Update: This post was included here to help parents gain awareness of potential drawstring hazards in children’s clothing. It has been edited to remove speculations as to why the hazards exist and to focus on ways that you can identify and fix clothing products that may be unsafe.

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In 1996, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued guidelines recommending that parents or caregivers completely remove the hood and neck drawstrings from all children’s upper outerwear up to size 12, and that manufacturers follow voluntary guidelines to eliminate drawstrings or ensure that products meet certain safety requirements. Similar guidelines have been implemented by the ASTM standards organization and cover girls’ and boys’ clothing, such as jackets and sweatshirts, generally intended to be worn on the exterior of other clothing.

The safety concern is that drawstrings – even fake, non-functional drawstrings – pose strangulation, entrapment, and entanglement hazards that could seriously harm a child or lead to accidental death.

While these guidelines exist, there are still occasional risks. To find out what products have been recalled recently due to drawstring risks, go to: http://search.cpsc.gov/query.html and type in “drawstring + recall” into the search field.

If you find that one of your kid’s upper outer garments does come with loose drawstrings, the CPSC recommends that you remove the drawstrings in order to eliminate the hazard. Many manufacturers will also offer refunds on affected products.

For more information, see:

• * CPSC Handbook for Resale Stores and Product Resellers
• CSPC Drawstring Standard: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/208.pdf