Summer Safety Tips

NEW YORK, May 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Although summer is associated with sun and fun, parents and caregivers should be thinking about safety too.  Below are a few simple tips to help keep children safe during these warm months:

• To avoid heat exhaustion, make sure to dress children properly for the warm weather.  While outside, children should be dressed in lightweight, light-colored clothing, which will reflect some of the sun's energy.  It is also important to wear hats or make use of an umbrella to shield the sun's strong rays.
• Watch your windows. Be sure to install only cordless window coverings in homes with young children. Replace window blinds, corded shades and draperies manufactured before 2001 with today's safer products. For more information on window coverings, visit www.windowcoverings.org.
• Make sure to stay hydrated.  Parents should always carry water for their children and children should try to drink water often, especially during extremely hot days.
• Keep the bug repellent handy!  To prevent itchy bug bites, dress children in light-colored, loose fitting clothes and apply repellent.  Avoid combination sunscreen/insect repellent products. Sunscreen needs to be reapplied every two hours, but the insect repellent does not.
• Prepare for summer ahead of time by teaching your children to swim.  Learning to swim is a fun way to increase safety in and around the pool and water.  Parents should always maintain constant supervision, no matter what swimming skills children have acquired and how shallow the water.

The Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) is a coalition of major U.S. manufacturers, importers and retailers of window coverings. The Council assists and supports its members in the industry's ongoing efforts to encourage the use of cordless products in homes with young children, its redesign of corded products, and to support the national ANSI/WCMA standard for the safety of corded window coverings.  WCSC's activities in no way constitute an assumption of any legal duty owed by its members or any other entity. Consumers wishing to retrofit rather than replace their older window coverings can order free retrofit devices through WCSC's website at www.windowcoverings.org or its toll-free phone line at 1-800-506-4636.

Contact:
David Mastroieni
212-297-2141
[email protected]

SOURCE Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC)