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In 2015, 4,700 people in the US lost a finger or other body part to table-saw incidents. Most of those injuries didn't have to happen, thanks to technology invented in 1999 by entrepreneur Stephen Gass. By giving his blade a slight electric charge, his saw is able to detect contact with a human hand and stop spinning in a few milliseconds. A widely circulated video[1] shows a test on a hot dog that leaves the wiener unscathed.
Now federal regulators are considering whether to make Gass' technology mandatory in the table-saw industry. The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced plans for a new rule in May, and the rules could take effect in the coming months.
But established makers of power tools vehemently object. They say the mandate could double the cost of entry-level table saws and destroy jobs in the power-tool industry. They also point out that Gass holds dozens of patents on the technology. If the CPSC makes the technology mandatory for table saws, that could give Gass a legal monopoly over the table-saw industry until at least 2021, when his oldest patents expire.
At the same time, table-saw related injuries cost society billions every year. The CPSC predicts switching to the safer saw design will save society $1,500 to $4,000 per saw sold by reducing medical bills and lost work.
"You commissioners have the power to take one of the most dangerous products ever available to consumers and make it vastly safer," Gass said at a CPSC public hearing on Wednesday.
[1] SawStop Hot dog Video - Saw blade retracts within 5 milliseconds of accidental contact - YouTube.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday August 12 2017, @05:35PM
Well, you seem to be carefully ignoring all the forces against regulation of products like this, including but not limited to:
(e) The manufacturers who don't want to go through the time and expense of figuring out how to comply with the new regulations,
(f) The medical device manufacturers and hospitals that profit when more injuries occur.
(g) The retailers who want to keep prices down so they can move more product.
(h) Politicians wanting to be seen as friendly to business.
There is definitely such a thing as bad over-regulation. There's also definitely such a thing as bad under-regulation. The really hard part is finding the sweet spot between reasonable cost and not too much risk, and maintaining that as new technology changes what can be done at reasonable cost.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.