Blind recall reveals lack of standards

(WPRI) -- The death of a child has prompted a recall of window blinds by Blind Xpress of Michigan. 139,000 custom-made vertical and 315,000 horizontal blinds are being recalled, after a 2-year-old girl reportedly strangled in the loop of a vertical blind cord. It wasn't attached to the wall or the floor.

• Related: Read the CPSC's recall details

But the girl died in 2009. Why did the recall take three years to be issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission?

Call 12 For Action has filed a Freedom of Information Act request, to find answers to that question.

Unfortunately, strangulation deaths among small children involving other window blinds happens more than you may realize.

In recent years the CPSC has recalled more than five million other window coverings. They've also released a public service announcement video using a doll, to show the hazards of strangulation -- and for good reason.

• Related: Watch the video at the CPSC's channel on YouTube

According to the CPSC, every month, one child dies from being strangled in a window blind cord. But, even given that information, there are no mandatory standards that would eliminate the hazards of strangulation. There are voluntary standards that some window manufacturers follow -- but product safety expert Sean Kane says not all do.

"The voluntary standards address some of the hazards associated with corded blinds, but they don't eliminate all of the hazards in which a child can get entrapped," Kane said.

He added manufacturers have, and can, make safer window blinds.

"We're not talking rocket science, we're talking about designs that are already on the market," he said.

"There's no standard for elimination of the hazard and that's the problem."

Call 12 For Action contacted Blind Xpress for more information regarding its recall.

No one from the company returned phone calls.

• To learn more about the potential dangers of window blind cords, go to http://www.windowcoverings.org/