WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2008
Child's Death Prompts Window Blind Recall
IKEA, Green Mountain Vista Window Rollup Blinds And Shades Recalled Over Choking Threat
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Play CBS Video Video Recall On Window Blinds Following the death of one child due to cord design in one brand of blinds, the product is being recalled. Julie Vallese from the Consumer Product Safety Commission explains to Maggie Rodriguez.
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A doll demonstrates the choking hazard from the cord in rollup window blinds. The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of IKEA and Green Mountain Vista window blinds and shades after a young child died. (CBS)
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said a 1-year-old girl from Greenwich, Conn., died in April when she got caught in the inner cord of a set of IKEA Roman blinds over her playpen.
The agency also received a report of a 2-year-old girl from Bristol, Conn., who nearly died in June on the beaded-chain loop hanging from a set of Green Mountain Vista shades. The girl's neck was deeply bruised, but she was saved by her older brother.
CPSC's Public Affairs Director Julie Vallese said if a consumer has a set of the blinds or shades in their home they should remove them immediately. "Absolutely. If you have small children in your home, the agency is recommending that you take them down, return them to IKEA and they will give you a full refund," She told co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez on The Early Show.
"Rollup blinds have a lot of cording to them," she said. "They can actually be a problem with this kind of cording, but also because these don't actually always roll up evenly and a child can get entangled inside. If you have a rollup blind, we're actually recommending that you just take them out of your home.
"There are many different kinds of window coverings available to parents and we're encouraging them to explore different options."
Vallese said it was not enough for parents to simply tie up the cord higher up, to try to keep it out of reach of children.
"Absolutely not. You know, it's really the job of a kid to explore, to jump, to play, to look out windows, so if you do have small children, you want to make sure that those cords are not accessible in any way. You really never know what a kid is going to do. So you really want to make sure that these kinds of cords just are not accessible to any children."
The recall includes about 670,000 IRIS and ALVINE Roman blinds, manufactured in India and distributed by IKEA Home Furnishings. They were sold at IKEA stores nationwide between July 2005 and June 2008. Another 4.8 million blinds were sold outside the country.
The blinds can be returned to any IKEA store for a full refund.
Also recalled are about 7,300 insulated blackout roller shades and insulated Roman shades manufactured in China by Green Mountain Vista Inc. The shades were sold around the country by Country Curtains, Plow & Hearth, The Linen Source, Sturbridge Yankee Workshop, Ann & Hope, The Sportsman's Guide, Target.com, The Curtain Shop of Maine, and the Solutions catalog. They were available between June 2005 and September 2008.
Green Mountain Vista shade owners should check to see if the tension device is attached. If not, contact the company for a free repair kit and installation instructions.
For more information on the Green Mountain Vista shades, call (800) 639-1728.
For more information:
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- Proof, yet again, that man is the only nonlinear servo-mechanism capable of being totally and wholly reproduced by unskilled labor.
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- For Crying out loud..!
How about we recall all the idiot parents out there?
Posted by hambonehd at 03:13 PM : Nov 20, 2008
Excellent observation, and good point. - Reply to this comment
- Kids that play in traffic get hit. Maybe a car recall next.
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- I agree with all the bloggers thus far. It is sad that a child died and another was hurt, but parents have been told for years to not let children be around blinds with looped cords. There are too many other choices for window coverings out there that could have been put on those windows, or the cords could have been modified so that there were no loops, just loose ends with something on the ends to prevent them pulling out.
- Reply to this comment
- But what are we doing as a nation......
I agree bruce, where are we going? We reward stupid people for the stupid things they do, but when people truly get hurt by somebody else, there''s no avenue for justice.
Like I have said many times on these posts, justice are for the rich nowadays. - Reply to this comment
- For Crying out loud..!
How about we recall all the idiot parents out there?
Posted by hambonehd at 03:13 PM : Nov 20, 2008
I''m with you on this one. Why do we always blame everyone else for our misfortunes? I''ll bet that the parents will sue the manufacturer over this one. Never mind that little Amy was allowed to play with the cord in the first place. - Reply to this comment
- For Crying out loud..!
How about we recall all the idiot parents out there? - Reply to this comment
- I agree. It''s DEEPLY SAD that this child died. But what are we doing as a nation....removing responsibility from everyone, not just parents. Jeez, a little common sense is in order here. If you removed every potentially unsafe item, we''d all be living in a featureless barren empty room. We need to cut out these crazy "safety" things and also the frivolous lawsuits for accidents that stupid and negligent people blame on manufacturers.
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- the death of a young child is a sad event, but please lets put the responsibility for keeping our children safe where it belongs, on the parent/guardian. In this case the infants playpen was to close to the blinds. It is simply negligence that this type of thing occurs.
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