Our Mission
PFWBS mission is to:
- Educate consumers about the dangers of accessible window covering cords in homes, daycare facilities, and military housing
- Collect injury and product data to pinpoint hazard factors
- Help create safer standards and encourage innovation of safer products in the industry
- Support parents in all aspects of their grief
- Test quality window covering products for safety
Parents for Window Blind Safety, a national 501 C (3) non-profit organization, was founded on November 1, 2002, by Matt and Linda Kaiser after the loss of their daughter, Cheyenne Rose, to a hidden hazardous inner cord of a window blind. Placing the pull cord up high out of Cheyenne’s reach was not enough to prevent Cheyenne’s accident. After the death of Cheyenne, Linda read hundreds of In-Depth Investigation reports from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission of children who silently strangled on window covering products, many with properly placed safety devices, that failed. Today, children ages 8 and under are victims of hazardous cords that pass through industry-policed ANSI safety testing. Since 1980, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has records of over 600 strangulation injuries and deaths in the USA.
As a direct result of 20 years of advocacy, the U.S. CPSC approved a federal safety standard for operating cords on custom window coverings on November 2, 2022. Custom window coverings include shades, blinds, curtains, drapery or other cord-operated products, created to a consumer’s specifications. The Commission also approved a new federal safety rule that added non-compliant window covering cords to CPSC’s substantial product hazard list. In 2023, the rule was vacated. The CPSC has currently placed and NPR for window coverings on their 2025 operating plan.
For the past 20 years, Parents for Window Blind Safety has passionately advocated for enhanced safety standards to protect children from the dangers posed by window blinds and shades. Since our inception in 2003, we have focused on raising awareness about the strangulation and injury risks associated with exposed corded blinds and shades. Through education, advocacy, and collaboration with industry stakeholders and regulators, we have made significant strides in prioritizing window blind safety. Our achievements include partnering with major retailers who voluntarily discontinued the sale of many product lines of blinds and shades with hazardous cords, advocating for clearer warning labels, and pushing for mandatory safety standards.
Notably, our efforts contributed to the 2018 law requiring all window blinds to be cordless or designed with inaccessible cords. While our advocacy has resulted in a decline in child injuries related to blinds, our work is far from over. We remain committed to lobbying for more comprehensive safety regulations and innovative product designs to prevent further tragic incidents. Our mission is to ensure that children can sleep and play in safe environments at home and in the places they visit. We are committed to educating the public about removing and replacing hazardous corded blinds and shades that pose risks in millions of homes and apartment buildings nationwide.
PFWBS has been featured in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Consumer Reports Magazine, Parents Magazine, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and other publications throughout the United States. PFWBS provides consulting services for national and international manufacturers of window-covering products and safety devices. Please visit our testing site for more information.