Window Blinds Recalled After Child’s Strangulation Death

Window blinds are again being recalled following a child’s strangulation death. Now, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with Blind Xpress of Livonia, Michigan, is announcing a large recall of about 139,000 custom-made vertical and 315,000 horizontal blinds.

The CPSC noted that, in 2009, a two-year-old girl from Commerce Township, Michigan, reportedly strangled in the loop of a vertical blind cord that was not attached to the wall or floor.

Blind Xpress custom vertical blinds are constructed with an adjustment cord that forms a loop. That loop is not attached to the wall or floor. In some instances, the loop has a weighted device at the bottom.

The custom horizontal blinds do not have inner cord stop devices to prevent the accessible inner cords from being pulled out. A child can become entangled in a cord loop and strangle.

This recall involves all Blind Xpress custom-made vertical blinds that do not have a cord-tensioning device that attaches to the wall or floor and all horizontal blinds that are not constructed with inner cord stop devices.

The blinds, which were manufactured in the United States, were sold at various blind specialty stores in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana from January 1995 through December 2011, and retailed for between $16 and $380.

The CPSC urges consumers to immediately stop using the window coverings and contact the Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) to receive a free repair kit. The WCSC may be reached, toll-free, at 1.800.506.4636 at any time, or at is web site at www.windowcoverings.org