Personal Injury Law

Company issues product recall for window blinds after child?s death

A company seller of housewares over the Internet has issued a product recall of 523,500 window blinds after a child was strangled by a pull-cord, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission said. The product recall covers both Roman shades and roll-up blinds sold by Hanover Direct through its Domestications, Company Store and Company Kids brands. The Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman told the window-covering industry yesterday that it needed to speed up efforts to write tougher design rules as the number of strangling deaths increase. This is an expansion of a previous product recall from October 2009 of about 90,000 roman shades.

The wider product recall comes after the death of a toddler who strangled in a window shade cord. The 22-month-old boy became trapped in the pull cord of a roman shade in May; he was found hanging by his neck and was rescued by his father. However, he later died at a hospital. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that one child dies monthly after strangling on the cords of blinds or roman shades! While there have been product recalls for blinds and shades in the past several years, safety advocates say that fatality rates have not improved much and the process for companies to move to safer designs has been slow. The problem with the cords on the blinds is that young kids can get tangled and trapped in the cords, leading to personal injuries and wrongful deaths. Consumers can contact the company at 800-453-1106 or www.domestications.com and www.hanoverdirect.com for more information.

Read more about the product recall for the blinds by following the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog on November 20, 2010 (boomark / email).