4.00 to pur­chase and not more than five min­utes to install. They can be pur­chased from Child Safety.ie.

Safety Tips for the Home at Christmas

Aaron O’Connell - 5th Decem­ber 2011

Every year lead­ing up to Christ­mas Acci­dent & Emer­gency depart­ments across the coun­try are full to over­load due to acci­dents in the home.

Your home is most likely to be full also at Christ­mas time and,  it is in the excite­ment and rush that acci­dents can hap­pen so eas­ily.  How­ever, one of the good things about Christ­mas is that there are usu­ally more peo­ple around to super­vise chil­dren and, with a lit­tle bit of care and for­ward plan­ning, many acci­dents can be avoided.

I’ve put together these safety tips, which will help pre­vent your fes­tiv­i­ties being cut short by a long trip to A & E: Con­tinue Reading

My Top Ten Tips for Window Blind Safety

Aaron O’Connell — Windowblindsafety.ie

Aaron O’Connell, 17th Novem­ber 2011

Fol­low­ing these sim­ple tips will ensure your chil­dren are safe from win­dow blind looped cords and chains

1.               1.  Fit a safety device to all corded win­dow blinds

              2.  Make sure to refit all safety devices after decorating

1.                3.  Ensure all cords and chains end at least 1.5m above the ground

               4.  Do not tie cords together

                                                                            5.  Move all beds, cots, high­chairs and fur­ni­ture away from win­dows with corded win­dow blinds

                                                                             6.  Fit appro­pri­ate safety devices to the inner or rear cords of win­dow blinds

                                                                             7.  When pur­chas­ing new blinds, make sure they are man­u­fac­tured to the Euro­pean Standard 

                                                                             8.  Make sure a warn­ing notice is attached

                                                                             9.  Ensure doc­u­men­ta­tion relat­ing to the blind’s safe instal­la­tion, use and main­te­nance is provided

                                                                          10.  Make sure a safety solu­tion is pro­vided with your new blind and that it can be installed in accor­dance with the manufacturer’s instructions

Safety Tips for Halloween

With the advent of Hal­loween the fol­low­ing tips will help keep your chil­dren safe from harm:

Trick-or-treaters should always have a flash­light and wear a watch which can be read in the dark so they know when to return home.

Cos­tumes should be shorter than floor length so they don’t trip over, par­tic­u­larly when run­ning around. If pos­si­ble cos­tumes should have a reflec­tive mark­ing, such as tape, to be seen better.

Any props involved with the cos­tume should be soft and not be able to harm others.

If chil­dren wear a mask, make sure they take it off when cross­ing the street or walk­ing door to door so they can see. Chil­dren could wear make-up instead.

Chil­dren should always be accom­pa­nied by an adult, walk­ing, and not run­ning from house to house.

Par­ents should warn chil­dren to not go into a strangers home or car.

Make sure your chil­dren trick-or-treat in well lit areas and near houses that are famil­iar to them.

Trick-or-treaters should also have their some iden­ti­fi­ca­tion attached to them in case of an emer­gency. They should always stay in a group and not stay back to pet stray animals.

It is a good idea to feed your child before they go out so they are not as likely to eat their treats.

Dri­vers should take extra care on Hal­loween night and be aware of the trick-or-treaters in your neighborhood.