BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 282
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Date of Hearing: May 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
282 (Eggman) - As Amended April 22, 2015
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| |Human Services | |5 - 2 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY:
This bill prohibits the sale of corded window coverings in
California, beginning January 1, 2018, and requires their
removal or alteration, by January 1, 2019, in licensed community
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care and child day care facilities serving children under the
age of 6.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Unknown, but likely significant costs to community care and
child day care facilities to replace or alter existing corded
window coverings. There are approximately 66,000 licensed care
facilities in the state, of which approximately 23,000 would
be covered by this bill. It is unknown how many of these use
corded window coverings, and thus would be impacted by this
bill. Assuming 20% were impacted with six windows each and had
to spend between $10 and $15 per window, the cost would range
from $276,000 to $414,000 statewide.
2)Minor, likely absorbable, costs to the Community Care
Licensing Division within the Department of Social Services
(DSS) to incorporate window coverings into their current
inspection protocol.
3)Unknown tax revenue losses to the General Fund to the extent
window covering industry sales in California decline and/or
fewer workers are employed.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author: "This bill will protect
children from the preventable strangulation hazard posed by
cords on window coverings. The federal Consumer Product
Safety Commission (CPSC) identified window coverings as one of
the top five hidden home hazards in the country. Certain
window covering cords may present an unreasonable risk of
injury, specifically strangulation, to young children. For
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almost 20 years, the voluntary standard to mitigate the
dangers of accessible operating cords - published by the
American National Standards Institute and Window Covering
Manufacturers Association - has failed to eliminate or
significantly reduce the hazards posed by these products.
According to the CPSC, the current voluntary standard would
not have effectively addressed 57% of the window covering cord
incidents investigated.
Furthermore, for more than a decade, manufacturers have been
producing products that eliminate accessible, hazardous cords,
as well as designs that render window covering pull cords
inaccessible. Despite their availability, safe window
coverings are not widely used by consumers, because they are
more expensive than corded window coverings. Due to the high
risk of injury to children, failure of the voluntary standard
to address cord hazards, and the availability of products and
technology in the marketplace that can reduce the risks caused
by corded window coverings, it is necessary to prohibit
hazardous accessible operating cords on these products."
2)Background. There are a wide range of window covering
products, including blinds, shades, curtains and draperies.
Blinds and shades can both have a cord mechanism used for
opening, closing, and otherwise moving them. Curtains and
draperies may also have a loop-type cord.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
(CPSC) staff, a minimum of 11 fatal strangulations related to
window covering cords occurred on average annually among
children under the age of 5 between the years 1999 and 2010.
Additionally, CPSC estimates that between 1996 and 2012, 1,590
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children across the country received treatment resulting from
entanglement with window covering cords.
Existing standards for corded window coverings: In 1996, the
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Window
Covering Manufacturers Association (WCMA) first published a
voluntary standard to address the dangers of window covering
cords. This standard has been updated periodically, most
recently in 2014. The 2014 ANSI/WCMA voluntary applies to all
corded window covering products and includes definitions,
product requirements, labeling and operational tag
requirements, and tests and parameters.
CPSC staff assessed the 2014 ANSI/WCMA voluntary standard and
found that, of the incidents they had investigated, 57% were
not sufficiently addressed by the standard. The standard does
address the hazards found in about one-quarter of the
incidents, and another 18% of incidents yielded insufficient
information to make a determination either way.
Proposed rulemaking regarding corded window coverings: In
2013, the Consumer Federation of America, along with a number
of other parties, petitioned the CPSC, requesting it to
promulgate a mandatory standard containing the same provision
found in this bill, i.e. forbidding window covering cords,
unless they are made inaccessible through a passive guarding
device when a feasible cordless alternative does not exist.
In October of 2014, the CPSC granted this petition to initiate
rulemaking and began seeking information and public comment.
This comment period has been extended until June 1, 2015.
CPSC will review comments upon closure of the comment period
and publish a preliminary analysis. Whether or when CPSC will
publish a final rule is as yet undetermined.
3)Arguments in Support: Consumer and child safety groups, while
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encouraged by the start of federal the rulemaking process, are
skeptical of waiting for "federal action in order to protect
children from a preventable hazard." They note that the CPSC
first called window blind cords a "particularly insidious
hazard" in 1981, and point to the ineffectiveness of the
voluntary standards currently in place.
4)Arguments in Opposition: Window covering manufacturers are
concerned that the restrictions in the bill would "remove more
than half of the safe window covering products currently on
the market and raise the cost of an average corded stock
product, stifling consumer choice and stripping the market of
competitively priced options."
They further state that this bill "would have devastating
implications for the tens of thousands of Americans whose
livelihoods depend on the window covering industry. In
California alone, there are thousands of small, "mom and pop"
businesses who sell safe, corded window covering products who
will struggle to keep their businesses afloat if they are
forced to sell drastically fewer and more expensive products."
They note that there are over 4,000 custom window covering
shops in California who specialize in selling, producing, and
installing custom made window coverings. They further note
that all custom made window coverings comply with the 2012
ANSI standards, and that approximately 70% of all custom made
window coverings utilize accessible cords.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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