Blind Winder
Blind cord safety rules by country: what the UK, EU, US, Australia and Canada actually require
Blind cord safety is regulated almost everywhere, but the rules mostly bind the people who make and sell blinds, not the people who live with them. If you are a landlord or a letting agent, the useful question is narrower: what applies to the blinds already hanging in your properties? Here is the short version, country by country.
UK and EU
The core standard is BS EN 13120, the safety standard for internal blinds. Since the 2014 amendment, any new blind sold must either be safe by design (cordless, or with concealed or tensioned cords) or come with a child safety device fitted. Two companion standards from the same year set out the detail: BS EN 16433 covers test methods for protection from strangulation, and BS EN 16434 covers the requirements for the safety devices themselves — cleats, tensioners, breakaway connectors and chain retainers.
EN 13120 works to a reachability principle: a cord or chain a child can get a loop around is the hazard, and the standard uses a 1.5 m reference height for what counts as reachable. That is why our fitting guidance says to position the winder from the child's reach, not from the window.
Note what the standard does not do: it does not require anyone to replace blinds installed before 2014. But a landlord's general duty of care under consumer protection and housing safety law does not have a cut-off date, and RoSPA's guidance to landlords is to make older corded blinds safe rather than wait for a refit — which is exactly the retrofit case.
United States
The US route is the industry standard ANSI/WCMA A100.1, backed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Since the 2018 revision, stock (off-the-shelf) window coverings must be cordless or have short, inaccessible cords — which is why cordless blinds now dominate US retail shelves. The CPSC treats corded stock products that fail the standard as a substantial product hazard. Custom-made corded blinds remain the main gap, and the CPSC's guidance for homes with existing corded blinds is to keep cords out of children's reach.
Australia
Australia has had a mandatory national standard for corded internal window coverings since 2010, now the Consumer Goods (Corded Internal Window Coverings) Safety Standard 2014. It requires that a cord must not be able to form a loop 220 mm or longer at less than 1.6 m above the floor unless it is secured by a tensioning or cleating device, and mandates warning labels and installation instructions.
Canada
Canada's Corded Window Coverings Regulations (SOR/2019-97), in force since May 2021, are the strictest of the four: any reachable free cord is limited to 22 cm long, and any loop a cord can form to 44 cm around. In practice that removed long operating cords and bead chains from new blinds sold in Canada altogether.
What this means for existing blinds
Every regime above converges on the same principle: a loop of cord or chain within a child's reach is the hazard. New blinds are dealt with at the point of sale. For the corded and chained blinds already installed — the majority in most UK rental stock — the fix is to keep the chain wound up and out of reach, permanently, without relying on anyone remembering to do it. That is the job the winder does, and because it is stick-on it does not need landlord permission or a contractor visit. Common questions about fitting and removal are covered in the FAQ.