July 4th, 2018 - Beth
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Sadly adding emphasis to the recent call to action from Mighton Chairman Mike Derham, a Canadian news report (https://globalnews.ca/news/4208045/richmond-toddler-fall-window/) has proven child window safety to be very much a widespread issue, with the need for increased awareness stretching far outside of the UK.
“With 4,000 accidents of this nature being reported in the UK alone each year, more needs to be done to intensify legislation and educational efforts to prevent such incidents involving young children from happening. By comparison, US figures – where effective legislation is already in place – are annually almost 25% lower, with a reported 3,300 children aged 5 and under being treated at ER Departments for injuries sustained by falling from an open window.
“With a far greater public awareness of these dangers, US legislation includes campaigns such as National Window Safety Week, a part of the National Safety Council that took place in early April, as well as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard.”
Unfortunately, despite the work of the Child Accident Prevention Trust and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), legislation here in the UK is still comparatively poor, and Mike is calling for the UK, and others, to follow the US in intensifying legislation and educational efforts to help prevent more young children from falling from windows. “ASTM standards are already used in the UK for other products, so this type of legislation is something that can be easily implemented without significant costs to anyone,” added Mike.
Additionally, the US initiative Window Safety Task Force, part of the National Safety Council, provides key information on window safety, practices and hardware that can help significantly reduce the number of window-fall incidents and it is hardware such as Mighton’s award-winning Angel Ventlock that can easily mitigate associated dangers. Roto Frank of America, the US distributor of the Mighton window restrictor, has a representative on the Window Safety Task Force. Used by some of the world’s largest window companies, Angel Ventlock has been tested to and passes the most stringent International and European Standards.