Effective Safety Standards Creates Safer Products

PFWBS Is Generating Change 

Parents for Window Blind Safety has made educating and advocating for the safety of parents and
children alike a priority over the last sixteen years. Linda Kaiser, a crusader in the realm of window blind
coverings, has started the ball rolling into an era of improved household safety.

When Linda found her one year old daughter, Cheyenne, strangulated by the cord of their blinds
everyone was looking around, but Linda was looking for something that hadn’t been created yet:
PFWBS. “I went looking for the information. There was no support group, I didn’t fit into any category,”
Linda said when asked if she foresaw this non-profit. What was birthed through this organization was
only possible because a woman created what she saw was lacking, and that was poor safety standards.
Twelve deaths per year and dozens of injuries due to window blind covering cords.
That was the statistic surrounding these ever so common household commodities, yet there was no
change in the manufacturing design to prevent those twelves lives from being lost.
“Then as we began to analyze the hazard patterns more, we realized we needed to work on the safety
standards, because that’s where the heart of the matter is,” and that is exactly what PFWBS set out to
do.

It’s arguably a fact that parents and consumers have the right to know if someone has been injured on a
product and how that injury occurred. However, what is right and what is practiced can be a difficult
thing to navigate. Over sixteen years, PFWBS has worn the face of advocacy for lives that have been lost
due to poor safety standards and has served as a barrier so that one day a generation will only
know of ‘cordless’.

Seal Of Approval Equals Unbiased and Exclusive Testing

In 2005 the trade mark seal of approval program was created by PFWBS as safety experts and engineering experts familiar with hazard patterns testing window coverings for hazards. 55 million roman shades were
recalled in 2009, proving further that the voices of parents and advocates united were not going away.
Moving forward next month, better safety standards requiring that all cords on stock products within the US will be removed from window coverings for child safety. This list is minute in comparison to what has been accomplished through educating parents, the Industry and retailers over the last sixteen years.

Perhaps one of the greatest accomplishments that this non-profit has witnessed is the sense of
community surrounding it. Linda set out to create the space that she had needed so desperately after
the loss of her Cheyenne. However, I am not certain if she knew the footprint she would leave in the
lives of others while investing in their safety.
Listening to her speak about the connections that have been made through trial and suffering was
enlightening and awe-striking. Yes, these regulations and standards have brought corrected the eye of
manufacturers and have led to causation within the industry. Yes, PFWBS gave Linda an expressive
corner to share her story and heal. What is most moving, yet perhaps unintentional, is the fact that this
organization has created a space for parents to find unity, manufacturers to link arms with them, and for
change to begin.

If A Story Could Sell A Product

Parents for Window Blind Safety is excited for what the next sixteen years holds. Linda is eager to unite
the voices of safety measures to reflect one message and hopeful in her pursuit of working with more
manufacturers to promote products: products backed by a story.
“If a story could sell a product.”

Linda Kaiser is the founder of Parents for Window Blind Safety. She is a mother of five children who is
only raising four. If there was a story to sell consumers on ‘going cordless’ it would be one of heartbreak
triumphed by changed. There is a mother standing behind this organization who is eager to blaze a trail
so no more lives are loss in the safety of the home. If a story could sell a product, it would be Linda
Kaiser’s.