Drawstrings in the hoods or necks of kids' clothing can and do cinch up and strangle children. Drawstrings at the waist can get caught in buses and result in a child being dragged. So in 1996 the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued
guidelines to prevent these tragedies. But as
recently as last February, a 3-year-old boy strangled when a string in the hood of a sweatshirt he was wearing became caught on a playground set.
Why drawstrings are still showing up in kids' clothing is a mystery to us. The
guidelines are pretty simple: Children's upper outerwear, including jackets and sweatshirts sized 2T to 12, should not have drawstrings in the neck or hood. Also, to reduce the chance of becoming caught up in things such as bus doors, for upper outerwear sized 2T to 16, the ends of drawstrings at the waist or bottom should measure no more than 3 inches when pulled out as far as they will go. When the CPSC receives information about clothing that violates those guidelines, the agency works to have the garments recalled.
For some reason, however, too many manufacturers and retailers aren't getting the message that they're not allowed to sell clothing with drawstrings. There were 25 recalls in 2009 because of drawstrings, representing more than 400,000 children's sweatshirts, jackets and other outerwear. Some were sold by major retailers, including Macy's, Dillards, and the Burlington Coat Factory. So it's no great surprise that we've found smaller vendors selling sweatshirts with drawstrings as well: Adult size small sweatshirts at a soccer tournament where children as young as eight participated; clothing and accessories for "tween" girls at a bazaar in Potomac, Maryland; kids' sweatshirts at a booth at a Yale-Harvard football game.
So what's going wrong? The rule isn't complicated, and recognizing the violation is as easy as looking at the item or even a photo of it. Is the CPSC not doing enough to get the word out to manufacturers or to monitor the marketplace?
In the 12 years before the CPSC issued its drawstring guidelines, it was aware of 21 deaths and 43 non-fatal incidents with drawstrings. In the years since the rules took effect, the agency has seen "a marked decrease." We think the number should—and could—be zero.
