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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 (AIM) 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 intends to submit a final rule briefing package to the Commission in fiscal year 2023.

Statement of Need:

In the NPRM, the Commission preliminarily determined that there is an unreasonable risk associated with blade-contact injuries on table saws. Based on injury data reviewed in 2015, there were an estimated 33,400 table saw, emergency department treated injuries. Of these, staff estimated that 30,800 (92 percent) are likely related to the victim making contact with the saw blade. Of the 30,800 ED treated blade-contact injuries, an estimated 28,900 injuries (93.8 percent) involved the finger, with 4,700 amputations (15.2 percent).

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 1 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 were estimated to amount to about $625 million to $2.3 billion over the product life of 1 year of table saw sales.