News agencies reported that several consumer advocates walked out on a discussion on how to best revise standards in the window blind industry to eliminate safety hazards last week.
The advocates, like Consumer Reports’ senior director of product safety and technical policy Don Mays, claim that the task force for window blind safety was ignoring all suggestions from the consumer advocates. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) created the task force last year to create, by this October, an industry-wide safety standard or risk government regulation. The task force contains roughly 30 members and includes manufacturers, federal regulators and consumer safety advocates.
Consumer advocates claim that while the disagreements between members of the task force have stalled progress, the threat of window blinds remains very real. About one child per month becomes entangled and suffers strangulation from the cords in window blinds or shades in the US. Despite millions of recalled window coverings because of safety hazards, the manufacturers of these products have been slow in eliminating the hazard. At the moment, the industry only has a voluntary safety standard composed by the Window Covering Manufacturers Association trade group.
Advocates believe that, without their voice in the task force, the members may develop standards that are too lenient.
As a Spartanburg personal injury lawyer , I know that window blinds pose a very real safety threat to our children. If your child has been injured by an unsafe product, contact a local personal injury lawyer to learn more about your rights and how they apply to the incident.
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