Safety Officials Urge Parents to Inspect Home for Hidden Window Cord Hazards

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The Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) are urging parents and caregivers to check all window coverings for exposed or dangling cords that could pose a strangulation hazard to infants and young children.

Both government and industry safety officials say only cordless window coverings, or those with inaccessible cords, should be used in homes with young children. To heighten public awareness of window-cord dangers, the Council and CPSC have again declared October as National Window Covering Safety Month.

According to information provided by the CPSC, since 1990 more than 200 infants and young children have died from strangling in window cords.

The Window Covering Safety Council’s month long, nationwide campaign is designed to increase consumer awareness of potential window-cord hazards, as well as to urge parents and caregivers of young children to only use cordless window products in homes with young children and to replace all window coverings in the home made before 2001 with today’s safer products.

“Window cord strangulations are tragic, but preventable,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “In stores across the country, parents and consumers can find a variety of cordless blinds and shades, as well as window coverings with inaccessible cords. Going cordless is a smarter and safer approach in homes with young children.” Older window coverings should be retrofitted or replaced with today’s safer products.

The Window Covering Safety Council – which offers free retrofit kits and window-cord safety information – encourages parents and caregivers to follow these basic window cord-safety precautions:

 

  • Move all furniture, cribs, beds and climbable surfaces away from windows.
  • Keep all window cords well out of the reach of children.
  • Install only cordless window coverings in homes with young children.
  • Make sure tasseled pull cords are adjusted to be as short as possible.
  • Continuous-loop pull cords on draperies and vertical blinds should be pulled tight and anchored to the floor or wall with a tension device.
  • Be sure cord stops are properly installed and adjusted to limit movement on inner cords on blinds and shades.

 

To learn more about window-cord safety, or to order free retrofit kits for older window coverings,visit the Window Covering Safety Council’s website at www.windowcoverings.org or call toll-free at 1-800-506-4636. Parents and caregivers can also learn more about window covering safety by connecting with WCSC on Facebook and Twitter.

The Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) is a coalition of major U.S. manufacturers, importers and retailers of window coverings dedicated to educating consumers about window cords safety. The Council also assists and supports its members in the industry’s ongoing efforts to encourage the use of cordless products in homes with young children, its redesign of corded products and to support the national ANSI/WCMA standard for corded window coverings.WCSC’s activities in no way constitute an assumption of any legal duty owed by its members or any other entity.

Contact: Dan Fernandez Tel: 212-297-2121 [email protected]

SOURCE Window Covering Safety Council

• Read more articles by Window Covering Safety Council

 

Impossible not to blame myself for tragedy

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MUM Amanda O’Halloran says it has been impossible not to blame herself for a freak incident in which her 17-month-old daughter strangled herself on a blind cord.

Toddler Sophia was playing at the family home, in Tirley, when she got her neck caught in the beaded loop and fell over. She died in seconds while her mum popped to the loo.

Amanda said despite being plagued with guilt, she knew what happened to Sophia could have happened to anyone of that age.

Now through Sophia’s Cause, she and her partner Chris Parslow are campaigning to get looped cord blinds banned across the UK – as well as urging parents to use cordless blinds.

Amanda, 22, said: “Of course I blamed myself for what happened to start with. But every parent, if they are being honest, will tell you that it is impossible to keep an eye on their child every minute of the day. Everyone has to go to the toilet at some point.

“I know that by speaking out about my story I am risking some people criticising me as a bad mum. But I know that I wasn’t. Sophia was so well-loved.”

Sophia died on the morning of June 27.

“I still have to live with that image in my head and it is something I will never forget,” added hotel receptionist Amanda.

“But I also have so many happy memories of Sophia.”

She is believed to be the 28th person in the UK to have died on a blind cord since 1999.

The British Blind and Shutter Association said it is making changes to ensure safety devices come with cord blinds.

Amanda has spoken to her MP, Forest of Dean’s Mark Harper who said he would comment once he had spoken to to her again.

Stroud MP Neil Carmichael said: “Safety in the home is so important. I think it’s important to identify issues like this and act so they can’t happen again.”

Gloucester MP Richard Graham said: “This is a ghastly human tragedy, but I don’t think we should rush into changes into the law.”

To sign the petition to have cord blinds banned at epetitions.direct. gov.uk/petitions/55067.

Read more: http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Impossible-blame-tragedy/story-19863105-detail/story.html#ixzz2gSZ5q299

The VELUX Group Launches the VELUX International Design Award

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Award spurs students to explore the theme “Innovation by Experiments.”

The Velux Group introduces new student design award program

The VELUX Group recently launched the VELUX International Design Award aimed at spotting tomorrow’s trends and talents and discovering new, inventive blinds for the roof window.

What does the blind of the future look like? This is one of the challenges the new design award poses to students of design. The award spurs students to explore the theme “Innovation by Experiments” and to invent the future blind for roof windows. It is based on the wish to discover the best and most innovative blinds of the future and rethink current perceptions.

The design of roof window coverings (be it sun screening, shades, curtains or blinds) empowers designers to change the indoor environment by softening the brightest sunlight and managing day and night however the inhabitant wishes.

Window coverings provide the opportunity to interact with surroundings, and either connect or separate our immediate environment from the outside world. The design award therefore rewards solutions with the potential to make a real difference in the quality of people’s lives.

Design students from more than 20 European countries are invited to participate in the design award which is to be presented in May 2014. Entries will be reviewed by a jury of internationally renowned designers: the initiator of the Red Dot Award Professor Dr. Peter Zec,the Dutch textile designer Petra Blaisse, and Italian-Danish furniture design duo Gamfratesi.

Nominees for the design award are selected based on four evaluation criteria: innovation, quality of life, sustainability and market potential.

The first prize winner will be awarded 6,000 Euros at an award ceremony in May 2014. The winner of the second prize will be awarded 2,500 Euros, and all design proposals will be featured in a web exhibition. Contestants for the design award will have the opportunity to share their ideas in a social media community where everyone can vote for their favorite. The winner receives a prize of 1,500 Euros.

Kent Holm, Director of Decoration and Sun screening Products, the VELUX Group, says: “Many design students will be among tomorrow’s trendsetters. Our aim is to find the most gifted and maybe give one designer a chance to influence the future of the blinds industry. The design award is an alternative way of working with innovation and product development and we are very excited to see what’s moving in the minds of the creative young designers and to see what a blind also could look like.”

 

http://www.interiorsandsources.com/article-details/articleid/16400/title/the-velux-group-launches-the-velux-international-design-award.aspx

Couple’s campaign for blind cord safety

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A couple from Gloucestershire whose baby daughter died after becoming trapped in the cord of a window blind have started a campaign to get certain types of cord banned in the UK.

Amanda O’Halloran and Chris Parslow believe that safety measures do not go far enough after their 17-month-old, Sophia, died in June.

The British Blinds and Shutter Association has its own awareness campaign, called Make It Safe, and says it is fully committed, along with its members, to help eliminate the risk associated with looped cords, chains and tapes used on window blinds.

Madeleine Ware reports.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24321541

http://www.makeitsafe.org.uk

Couple’s campaign for blind cord safety

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A couple from Gloucestershire whose baby daughter died after becoming trapped in the cord of a window blind have started a campaign to get certain types of cord banned in the UK.

Amanda O’Halloran and Chris Parslow believe that safety measures do not go far enough after their 17-month-old, Sophia, died in June.

The British Blinds and Shutter Association has its own awareness campaign, called Make It Safe, and says it is fully committed, along with its members, to help eliminate the risk associated with looped cords, chains and tapes used on window blinds.

Madeleine Ware reports.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24321541

Colour Bravery

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colour bravery

 

What’s your favourite colour? Red, Green, Yellow? Each colour we hold dear could be said to represent something key about our personalities, Purple; Spiritual, Green; Balance, Red; Strength.

If you were asked the question; what’s your favourite colour regarding your interior? Would you be so forthcoming and daring?  Would White, Magnolia or Beige be the ‘safe choice’ amongst us? maybe so, but it can definitely be said that the times they are a changing.

It was just 10 odd years ago when the TV show ‘Changing Rooms’ rocked the nation when Anna Ryder Richardson painted a room red and the homeowner hated it.  Red, yes red, we muttered amongst ourselves on our coffee breaks.  To Anna’s defence it was the home-owners favourite colour but lifting that brush and painting that wall was just one envelope push too far.  So 10 years on, what has happened, are we more open, has the influx of interior and DIY programmes, magazines and all round acceptance of things just that little bit different made us slightly more cool as an nation or dare we say it more cosmopolitan in our mind-set?

Now for the science bit, it has been said that in design, colour is the most subjective area in decoration and no amount of research will predict how two different people will respond to the same shade. At the same time, almost any generalization you can make about a particular colour can be overturned in practice. However, one truism holds true for everyone, all of us are instinctively drawn to specific families of colours which repeatedly pop up in clothes, treasured pictures or possessions, and of course on the reverse, there are colours which we will absolutely detest.

Knowing personally what we like, now is the time to embrace and apply colour to our interiors, the once trickling filter from high-end designer to high-street has gathered momentum, we have a wealth of colour to choose from.  Just have a peek at a Dulux or Crown paint chart and feast at the choices they present us.  Have a meandering stroll around Next or M&S and indulge in the key colour accessories they have. Curtain fabrics, cushions, flooring, tiles, colour is everywhere and with web tutorials, interior magazines and stylist blogs to help us along the way, we can now make educated choices and tap into our own interior makeovers.

Bland beige should be banished, the colour revolution is now.  Add mood, zest and personality to your interior.  Colour should not scare but rather be embraced.

Now armed with this knowledge, bravely go forth and add COLOUR to your life.

BLINDS.COM CEO JAY STEINFELD TO SERVE AS KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT THE UNLEASHWD INNOVATION SUMMIT OCT. 29

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Jay Steinfeld did not want to change the way people purchased blinds.

He had no passion for window coverings. He did not even have a business plan.

Wait, he had a plan–to succeed in business–just not a plan to sell more blinds, better and faster than before. That plan came later. When the CEO of Blinds.com, which will sell more than $100 million worth of blinds this year, started he was just a guy looking for work.

After losing his job, Steinfeld used his wife’s experience owing a blinds shop to enter into the window coverings business. Thinking he could succeed as a small business owner, Steinfeld opened his own shop. As soon it opened, Steinfeld defined himself as a success, even before the first customer placed an order.

Educated as an accountant, Steinfeld understands the numbers. The numbers, like the blinds are not his passion. Perfection is, even without achieving it.

“Experiment and experiment without fear of failure,” he says.

The process drives him. Make it better. Try something new. Improve and try again. Aiming for better rather that a strict margin of profit, Steinfeld saw his business grow by 30 percent in the last year. Neither his recent success nor the millions of dollars of blinds sold and hundreds of jobs created would have occurred without taking that first risk. After opening a retail blinds ship, Steinfeld soon took another.

Steinfeld launched Blinds.com in 1993 when O.J. Simpson was best known as a former running back. America Online was not a household name and the words “Internet” and “Domain Name” might as well have been in Klingon. For an investment of $1,500, Blinds.com started as an online newsletter of sorts, which was as just another of Steinfeld’s many experiments. The first incarnation of Blinds.com was a one-page piece of Internet real estate that served as an advertisement for Steinfeld’s blinds business.

Blinds.com folded out in steps, and the next was ecommerce. Steinfeld did not know that the Internet would become the INTERNET when he started. It was just an experiment. Building up an online presence was part luck, but it was mostly part of Steinfeld’s core value of always improving.

“We are really a direct marketing company not a blinds company,” Steinfeld says. “We keep testing how can we make this a little bit better. It’s like Thomas Edison experimenting with his filament.”

Being first on the scene provided Blinds.com with an advantage, but being the first online guaranteed nothing. Remember Pets.com? The pet supply retailer raised $300 million, purchased a commercial spot during the Super Bowl and enjoyed a sock puppet mascot so famous that it made an appearance on Good Morning America. Pets.com burned through that money fast and quickly went away.

Blinds.com arrived before an online audience existed. It was online before Google and Amazon. But it did not survive because of the luck and foresight of arriving first. It survived the dot.com bust because Steinfeld remained customer focused instead of chasing investor dollars. Steinfeld’s blinds business still had physical stores, and he slowly built his website’s offerings.

It wasn’t until 2001 that he went 100 percent online. It was another bold experiment, but it turned out to be the correct move. For Steinfeld, going exclusively to ecommerce meant the ongoing process of listening to the voice of the customer—people wanted to shop online more, but he also differentiated his business by striving to maintain the personal touch.

Steinfeld keeps a picture of a Good Humor Ice Cream Truck in his office, and it is not only because of his sweet tooth.

“So I ask you… are you taking time to ensure you and your business are like the ice cream man?” Steinfeld asked in a blog post. “How close are you to your customers? Do you know what’s selling, whether your customers are happy, and if not, then why not? Maybe it’s time to change into that white suit and hat.”

This approach has kept Steinfeld level-headed, hungry and perhaps even a tad bit insecure. Even as Blinds.com sold millions of dollars and then tens of millions of window coverings, Steinfeld fretted over the small things- the details that that his customers cared about. After his company sold more than $50 million in a year, he worried less about building a successful business.

“It became more along the lines of we are doing pretty well now, but how can we do better?” Steinfeld says. “I absolutely did not see this level of success it has been a metamorphoses to me. I had no vision.”

Yet, in his success he developed a vision for his own future. This includes helping his employees achieve their goals by maintaining one of the best places to work in the Houston. It will also explain why he will speak atUnleashWD.

About UnleashWD
UnleashWD is the only conference dedicated to bringing innovation to the wholesale distribution industry. UnleashWD features eighteen storytellers from outside the wholesale distribution industry. Modeled after TED’s short-session format, UnleashWD’s speakers share how to add business value through inspiring presentations on topics such as innovation, leadership, business model design, and corporate culture.

For the last twenty-five years, UnleashWD Founder Beveridge has worked with more than 3,000 firms as a leadership consultant, facilitating how wholesale distributors and manufacturers can increase market share through examining and improving their relationship with customers. For more information please visit: http://www.unleashwd.com.

Hunter Douglas to launch ‘green’ roller blinds

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hunter douglasHunter Douglas, a Netherland-based manufacturer of window coverings, is set to launch the first sun control system made from recycled bottles.

The GreenScreen, a new innovation in the field of light and energy control, is expected to generate regional interest, said a statement.

The new collection is developed with sustainable materials. GreenScreen Eco consists of 100 per cent recyclable polyester fibres, while the GreenScreen Revive materials were produced from recycled plastic bottles.

André Weiss, who was responsible for the development of GreenScreen, said: “Every year, around 20 million sq m of used roller blind materials end up in the garbage. These materials often contain large amounts of PVC, so their potential impact on the environment is huge. GreenScreen is a sustainable alternative, thanks to the use of PVC-free and completely recyclable materials.”

The product line offers an affordable alternative to architects and interior designers in search of a sustainable, decorative sun control solution, he said.

“The thread that goes into this fabric is made from PVC-free, recycled plastic water and soft drink bottles. To do this, Hunter Douglas works with waste processing companies in Japan and Germany, where these products are commonly separated from the waste flow. Every square metre of material contains two half-litre bottles. That’s an average of six bottles for every roller blind,” Weiss added.

All of the GreenScreen product lines are compliant with the internationally recognised Greencode classification scheme for environmentally-friendly textiles. They also contribute to the LEED certification of buildings, said the statement.

Creating A Safer Home Environment For Your Children

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Having small children in your home means appropriate measures need to be taken to ensure they grow up in a safe environment. While childproofing different areas of your home such as cabinets and electrical sockets, don’t forget to review your window coverings. Access to windows and dangling window covering cords can pose a safety hazard to curious children and even small pets.

“Although nothing replaces the watchful eye of a loving parent, there are certain steps you can take to reduce the risk of injury around windows,” said Tracy Christman, window coverings expert and Vice President of Vendor Alliance at Budget Blinds. “Window safety is often overlooked and it’s important for parents to be fully aware of all the potential dangers.”

Tracy offers the following useful tips to help parents get started:

1. Arrange furniture away from windows. Always set up furniture—such as cribs, chairs and toy chests—away from window areas so that they cannot be used to access window treatment cords. In addition to installing window screens, placing furniture away from the window area also minimizes the risk of the child accidentally falling out of an open window.

2. Choose cordless window coverings. The Window Covering Safety Council recommends cordless window treatments in homes where children are present. Shutters and roller shades are inherently cordless and come in a wide variety of playful colors for your children’s rooms. You can also select cordless cellular shades that provide insulation to help keep your kids warm in the winter.

3. Add safety features to existing window covering cords. It’s sometimes easier to add safety features to existing window covering cords than to purchase new treatments altogether. Options include breakaway tassels that are designed to break apart under minimal stress, and cord cleats, which allow you to safely tie cords up and away from your toddler’s reach.

A growing trend in the window coverings industry is motorization. Motorized window coverings provide convenience since they can be opened and closed using a handheld remote and also increase safety by eliminating the need for cords. Virtually any window covering can be motorized.

 

Toddler dies after choking on blind cord in cot

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Police are investigating the death of a toddler who choked in his cot on a cord attached to a vertical blind at his family’s home north of Newcastle.

The boy’s mother raised the alarm yesterday at the house at Mallabula.

The toddler was flown by helicopter in a critical condition to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital, but he died after arrival.

Port Stephens police are preparing a report for the coroner.

A post-mortem examination will be carried out in Newcastle today.

The incident has prompted a warning by child safety organisation Kidsafe NSW that parents check for choking hazards around their homes.

Spokeswoman Christine Erskine says such deaths are now a rare occurrence, but parents need to be vigilant about choking hazards, particularly older style blinds with long swinging cords.

“What’s recommended is that you dismantle the bottom of those vertical blinds,” she said.

“So take those cords out or attach them securely to the floor or base of the window, so that you can’t actually get trapped in them.”