Country Thinker reports from a lawyers point-of-view:
Safety Commission Goes Off the Deep End, Considers Ban on Window Blind Cords
Just so happens I'm planning on getting some new 2 1/2" blinds for my bedroom. Better hurry before the price goes through the roof. It seems, according to a report published in the Wall Street Journal, twelve children die every year from getting tangled in the cords that make the blind go up and down. Really? Twelve?
I have some pull up shades that cover my the top part of my washer and dryer. They go up and down by means of a cord. Eeeeeeeeek! My kitteh's eating area is on top of the dryer. The cord is kept rolled up so she can't get tangled in it. I keep all rubber bands and push pins carefully hidden so she can't play with them, or worse, swallow them. There's no tinsel on the Christmas tree for her to eat or antifreeze left out to drink. Could we ask parents to be as careful with their own children?
From the Volokh Conspiracy:
Check out the CDC's invaluable WISQARS application. I looked at accidental death dangers for young children, age 1 to 7, over the span 2001 to 2005; do not assume that this extrapolates well to older children, but run your own queries instead.
If you want to figure out the total numbers per year, multiply each number by 250 (since there are roughly 25 million children age 1 to 7 in the country). But the rate per 100,000 is of course more useful.
| Cause of accidental death | Rate per 100,000 children age 1 to 7 |
| Drowning | 2.0 |
| Car accident, child passenger in car | 1.3 to 2.2 |
| Hit by car while walking | 1.3 |
| Fire (not including house fire) | 1.2 |
| House fire | 1.1 |
| Suffocation | 0.6 |
| Fall | 0.2 |
| Bicycle | 0.1 |
| Poison | 0.1 |
| "Unintentional struck by or against" | 0.1 |
| Firearm | 0.1 |
By my reckoning, we need to fill in all pools, ban children from riding in cars, don't let them walk anywhere, make them sleep outside in case the house catches on fire and they need to do this without a sleeping bag so they don't suffocate, and never let them ride a bike.
Seems like a blind cord is a pretty innocuous thing.
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