Window blinds pose deadly strangling risk to children, finds study

Window blinds have been found to be a danger to small children, claim experts.

According to a study published in the journal Pediatrics that analysed data on injuries collated by the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, window blinds can pose a severe risk to children in the home.

The study, written by a team from the Child Injury Prevention Alliance, the Ohio State University and the research institute at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital, analysed data based on figures from 100 accident and emergency departments from across America.

They discovered that during a 26-year period from 1990 to 2015, almost 17,000 injuries of children under the age of six were caused by window blinds or shades.

The majority of the injuries were minor, with 93.4 per cent of cases being treated and then released back home.

However, this wasn’t always the case, with 271 of window blind-related injuries proving fatal as a result of children becoming tangled up in cords or chains.

Researchers from the study concluded that more precautions need to be put in place to ensure the safety of children.

“Although many of the injuries in this study were nonfatal and resulted in minor injuries, cases involving window blind cord entanglements frequently resulted in hospitalization or death,” the study stated.

“A mandatory safety standard that eliminates accessible window blind cords should be adopted.”

Dr Gary Smith, co-author of the study from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, believes that adults need to be more proactive to safeguard young children.

“Kids live in a world designed by adults, for the convenience of adults, and child safety is all too often an afterthought," he said.

Despite health concerns, many parents remain dubious that they need worry about the dangers of window blinds.

One person wrote on Facebook: “We had them in our house and never had problems with my kids getting hurt by those because they knew not to play with those. It’s called parenting people. Do it.”

However, another Facebook user issued a word of warning, writing: “They should ban blinds, with the cords. My daughter almost died that way. I got the cord from her neck just in time.”