The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency dedicated to protecting the public from dangerous products, recently stated that they would be contacting power tool industry leaders in order to see what these companies are doing to prevent table-saws from causing amputations and other injuries.

According to the CSPC, consumer use of table saws results in 10 finger amputations per day on average. CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum stated that, "All options are on the table for CSPC at this time" for finding methods to prevent amputations. Tenenbaum told USA Today that table saw safety features need to be improved in order to prevent "school children in shop class and woodworkers from suffering these life-altering injuries."

The Executive Director of the National Consumers League, Sally Greenberg, is pushing for a federal regulation that requires that every table saw to be equipped with technology created by Stephen Gass. Gass' invention, known as SawStop, would add flesh detection equipment for when users accidentally get too close to the blade; protecting table saw users from accidental amputations.

In 2007, the Power Tool Institute stated that the SawStop technology was too expensive and not error proof. Thus far, the technology has only been included on higher-end model saws. While Gass has acknowledged that his flesh-detecting technology is expensive, he states that, "The price is nothing compared with the cost and lifelong pain of hand injuries."

Leading saw makers are now facing hundreds of lawsuits from injured workers stating that SawStop could have prevented their amputations.

Source: USA Today, "CPSC wants to stop daily table saw amputations," Jayne O'Donnell, 2/22/2011