Lift Cords - Safety Requirements

The segment is available for viewing on YouTube. I recently got this Comment on the video: "What am I missing? How are these cords inaccessible? You can pull them right out of this shroud and still form a huge loop."

This is a very good question. The latest Safety Standard for Corded Window Treatments addresses "reasonable" strangulation situations. The Standard defines a Hazardous Loop as "… a combined loop (cord plus the fabric of the shade) that can be formed on a properly installed window covering product to reasonable foreseeable manipulation of the accessible cord by the ability of young children that would be large enough to fit over their head to create a strangulation hazard. Loops that are formed by excessive or intricate manipulations, including damaging the product or using tools, of the accessible cord shall be considered as exempt."

	This photograph shows the back of a Roman shade with shrouded lift cords. The lift cord is brown and the cord shroud is white. It has little loops through which the lift cord is threaded. A Roman shade is considered compliant with the Second Provisional Corded Window Safety Standards only if a shade passes the test procedures detailed in that document. Our Sample Shade which used this method of shrouding the lift cords passed these tests.
	There are two test devices used to confirm that a corded shade does not pose a strangulation hazard. The first device, which is called the Accessibility Probe, identifies any exposed cords that might form a hazardous loop (large enough for a child's head). The Accessibility Probe consists of a 24-inch arm with ONE hook. The test procedure states that any cord on a fully closed shade that can be "touched" (and hooked) using the Accessibility Probe is considered EXPOSED. If you can hook a cord from the front, back or side of a shade using the 24-inch long probe, it is considered exposed. Our Sample Shade did have accessible back lift cords which were hooked by the Accessibility Probe.
	The second test device, which is called the Hazardous Loop Test Stand, determines if an exposed cord poses a strangulation hazard. The Hazardous Loop Test Stand has an arm with TWO hooks, spaced 2.8-inches (70 mm) apart. This represents a hand which might grab the exposed cord. Why the two different probes to pull out the exposed cords? My understanding of the definition (both from repeated reading of the Standards and discussions with many industry experts) is that it is highly improbable that a small child would manage to pull out the cord with one finger and then insert their head into a loop. The Hazardous Loop Test Stand was designed to most accurately duplicate situations that have resulted in strangulation. The loops on our cord shroud are spaced less than 1-inch apart. The Hazardous Loop Test Stand did not pull the lift cord out from the shroud. Therefore this way of shrouding the cord is deemed safe and compliant with the Standards.

A committee of industry experts spent months designing these tests to improve the safety of corded window treatments, including Roman shades, roller blinds and any other product with cords. I think they worked diligently to identify actual real-life hazards and also allow the Roman shade to remain as an option for both home sewers and professional workrooms.