Hidden Hazard: Drawstrings on Children's Clothing

by U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Thelma Sibley of Milan, Michigan, suffered the worst nightmare of any parent -- the death of her child. Five-year-old Nancy Sibley was strangled by a hidden hazard when the drawstring of her winter coat was caught on a playground slide. Nancy's death was not the only incident. Since 1985, there were 17 deaths and 42 nonfatal incidents caused by drawstring entanglement. Playground slides were involved in over one-half of the incidents. Also implicated were school buses, cribs, and other products such as an escalator, a fence, farm grinder, turn signal lever, ski chair lift and tricycle.

Because of the number of drawstring-related incidents, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)  first worked with manufacturers to remove catchpoints on playground slides and other products. Upon further analysis, it was decided that removing strings from the garments was the best approach.

In April 1994, CPSC presented the children's clothing industry with the evidence that drawstrings on jackets, coats and sweatshirts (mostly located in the hoods of these garments) could kill children. In just 4 months, the manufacturers voluntarily agreed to remove neck and hood drawstrings from most of the 20 million children's garments manufactured annually in this country, and promised that garments without these drawstrings would be available to consumers beginning with the Spring or Fall 1995 clothing lines. No regulation was required.

CPSC took the additional step of issuing voluntary guidelines that:
 

(1) advise manufacturers to eliminate drawstrings and to replace them with safer alternatives, such as snaps and velcro, and

(2) advise parents to remove drawstrings from the hoods and necks of jackets and sweatshirts and to shorten drawstrings around the bottom of the garments.

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