Loose blind cords on windows should be banned, say experts

"Enough is enough, kids are dying."

There have been calls for loose window blind cords to be banned for the sake of child safety. A study has found that approximately one child a month dies in the US due to an accident involving blind cords. The researchers, based at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, came to this conclusion after analysing figures of injuries collected between 1990 and 2015 at 100 A and E departments across the US. They also found that 98.7 per cent of fatal accidents involved the child's neck and stated that despite current safety measures, blind cords "continue to pose an injury risk to young children." "Kids live in a world designed by adults, for the convenience of adults, and child safety is all too often an afterthought," said Dr Gary Smith of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, a co-author of the study. "Frankly enough is enough, kids are dying. "We are at a watershed moment where we have to make this decision and it is simply, to me, unconscionable that we would continue to stand by, allow children to die, and simply say, 'well, [there’s] nothing we can do about it'." It's not an issue that's confined to the US either. Last month, a man in Wales shared an worrying image of his young daughter's neck after an accident involving a blind cord at their home. "She had climbed on the windowsill and she must have started playing with the cord but wrapped it around her neck," Karl Williams said of his four-year-old daughter Crystal. "If your windows have vents in with cord to open and close them, remove the cord now if you have young children," he warned.