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In 2006, the Commission granted a petition asking that the Commission issue a rule to prescribe performance standards for an active injury mitigation system to reduce or prevent injuries from contacting the blade of a table saw. The Commission subsequently issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would establish a performance standard requiring table saws to limit the depth of cut to 3.5 millimeters when a test probe, acting as a surrogate for a human body/finger, contacts the table saw's spinning blade.  Staff has conducted several studies to provide information for the rulemaking.  Staff is working on a final rule briefing package.

Alternatives:

The Commission could (1) pursue table saw voluntary standard activities; (2) extend the effective dates of a possible rule; (3) exempt certain categories of table saws from the draft proposed rule; (4) limit the applicability of the performance requirements to some, but not all, tables saws; or (5) pursue an information and education campaign to inform the public of the hazards of blade contact and the benefits of the AIM technology.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

The expected gross benefits range from about $970 million to $2.45 billion over the product life of one year of sales. The expected costs of the draft proposed rule will range from about $168 million to about $345 million annually. Based on staff’s benefit and cost estimates, net benefits (i.e., benefits minus costs) for the market as a whole were estimated to amount to about $625 million to $2.3 billion over the product life of one year of table saw sales.