Safety Standard Update

Review process leads to revised safety standards addressing all concerns about cord safety and product materials.

Marrying the promises of product innovation to the challenges of cord safety continues to shape and unify the U.S. window coverings industry. In the seven years since the industry first dedicated its resources and resolve to tackling cord safety issues, window coverings manufacturers and fabricators have been on "fast-forward" developing new and safer products. A key element behind this effort has been the national ANSI/WCMA safety standard for corded window products prepred by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Window Covering Manufacturers Association (WCMA). Developed in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and published in late 1996, the standard essentially outlines various design parameters, performance and labeling requirements to "reduce the possibility of injury, including strangulation, to young children from the bead chain, cord, or any type of flexible loop device used to operate the product." Most consumers are unaware of this standard and would have little interest in trying to decipher its technical language. Yet it stands at the heart of the industry's commitment to continually pursue the development of new devices, technologies and designs that will ensure product safety and inspire consumer confidence. REVISITING THE SAFETY STANDARD Standards developed through ANSI are opened for revision every five years. The ANSI/WCMA standard is no exception. For most of 2001, it was the object of careful re-examination by representatives of the window coverings industry, safety experts, government regulators, manufacturing consultants and consumer advocates seeking to update and improve upon its scope and provisions. As of this writing, it is in its final draft stage and is expected to be released for official review and approval in January of 2002. This approval process generally takes approximately six months to complete, suggesting that the revised ANSI/WCMA safety standard will be officially published in mid-to-late 2002. What does this mean for the industry? Most notably, the revised standard formally recognizes and addresses the inner-cord safety issue (see D&WC, December 2000). Under the proposed revisions, a new requirement has been added for products with accessible inner cords, restricting the cords from forming a loop larger than 12 inches in circumference. In addition, stop devices for accessible inner-cord products must meet specific pull-force strengths. If the cord stop device is attached to the cord, rather than being incorporated in a cord-lock mechanism, the proposed standard calls for the cord stop to remain in place through 1,000 raise-and-lower cycles for horizontal slatted blinds (3,000 cycles for other styles), and to meet specific ultraviolet stability, impact and compression test thresholds. Another important revision to the safety standard are several modifications of warning label and hangtag requirements to help consumers better understand and take heed of cord-safety precautions. Specifically, the generic warning label for placement on the bottom rail is to be written in both English and Spanish (either as separate labels or in a combined version). In addition, the former requirement for both operational and generic warning hangtags has been improved to allow manufacturers to use an operational hangtag that incorporates generic cord-safety warnings with the specific operational cautions that apply to the safety device being utilized. Wording of the generic hangtag has correspondingly been expanded to allow small business manufacturers and fabricators, in most instances, to use just the single generic tag. In all cases, hangtag verbiage must be provided in both English and Spanish. A final change to note is the standard's formalized recognition of lead safety concerns. As a basic product requirement, the standard calls for any component of a window covering that can be touched or placed in the mouth of young children to be produced with "no more than .02 percent lead per weight per window covering." ENSURING PRODUCT SAFETY Beyond these proposed revisions to the safety standards, all key provisions of the original standard remain in place. Specifically, manufacturers and fabricators need to ensure that any window covering that incorporates an operational cord or chain bead loop meets the following safety requirements: A passive device to eliminate or separate any cord loop or chain bead loop. A permanently attached passive device to eliminate an exposed cord or bead loop while a product is not being operated. A passive tension device to attach to the floor or wall that will cause the cord or bead loop to remain taut and limit exposure to the cords. A means of minimizing the exposed loop on products requiring an operational cord stop function (such as Roman shades), to less than three inches from the top of the headrail when the product is in the lowered position. Manufacturers and fabricators interested in learning more about the revised ANSI/WCMA standard should contact the Window Covering Manufacturers Association, 355 Lexington Avenue, Suite 1700; New York NY 10017.