Safety standards for blinds have changed over the years. If you're worried about how safe your old blinds are around your kids, then you can retrofit devices like breakaway tassels to their cords.

How do these tassels work, and how do they make cords safer?

How Do Breakaway Tassels Work?

Traditional blind cords work on a looped system. You pull the cord on one side of the loop to control one side of the blind; the other cord controls the other side.

While these cords move up and down, they tend to be firmly fixed to the blind itself. They need tensile strength to open and close it.

A breakaway tassel sits in each cord string. If you're retrofitting the tassel, then you cut the cords at an even point. You then usually attach the ends into a tassel device that snaps shut and holds the cords in place. You end up with a tassel on each cord string.

The tassels don't stop you from using the blind. However, they snap open and break the cord loop in certain circumstances.

How Do Breakaway Tassels Increase a Blind's Safety?

Blind cords can be dangerous. They pose a particular problem if you have young kids at home.

For example, if a child plays with the cord, then it could get looped around them. If the loop goes around their neck, they may not be able to remove it. If they struggle, it tightens. This is a life-threatening situation. A child could strangle themselves on the cord.

Breakaway tassels make cords safer. If you fit them to your blinds, then you create a safety cut-out system that works even if you aren't around.

Tassels click or break open if there is too much pressure applied to the cords they sit on. So, if a child were to get a cord looped around them, their struggles to break free would put unusually high levels of pull on the cord.

Any tassels on the cords would open and break the loop. This makes the cord safe again. Even if it is still tangled around your child, it will be loose.

If your blinds still have hanging cords, then adding breakaway tassels makes them safer. For a complete solution, however, you might want to consider replacing child-accessible blinds with ones that meet modern safety standards. For example, you could ask your blinds supplier about cordless products or even about switching your blinds for shutters.