Safety Message – How Safe Are Your Window Blinds?

Have you ever considered how safe your window treatments are? With the NZ Government considering introducing child safety legislation in the coming months for corded window treatments, read on to see if your window blinds could be impacted.

At Aspect, our blinds and shutters not only look beautiful – they’re also designed and manufactured with safety in mind. We share the proactive steps our team are taking when it comes to the safety of our products.

What types of window treatments is the Government looking at?

While we’re waiting on confirmation from the Government, the safety standards are likely to impact corded window treatments – including:

• Roller blinds
• Venetian blinds
• Vertical blinds
• Roman blinds
• Honeycomb blinds (which are also known as Thermacell blinds)

If you have these types of window treatments in your home, we encourage you to speak to your manufacturer as soon as you can and ask about product safety.

Why we’re serious about safety

At Aspect, your safety is always a priority for us. As a Kiwi-owned and family-run company, we have meticulous manufacturing and quality standards.

For some time, our roller blinds have included a cord guide to eliminate a potential choking hazard. This anchors the blind cord to the wall.

Soon, our entire range of corded blinds (including venetian, vertical and honeycomb blinds) will include this extra safety feature.

Our full safety measures will include:

• A safety cord guide or cleat will be included with all our blinds – along with the necessary screws and a comprehensive installation guide sheet
• A safety warning swing tag that cords can potentially be a strangulation hazard will be attached to each blind
• Warning labels will also be printed on our window blind packaging

Along with this, we’re also:

• Providing cord connectors with all our roller blinds
• Sharing our training video on how to install a child safety cord guide – we’d encourage you to watch it now
• Creating a child safety brochure to distribute to our retailers
• Removing chained bottom weights on vertical blinds
• Removing the metal link/buckle on tilting cords from our PVC and Marupa blinds
• Reviewing adding breakaway cords for PVC and Marupa venetian blinds
• Providing comprehensive training for our key staff

Along with all these steps, we’re also already producing cord-free motorised blinds. This elegant motorised blind range is controlled using a remote and a discreet motor. There’s no need for any cords.

What to do if your window blinds have cords

Dangling and loose window blind cords aren’t only an eyesore, they also can create a choking hazard. Prevention is as simple as installing a safety tension device.

Watch our quick video to see:

• How a safety cord guide work
• Tips for installation

Safety tension device (such as cleats or cord guides) are unobtrusive. Anyone can install them in just a minute or two.

If you’re buying new Aspect blinds, they’ll be included in your order and be installed by one of our accredited retailers.

If your blinds were produced by another manufacturer, we encourage you to speak to them as soon as you can.

Like to learn more?

On our Facebook and Instagram pages, we’ll be sharing more with you about this important issue over the coming weeks. Please follow us there to stay updated.

In the meantime, you can also read about the Government’s safety campaign on the NZ Consumer Protection Page.