Blind to change...

During my trading standards career, I dealt with several high-profile cases one of which unfortunately involving a child fatality which I will never forget.

This case involved a two-year-old toddler in Huddersfield who was accidentally strangled in 2010 when the cord of the blind in her bedroom became looped around her neck.

At the inquest, the coroner called on all manufacturers to consider cords with a failsafe device which would release when put under any pressure. Seems simple right?

This wasn’t a one off incident and hasn’t gone away with many more incidents, some leading to fatalities, having been reported in the last 12 years which does then beg the question…

What is being done by manufacturers, retailers, consumer bodies and the government right now to stop these incidents and fatalities happening in the first place?

Changes to standards occurred in?2014 which led to a requirement for all new blinds with looped cords to have a child safety device installed by the manufacturer or supplied with the blind at the point of sale. However, for blinds installed before 2014, it well and truly is the wild west with it coming down to those with children and landlords being aware of the situation and able to act accordingly.??

A pretty concerning state of affairs all round…

OPSS has worked with CAPT, ROSPA, CTSI and the BBSA to raise awareness which is a step in the right direction but at this point in time we need to do some blue-sky thinking…

This is essentially a consumer behavioural issue as there is so little awareness of this problem amongst Joe/Jackie Public….

1.??A government backed media campaign needs to be undertaken that will lead to social change.?

Such a campaign needs to connect in with primarily consumer bodies, manufacturers as well as trade associations to provide hard hitting videos that show just how serious the matter is and these need to play out during news bulletins and used on those magazine type programmes much like the One Show or This Morning…

2.???????. Government needs to put more pressure on both manufacturers and retailers to step up to the mark in this space as neither appear over the years to have taken responsibility to instigate change. Yes they products that comply with the standard, but I would struggle to cite any examples where they have run awareness campaigns about existing non-complaint products that are still in homes which have resulted in behavioural change.

3.????????Property management bodies need to campaign hard with their members to ensure landlords are aware of this issue and have taken the appropriate preventive measures.

4.????????Trading Standards need to be given a decent budget to raise awareness in their patch and host webinars or seminars to local consumers and businesses.

A concerted effort I say then is the only way to stop these dreadful and avoidable tragedies…

For any businesses looking for support in this space whether it be regulatory or how to partner up with the right local authority and connect in with primary authority advice or if you fancy a general chinwag, get in touch…