Tag: hazard

Cord Blind Strangulation is Happening

Kids & CordsInfants and young children are dying on a monthly basis due to corded blinds. WHY? That is one child too many every month.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a statement calling for removal of corded blinds from homes and the marketplace due to numerous, unacceptable infant deaths and serious injuries.

Designers, manufacturers, and distributors of corded blinds blame parents and others for the deaths and serious injuries to infants. Those same designers, manufacturers, and distributors should have known of hazards, risks, and dangers of their corded blind products. Instead they turn a blind eye and blame human err instead as they continue to market their deadly products.

Cut out the blaming of parents. The focus should be on hazard and risk analyses of corded blinds. Part of these analyses requires anticipation of how and in what manner a product will be used. Human err, if any, must be accounted for in the design of products. Designers must change the design to the extent reasonably possible to eliminate potential human err with the product.

Informational literature in a box and/or a warning is inadequate if hazards can be reasonably eliminated through design. A warning is not an acceptable solution if a product can reasonably be designed in a safer manner.

Remember, any risk of death or serious injury is unacceptable if reasonable prevention measures could eliminate the death or injury. Reasonable prevention begins with the design, long before a product reaches the hands of consumers.

What Dangers Are You Facing

Danger AheadImagine you’re out on the green for a round of golf the last nice day of fall. You’re on hole nine, a 400 yard fairway and there is a sand trap at the end of the hole. A sand trap isn’t what you want to see on this nice day but thankfully for you, the sand trap holds no danger to you while on the tee.

The sand trap is a hazard. A “hazard” is an unsafe physical condition that can result in serious injury, death, and/or property destruction. “Risk” is the probability of an undesired risk occurring. Danger is the unacceptable combination of hazard and risk. Even though the sand trap is a hazard, the sand trap is 400 yards away so the risk of your golf ball coming into contact with the hazard while on the tee is very small. Accordingly, there is no danger for your golf game.

However, after you hit the ball from the tee, and the ball gets closer to the sand trap, the risk of the golf ball coming in contact with the hazard increases. As the risk increases, the danger is becoming greater for you the golfer.

As you come very close to the sand trap, the risk increases greatly; accordingly, your danger increases.

The same principles apply for designing safe products and procedures. It is best to eliminate hazards to the extent reasonably possible. When doing so, it eliminates the risk of serious injury and/or death. Accordingly, it eliminates danger.

Safety is a science that analyzes hazards, risks, dangers, and safety engineering alternatives. Hazard and risk analyses are critical and necessary components to determine if products and systems are safe.

As consumers, we assume that designers of products and systems understand these principles. Unfortunately, more times than not, these principles are not followed to prevent serious injury and/or death.

Stay with us as we explore the dangers being overlooked in products and systems. You may be surprised by what you learn.