Window Blinds & Child Safety
Demands for a universal UK ban on looping blind cords have been voiced well before we commenced operation over 20 years ago. Without exception we would welcome any attempt to prevent strangulation injury and tragedies occuring and stand sure that all responsible UK manufacturers would, likewise. however in countries such as USA where a law exists and an industry wide voluntary recall is in operation, the levels of incidence do not seem to reduce based on the various figures published.
The frustation that we have has absolutely nothing to do with finance or greed (quite the opposite infact, as you will see) but rather with the limitation of customer demand and, although this may be a controversial statement, the overwhelming lack of customer participation on the whole! Let us explain....
What can be done, that isn't already being done?
Several years ago we decided to take the initiative and replace corded verticals with wand operation and include child safe devices on all other blind types as basic with the available option of not having them being the Customer choice. We operated this self imposed safety policy for 6 months, and found during this time that 95% of Customers chose NOT to have the child safe gadgets but instead opted for the corded vertical and looped cords giving better operation and aesthetic appeal. This, to a degree, is understandable as obviously only a small percentage of Customers opting out of the safety approach would have a situation where a young child would be present but alarmingly when being aware of the presence of young children and after caution/warnings conveyed over 80% still opted NOT to incorporate safety features. Now these implementations were free and included situations where perfect fit with its absolute child safe feature could have been taken under our one price policy. Also for the first time in our history we found that several Customers were upset by the fact that we were in one instance trying to promote a product that they did not want, even though it came at no extra charge, and also that it appeared that we were questioning their parenting skills. We quickly concluded that it is not our place to make judgement on what decision a parent/guardian should make and reverted to industry standard allowing Customers to make the choice of child safety features but ensuring that they were aware of the risks involved if safety features were not taken.
We now incorporate risk reducing components that do not effect the 'practical or aesthetic' qualities stealthily and wherever it is possible to do so leaving the Customer to opt for any further precautions. All blinds can be made and fitted with child safety as the main focus at the time of order even changed at a later date when the child age permits then giving way to the aesthetics and operation that appears to be on demand - we ourselves will even do this under our extended parts guarantee offer totally free of charge all Customers have to do is pop the unit into the shop for alteration.. Any existing blind you have can be made safe restrospectively - anybody and everybody is welcome to call into our factory showroom for free advice and totally free cleats/tensioners that will render blinds safer for the child to be around. Incidentally, we have offered and advertised this 'free to anybody who wants them' for the last 20 years and regretably in all of that time, with the reported incidents and tragedies, only 4 people have actually taken us up on the offer! Ironically and something that Customers should know is that in many instances the process of incorporating child safety features during manufacture would benefit the window blind companies; such as the case of vertical blinds where a wand mechanism would replace the cording process in production which in turn means labour time savings - effectively as a trade we would welcome a total ban on manufacturing that includes looped cords.
However this will probably never happen, in our opinion there are four main obstacles 1. By restricting UK manufacturers from producing 'looped' systems would you not be removing the crucial point where Customers are being made aware of the dangers that exist, especially when blinds can be purchased on a ready made basis originating from overseas that do not incorporate any warnings or advice. Effectively increasing the chances of incidence. 2. Would it be possible to prohibit looped cord systems in the UK when the majority of EU countries would not be part of such prohibition? 3. Is it really necessary to introduce the above when remedy is readily, easily and, in the case of our courtesy kits, freely available to everyone. The whole situation can be solved literally in minutes, even for older type window blinds already installed. Unfortunately the solution exists, though partitcipation is very limited. 4. Ultimately, at this particular moment in time, and even after all the tragedies that have gone before with all the advice, remedies and hindsight we know from professional direct experience that the vast majority of Customers would still choose not to have the more restrictive function and less aesthetically pleasing 'child safe' options, purely because more attractive, deluxe and trendy operations are available.
From an Abbey Blinds perspective we wish to remain in business so regretfully we have to go with Customer preference but at the same time we will endeavour to always provide Customer awareness of the dangers that exist. We feel that a UK ban,even though welcomed, would not be the complete answer as figures from countries that do have a ban tend to show overall that it makes no real difference (probably due to imported 'unsafe' units on one hand combined with lacking risk conveyance within the trade and Customer refusal to retrospectively incorporate safety devices on the other). VERY FRUSTRATING AND EXTREMELY TRAGIC, BUT WHAT DO YOU DO?