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Health Canada set to enforce new rules on corded window blinds

Starting next month, businesses that sell corded window blinds will need to abide by Health Canada regulations aimed at preventing injuries to children.Get more news about cordless blinds,you can vist our website!

However, the rules came into effect last year and some businesses are concerned about the confusion it's causing for customers looking to buy window coverings for their homes.

On May 1, 2021, Health Canada reduced the length of cords allowed on window blinds to 22 centimetres and the perimeters of loops created by reachable cords to 44 centimetres.

The reason for the change is to prevent situations where children become tangled in the long cords – incidents that can lead to life-altering injuries and even death.

While Health Canada changed the regulations a year ago, the agency says it will now be conducting inspections starting on Sunday to ensure businesses that sell window blinds are in compliance with the new rules.

Dr. Michelle Simonelli, an emergency physician at the Alberta Children's Hospital and director of the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program, says the new regulations will help keep children safe.

"What's most concerning about corded window coverings is that they present very significant strangulation risk to small children. Children, without realizing what they're doing, can very easily become tangled and, generally it's their necks that become tangled in corded window coverings if cords are too long," she told CTV News in an interview Friday.

Simonelli says these types of injuries are not very common, but data shows that corded blinds are the cause of death for at least one child each year in Canada.

"However, I find that that statistic significantly underestimates the risk," she said."Anecdotally, I know at the Alberta Children's Hospital, approximately every three years we have a child who comes to the emergency department having suffered one of these injuries.

"Often the injuries are fatal or are devastating injuries that result in significant, life-altering injuries."She says when children become caught in a window cord, parents often have little warning that something is happening.

"What families need to know and be aware of is that children can go unconscious within 15 to 20 seconds of being strangled by a blind cord. Once they're unconscious, they don't make any noise at all – so this can happen extremely quickly and extremely quietly."

'POSES SOME DIFFICULTIES'
While businesses that deal in window coverings and custom blinds are 100 per cent on board with the new regulations, some have questions about why Health Canada hasn't made the information more widely known.

"It's been a difficult transition," said Ashley Derrington, who works with custom builder Calgary Window Fashions."From 2021, there was no doubt about it that the industry was pivoting into non-corded window covering for safety and I think everyone in the industry can get behind something like that."

Derrington says the change "has come so hard and fast" that when customers come into the showroom, they aren't aware of it."We get a ton of people coming in that are looking to purchase window coverings and what they want is now against the law. It definitely poses some difficulties."

She adds customers often aren't believing what retailers are saying about the new regulations either."The customer doesn't believe us because Health Canada has done nothing to make it a little bit more out there. So, they go down the street and try to get it from somebody else and, obviously, with it being the law there is no option to do that now."

The new regulations have affected their product line, Derrington says, preventing the sale of more popular items like the top-down, bottom-up blind coverings and even powered window blinds that open and shut on demand.

Customers are also needing to reach deeper in their pockets if the windows they need to cover are larger than what the current cordless options can handle."Now, the customer has to either go to the expense of a drapery or use some sort of paper product on their windows. They are just really limiting what the customer is able to purchase from us," Derrington said.