PORTLAND, Ore. - Five years ago a 4-year-old girl from Pensacola, Fla., strangled herself in the loop of a vertical blind cord not attached to the wall or floor. This wasn't the first case, nor the last.

Into 2009, stores ranging from Home Depot's Expo Design Centers and Target to specialty window-covering retailers with blinds at $2,000 price tags still stocked shades with cords that have been found to strangle a child. Ikea sold these types of blinds through 2008.

With an untold number of blinds still hanging on windows through the Northwest and beyond, on Wednesday the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission initiated a concerted recall effort for all closed-loop window coverings in the U.S.

The safety commission had been concerned with the hazards of window-covering pull cords since the early 1980s. Since 1981, roughly 300 strangulation cases to children involving window cords have been reported to the commission -- or about one death per month. Experts such as those at Oregon Health Sciences University have said that only about one in two deaths are reported.

However, guidance from the commission to manufacturers has been issued as suggestions, rather than law. The commission however can require a recall or repair in the event of hazards.

In about half of the cases originally evaluated by the safety commission, children between 8 months and four years old were found hanging in the loop of the cords.  In other cases, children were found with pull cords wrapped around their necks. 

The younger children who died, usually between 8 and 23 months old, were in cribs that were placed near the window cords. The older children, usually between 2 1/2 and 4 years old, strangled in cords when they climbed on furniture to look out windows.

The manufacturer making the continuous-loop cord that killed the 4-year-old Pensacola girl, Vertical Land in Panama City Beach, Fla., did stop selling the lethal models seven months later. However, other manufacturers have stepped in to fill store shelves with the cording now deemed a strangulation hazard by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

"This is a hidden hazard that all parents should eliminate immediately. What parents need to know is that they can do something to prevent these tragedies," said the safety commissioner in an earlier warning. "They can cut the loops of window cords, put on safety tassels and move their furniture away from blind cords. These simple precautions can prevent a parent's worst nightmare."

At this point, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is telling consumers to take down closed-loop window coverings immediately, and contact the manufacturer to receive a retrofit kit. Retrofit kits are free, and will be shipped to you from the manufacturer.

Contact information for each affected manufacturer can be found through the links below.

Window Blinds & Shades
Roller Shades
Roman Shades
Roman Shades
Roman Blinds
Rollup Blinds, Roman Shades

Additional tips for protecting your child against strangulation hazards.