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`Safety Isn’t Always Top Priority
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`By Caroline E. Mayer July 14, 2001
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`Talk to anyone who has seen a demonstration of SawStop -- where a hot dog, acting as a finger, is only nicked when it
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`touches a table-saw blade -- and the first comment is almost always one of astonishment.
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`"It is probably one of the most major developments in the area of product safety applicable for table saws," said
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`Peter Domeny, director of product safety for SB Power Tool Co, which makes Skil and Bosch tools.
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`"Safetywise, it is probably one of the most innovative features I’ve seen in the last ~o years," said Scott Box,
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`manager of product development for Delta Machinery, the leading manufacturer of stationary saw machinery.
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`Then come the "buts" -- the hesitations that help explain why -- despite the glowing reviews -- no manufacturer has
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`yet agreed to add the year-old SawStop technology to any of its products.
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`The hesitation helps illustrate the challenges often involved in adding new safety features to existing products.
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`In this case, SawStop comes with the promise that it could reduce the number of visits by Americans to emergency
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`rooms after using table saws. Of the 63,ooo such visits last year, nearly 3,5oo involved finger and hand
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`amputations.
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`Yet even if SawStop works as advertised, manufacturers say, they must also consider other factors -- its cost, the risk
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`of product liability lawsuits and even consumer behavior -- before agreeing to add it to their products.
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`Consumer advocates and some federal safety officials say those arguments are familiar --voiced when other safety
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`innovations -- such as car air bags, safer cigarette lighters and better vehicle bumpers -- were developed.
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`Stephen F. Gass, an Oregon patent lawyer, physicist and lifelong woodworker, developed SawStop after wondering
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`whether he could stop a sawblade fast enough to avoid a serious injury if he accidentally ran his hand into it.
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`Designed in a month and built from parts Gass had on hand, the device is based on the fact that humans conduct
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`electricity much better than wood does. A monitor measures an electrical signal and detects when some part of a
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`body (or, in the demonstration, the hot dog) comes in contact with the saw. The blade is immediately stopped by a
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`special brake within a few milliseconds -- faster than it takes the body to register pain from a cut, Gass said.
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`To build support for his invention, Gass has been demonstrating it at woodworking conventions around the world.
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`He also showed it at a Consumer Product Safety Commission conference late last month in Oak Brook, Ill. The
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`conference’s purpose was to highlight new technology to persuade manufacturers to be more aggressive in adopting
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`new safety features.
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`SB Power Tool, Delta and several other manufacturers say they are reviewing SawStop to see if it does what Gass
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`claims. If it does, the companies say, they will then consider the other factors.
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`First, Box said, "we need to determine if the consumer is willing to pay for the added cost of safety." When it comes
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`to sales, safety "is not a barnburner," he said.
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`Delta offers a number of safety extras, but "they don’t sell as large as they should," Box said. He said, for example,
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`that schools are usually the only customers willing to pay $3oo for the extra protection provided by an overarm
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`guard for table saws.
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`In a recent Internet chat room discussion, some woodworkers said they would not buy a product with the
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`attachment. "My saw cuts just fine without it," one said. "I don’t care for technology to do my thinking for me ....
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`The best sawstop that I’ve ever seen is located between the ears," wrote another.
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`If consumers won’t buy the product, stores won’t stock it. John Simley, spokesman for Home Depot, said the retailer
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`is always encouraging manufacturers to develop safer products. But if the product "doesn’t sell, we won’t carry it."
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`Simley said that in many cases, he’s seen customers reluctant to buy a product with a safety feature -- or say they will
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`disable it -- because they believe it interferes with the product’s effectiveness.
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`Retailers, manufacturers and woodworkers acknowledge that’s the case with the protective guards that come with
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`stationary saws. Even (lass admits that he hasn’t used a guard in years.
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`Gass estimates that the SawStop system will add about 15 percent to a saw’s price, but manufacturers aren’t so sure.
`Box, for one, said he is concerned that SawStop may be too expensive, particularly for lower-priced products.
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`It could raise the price of a $17o sawused by many woodworking hobbyists to $3oo, Box said. Delta sells saws
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`ranging in price from $149 to $4,ooo. "I see it being used on the upper-end saws, more than those that sell under
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`$5oo," Box said.
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`The problem, he said, is that if Delta doesn’t add the feature to all of its table saws, it could risk being the target of
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`product-liability lawsuits by people injured using a lower-priced sawwithout the feature.
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`"Price is an important consideration," said Victor E. Schwartz, a Washington lawyer who specializes in product
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`liability. "I can see the trial if something goes wrong: ’Here is a company that provides safety for the rich but not for
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`the poor.’"
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`Manufacturers also said they are concerned that safety features could give woodworkers a false sense of security and
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`tempt them to take more risks. Some customers agree. One wrote in the Internet chat room: "The reason I don’t
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`want it is that... I don’t want anything present that will reduce my fear .... I do believe my sense of caution will be
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`reduced and expose me incrementally to the danger I fear most in my shop."
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`That argument angers Gass and consumer safety officials. "That’s like saying that when I get in my car, I’ll be cavalier
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`about crossing the center line because I have an air bag," Gass said.
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`"To say people become more reckless when there are additional safety features really offends me," said Ann Brown,
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`chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. "That’s what people said when the CPSC tried to create a
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`child-resistant lighter -- a better lighter would make people more careless and leave them around the house. But it
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`hasn’t. The o nly thing we’ve seen is the injury rate go way down."
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`Another issue is replacement parts. As now made, once SawStop is activated, the sawwill not work again until a new
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`braking cartridge is installed. Each cartridge would cost $5o or less, Gass said.
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`Domeny said SB Power Tool’s testing suggests that the blade also might have to be replaced because the brake
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`sometimes damages the cutting teeth. Domeny is concerned that a sawuser might not see the damage and reuse the
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`blade "only to have the fractured tooth fly up and end up in your face."
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`Gass said that’s "an inherent risk" with any saw that uses carbide teeth. "But as a relative risk, it’s about a thousand
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`times less than the risk of cutting your finger off. Typically, the tooth is not big enough or traveling fast enough to
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`seriously injure you, unless it hits you in the eye. But that’s why you wear safety goggles."
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`Domeny said that "at first look, [SawStop] obviously has a good appeal, but there are some hidden risks and hazards
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`that we have to balance." He said his company is "probably a month or two away from making a decision."
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`Stephen F. Gass invented a safety brake for table saws, but manufacturers are reluctant to use it.
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