A one-year-old Jacksonville baby has been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after being tangled in blinds near its crib. The story on the Channel 4 news website does not say if the baby was a girl or boy, only that police responded to the 4000 block of Starratt Road on the Northside around noon on Friday, October 14 and found the baby tangled in the cords. Jacksonville Fire Rescue took it to Shands Jacksonville. There is no updated word on the baby’s condition.
Let’s hope this baby survives this devastating strangulation injury. Please pray for the baby’s life.
Window Blind Dangers
Millions of blinds have been recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) after reports of strangulation or near strangulations. In some cases, a beaded chain becomes entangled around the child’s neck if the chain is not attached to the wall. In other cases, the cord that is found behind the cloth of the blind can be pulled out if it is exposed and a child can wrap him- or herself around it.
If a family is renting a home, they may not have any choice in the window coverings. However, they do have a choice in the placement of the crib to help prevent product child injuries.
According to the CPSC, about 200 children have died from becoming entangled in blind cords over the last 20 years.
The CPSC wants to tighten up standards and force manufacturers to create blinds with the cords inside the window shade and not exposed, but there is resistance from the industry. The Window Covering Manufacturers Association wants more lax standards which allow exposed cords to continue as long as they are tied down. That way the industry does not have to spend money on a total redesign of blinds and saves money.
Consumer groups argue that the plastic that ties down the cord can become dislodged or fall off the wall, leaving the cord exposed. Industry usually has the final say on standards and federal regulators are limited in their authority to issue a mandatory requirement for safety, due to amendments passed under the Reagan administration, reports the Chicago Tribune.
In this case, the CPSC’s director says the agency may require industry to follow mandatory standards.
Source: http://www.news4jax.com/news/29487205/detail.html; http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10261.html;
