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Back to School Safety: Drawstrings are Dangerous
CPSC Prevents Deaths and Injuries With Swift and Effective Cooperation with Industry: Drawstrings on Children's Clothing
The CPSC serves consumers by preventing deaths and injuries through swift and effective voluntary
coordination with children's clothing manufacturers and retailers.
CPSC worked with Thelma Sibley of Milan, Michigan, who suffered the worst nightmare of any parent -- the
death of her child. Five-year-old Nancy Sibley was strangled by a hidden hazard when the drawstring of her
winter coat was caught on a playground slide. Nancy's death was not the only incident. Since 1985, there were
17 deaths and 42 nonfatal incidents caused by drawstring entanglement. Playground slides were involved in
over one-half of the incidents. Also implicated were school buses, cribs, and other products such as an
escalator, a fence, farm grinder, turn signal lever, ski chair lift and tricycle.
Because of the number of drawstring-related incidents, the CPSC first worked with manufacturers to remove
catchpoints on playground slides and other products. Upon further analysis, CPSC decided that removing
strings from the garments was the best approach.
CPSC Chairman Ann Brown and Thelma Sibley forged a partnership, combining their fiery determination and creativity to solve the problem by bringing together
representatives from leading manufacturers of children's clothing. In April 1994, CPSC presented the industry with the evidence that drawstrings on jackets, coats
and sweatshirts (mostly located in the hoods of these garments) could kill children. In just 4 months, the manufacturers voluntarily agreed to remove neck
and hood drawstrings from most of the 20 million children's garments manufactured annually in this country, and promised that garments without these
drawstrings would be available to consumers beginning with the Spring or Fall 1995 clothing lines. No regulation was required.
CPSC took the additional step of issuing voluntary guidelines that: (1) advise manufacturers to eliminate drawstrings and to replace them with safer alternatives,
such as snaps and velcro, and (2) advise parents to remove drawstrings from the hoods and necks of jackets and sweatshirts and to shorten drawstrings around
the bottom of the garments. CPSC is distributing these guidelines widely to manufacturers and consumers. By putting a human face on government, CPSC
achieved a common sense solution within only a few months. CPSC worked with companies to make their redesigned product safer and took decisive action to
protect our children from future drawstring deaths.
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