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 Guidelines
for Drawstrings on Children
In February 1996, the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission issued guidelines to help prevent
children from strangling or becoming entangled
on the neck and waist drawstrings of upper outerwear
garments. Drawstrings have proven to be a hidden
hazard when they are caught on playground equipment,
bus doors, or cribs. As a result of 22 deaths
and 48 non-fatal incidents, the Consumer Product
Safety Commission developed guidelines to help
prevent hazards with garments they may already
own or for future purchases.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is cautious
to point out that they are only guidelines, not
standards or mandatory requirements. Hood and
neck drawstrings should be removed from the sizes
of 2T to 12. Even those drawstrings that have
been shortened on upper outwear pose a strangulation
hazard. For waist and bottom drawstrings, the
Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends
that the drawstring measure no longer than 3
inches. Further, they recommend that the drawstring
be sewn at its midpoint so the string cannot
be pulled to one side.
Case examples of injuries caused by hood and
neck drawstrings include:
- A five year-old girl
strangled after the drawstring on her jacket
hood caught on the slide at her school.
- A four year-old girl strangled after the
hood of her coat drawstring became entangled
on a fence as she attempted to climb over it.
Case
examples of injuries caused by waist and bottom
drawstrings include:
- A fourteen year-old
boy was killed when the long, trailing drawstring
got caught in the closed door of a moving school
bus; he was pulled underneath the bus.
Guidelines for drawstrings on children’s
upper outwear. Retrieved August 2006 from www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06223.html.
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