Replacing a broken set of blinds in my house and apparently no one sells the old standard kind where you pull the cord to raise them, I guess because kids and/or pets could tangle in the cord? Bit of an education in miniblinds today.
About 9 children die every year , strangled by mini blinds. 3500 children are killed by guns every year.
Why did we only fix the most unlikely one?
Car accidents are the leading cause of death in children. When are we going to ban the damn cars???
Probably because there isn’t a giant mini blind lobby, and people plastering stickers all over their pickup trucks yelling about their mini blind rights.
Shhhh. Don’t give the conservatives more stuff to scream about.
Because we need to repeal the 2nd amendment
I wouldn’t say repeal, I would say adapt & clarify.
If the original purpose was for a “well regulated militia,” then there should be regulations and training for you to be able to own a gun.
Fail your certification, lose your license.
gun violence isn’t an engineering problem. miniblind cords are.
If miniblinds had been around in the 1700s they would’ve been enshrined in the constitution also
There’s no amendment protecting mini blinds.
Ah yes, miniblinds are the real threat… not school shootings
If we can only solve one problem at a time, then climate change is the only problem that matters.
If we skip that one the rest solve themselves
Ah yes, let’s get the consumer product safety commission on the problem of school shootings. Hell, since they are so able to ban the way blinds chords are setup, why aren’t they ending climate change? The genocide of palastinians? I for one demand the consumer product safety commission do it’s fucking job and reform the American policing system.
Also, if you have mini blinds made in the 70s, they’re full of lead
It is how you protected yourself from nuclear blasts since it was the cold war and all.
Fuckin-a roit buddy! Built back when people knew how to party!
Witness the horror replacing it
Natural selection is dead.
Natural selection is dead.
What a concept
The main problem with society is the effort made to mitigate infant mortality rates
This seemed like such an arbitrary law that I went looking for it and apparently it’s a small committee (4 persons*) rule that was poorly substantiated. The rule itself has been shot down by an appeals court in 2023, but the industry obviously had already set plans in motion to change their product line ups.
“On September 13, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals vacated the CPSC’s rule on custom window coverings. The court agreed with WCMA that CPSC failed to provide an opportunity to comment on the underlying incident data, conducted a flawed cost-benefit analysis that ignored the enormous harm that the rule would have caused the multibillion-dollar custom window coverings industry, and selected an arbitrary effective date for the rule. The CPSC acknowledges that the industry will need at least 2 years to develop completely new products. So the six-month effective date would make it impossible for the window covering industry to create proven safe replacement products.”
https://suncoastblinds.com/understanding-the-cpsc-rule-on-window-coverings-and-the-appeal/
- I’m not from the USA, so to me it seems very weird that this is how decisions with far reaching consequences are taken. In the eu legislation like this gets putten through the wringer in the eu Commission, probably also voted on by the eu Parliament, and then still given years preparation time and back and forth between industry/lobby groups/government. But instead this was: 4 non elected people take a vote and those 4 see no issue with a 6 month deadline. Wth, what a rugpull this would have been for the industry.
Edit to add: that rule that lost in appeal in 2023, was from November 2022, so maybe it does go in effect in november 2024, since it seems like that timetable was the biggest issue for the industry. Just speculating though, can’t look it up atm.
I don’t have kids so can I have other stuff that might be bad for them around my house?
Maybe miniblinds specifically? I bought nice Bali brand blinds from Home Depot a few months ago, and those hdad pull cords.
They’re a lot thicker than mini blinds though. Not sure why it matters for the cord. A kid could strangle on the Bali cord easier than with a cheaper set.
Well that’s depressing.
Actually I don’t think it is, because they’re fixing it. “Hey here’s a problem, let’s use engineering to eliminate the problem.” Best thing we do as a species.
Don’t make the two strings into a loop. Problem solved. Or secure the loop to the wall. Problem solved. But really what I meant is that it’s depressing that people have managed to strangle themselves in a contraption that’s pretty benign by design.
in this magical world you live in, do corded ear buds stay untangled as well?
They tend to tie themselves into a loop, even when left open.
The risk is not to people in general, but specifically young children and pets that wouldn’t be expected to know how to get themselves out.
I guess that’s understandable. The ones we have use a metal chain that’s in a loop, but secured to the wall. You just pull one side or the other to raise or lower the blinds. It works okay. We do have one of those old-school ones in the kitchen though, and I like how rapidly I can raise the blinds.
I agree. It’s really sad when children and pets die accidentally or for any reason really.
What’s truly depressing is all the jaded assholes who think that their adult intelligence is the standard for every baby and animal in the world so it’s somehow the kids fault for strangling themselves because they should have known better
Has anybody ever said that?
Ok but I don’t have any children in my house
Point taken. I can be a jaded asshole sometimes. I’m usually fairly emphatic, but being jaded seeps through every now and then.
I didn’t even realize they were called "mini"blinds until I moved in to my current place and there was some kind of rule that mentioned them. I’d only heard them referred to as “blinds” my entire life up to that point. This implies the existence of larger blinds
which I’ve yet to see.Edit: I’ve definitely seen them. Apparently my brain is underclocked today.
Do the vertical giant blinds count as regular blinds or are those the large version? Link
Owning a set of these for my glass sliding door is probably why I’m in the habit of calling the ones in windows “miniblinds.”
I hate those so much. Bougie and useless in my experience
Bougie? I associate them with cheap shitty apartments.
Clackety clackety swishety clack. Every time there is a breeze.
Are they really that bougie? Cuz you can get some cheap ass ones.
they can’t be that bougie, every apartment I’ve ever been in with a sliding door has those, and usually somewhere from 1 to 5 of the slats have broken off from normal operation
You’ll never convince me that they’re not chosen for that reason. When the apartment falls to bits because of cheap components, they can retain the deposit.
I’d say those count. Edited my other comment
I’d always heard them called “Venetian blinds”, compared to roller blinds.
I used to think it was “only” toddlers. Tragic stories of 12 year olds dying from the pull cords. Fucking horrible.
So make it two chords instead of a loop. Problem solved.
