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, even those as old as 7 years of age, 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 2024 operating plan.
For the past 20 years, we at Parents for Window Blind Safety have tirelessly campaigned for improved safety standards to protect children from hazardous window blinds and shades. Since our founding in 2003, we have worked to raise awareness about the strangulation and injury risks that exposed window blind cords pose to young children. Through education, advocacy, and partnership with industry and regulators, we have made window blind safety a priority. Our accomplishments include getting major retailers to voluntarily stop selling blinds with dangerous cords, pushing for stronger warning labels, and advocating for mandatory safety standards. Our efforts led to a 2018 law requiring all window blinds to be cordless or have inaccessible cords. Thanks to our advocacy, blind-related child injuries have declined, but we continue lobbying for more comprehensive safety regulations and innovative product designs to prevent any further tragic accidents. Our mission remains to safeguard children nationwide. See our Advocacy timeline for a more in-depth view of our work.
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 window-covering safety devices. Please visit our testing site for more information.