#*?#@?!! health and bloody safety

[Tim Watts]

Seen it all now...

Just bought a couple of made to measure roller blinds on the internet and very nice they are too.

Except for one thing.

Heavy metal ball chain (no 10 gauge, aka 4.5mm balls) - good. Ball chain connectors - special "breakaway" safety type because apparently, somewhere, some numpty has hanged themselves on a roller blind.

Guess what - they breakaway when you roll the blind up (but are OK down).

Anyway - ebay to the rescue for some proper connectors:

Top right - yes I know, 80p each - but what can you do??

And for anyone who does not know what I am talking about, this is the crap useless item:

If I vote UKIP tonight, will they put a stop to this nonsense? Enquiring minds want to know... ;->

[GB]

Around two children a year die from hanging themselves on blind cords in this country.

Hopefully, even they wouldn't be that stupid. :)

[Nightjar]

Unlikely, seeing as the latest prediction is that they will probably only get one or two seats.

[Nightjar]

So, why not offer a child friendly break away version for those to whom it matters and a stronger version for the rest of us?

If Nigel thought it would get him an extra vote he might.

[News]

Surely the simplest solution is to supply one of each connector with every roller blind sold?

[Tim Watts]

I'm guessing they are very young? In which case, common sense might say "hang the chain out of reach"? Ironically right next to the chain is a curtain cord in a loop with no breakaway option.

I'm not stupid - I put kiddy catches on a the cupboards with bleach in and had stair gates. But beyond the age of 2 it seems unnecessary - given that it makes the chain not actually functional.

[Tim Watts]

They could even fit the breakaway by default and include the 2p's worth of regular connector with a little warning.

I think if the kids managed to get into a position where they could hang themselves, they are more likely to fall out of the window in my case - the chains are not that long.

Quite probably :)

[Tim Watts]

I'm off to vote now... Not saying who...

[GB]

On 07/05/2015 20:23, Nightjar > Around two children a year die from hanging themselves on blind cords in

So, you can guarantee that no child will ever enter a particular house? And that house will never be sold to someone with kids or grandkids?

Surely, what is needed is a breakaway version that works correctly. That can't be impossible to design.

[GB]

You have my sympathy. You should not have been sold a non-working roller blind. You should have been sold one that works AND is safe.

[Nightjar]

I can be sure that no child is ever likely to enter my house while I am alive.

Child proofing a house is the responsibility of the person doing the buying, not the one doing the selling. There would be a lot more than just blind chains to worry about if somebody bought my house and wanted to child proof it, like the original 1930s balustrades, which are far enough apart that a small child could easily fall between them.

Probably is, as the two requirements seem to be mutually exclusive. However, a version that can be converted from one to the other quickly and easily ought to be possible.

[tabbypurr]

dare i ask

use 2 tails rather than 1 loop, problem solved

NT

[Tim Watts]

You might have thought so.

I am annoyed because for a couple of edge cases, I have a product that fundamentally does not work.

But everyone's happy because "it's safe".

It's funny how we managed all these decades without.

[The Natural Philosopher]

How can we improve this?

Should be 200

[Tim Watts]

I can be sure that no child will be unsupervised in my house beyond their ability. I've had "egg hunts" in my garden with piles of wood with rusty nails sticking out. Solution: assess the risk, put all the dangerous crap over one side (it mostly was anyway) and lay my bright yellow hose down with the rule "no going beyond the yellow hose".

I might rant like someone who thinks natural selection is a good idea, but I'm not really (execpt in jest). I

I don't like being treated like an idiot and told I will have the cotton wool option because some other people are too irresponsible to use their heads.

Totally agree. There's a difference between this silliness and good building regs which might say "bannisters and barriers shall not pass a

100mm ball or whatever the test is" because that deals with a very common case for not much inconvenience and certainly dies not make the result non functional.

[Tim Watts]

That is another option - as the tail need not be any longer than the drop of the blind there will always be room.

But I expect someone somewhere has wrapped excess cord around their neck and still hurt themselves.

[Nightjar]

Entirely a matter of the age of my likely visitors. I suppose that, technically, if my partner's son visited and bought his son with him, there could be a child in the house. However, at 17, I would expect him not accidentally to hang himself on the roller blind loop.

It would, however, create another problem - that of very long tails lying around on the floor and, no doubt, creating a trip hazard.

[Capitol]

Venetian blinds suffer from this problem. There have been a lot of child fatalities in the US from blind cords around childrens necks.

[Brian-Gaff]

I do I got one with a blind at Wilkinson's. Spotting the two halves seemed to be connected together with what looked liike a bit of double sided tape. I superglued it before it could fall to bits. I was not aware it was a helth and safety thing. if you tried to hang yourself from this cheap blind the bracket would break long before you wer as much as finding it hard to breath I fancy. brian

[alan_m]

Or just superglue the breakaway.