MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Of all the tools in a woodworking shop, the table saw is probably the most dangerous. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates the saws send more than 30,000 people to the emergency room each year. One inventor has been trying to change that for decades. Nick Fountain and Chris Arnold, who are with our Planet Money team, report that he might be getting close.
NICK FOUNTAIN, BYLINE: I'm in a workshop outside of Portland, Oregon, to meet that inventor.
STEVE GASS: I'm Steve Gass. I am the inventor of SawStop.
FOUNTAIN: What does SawStop do?
GASS: SawStop is a technology for table saws that, if you run your hand into the blade, it stops it so quick, you just get a little nick instead of cutting your fingers off.
FOUNTAIN: You think we can test that out?
GASS: Oh, yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF TABLE SAW RUNNING)
CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE: The way this test is going to work is Gass is going to push a board with a hot dog on top of it, simulating a finger, into the blade. And when that hot dog hits the blade, he says the saw is going to stop.
(SOUNDBITE OF TABLE SAW BRAKING)
FOUNTAIN: Whoa.
ARNOLD: The blade is gone - disappeared out of view. The hot dog - unscathed.
FOUNTAIN: How many fingers do you think this is saved?
GASS: Well over 10,000 fingers now.
FOUNTAIN: Ten thousand fingers?
GASS: Yeah. Yeah. Fingers get saved on SawStops every day now.
FOUNTAIN: I ask Gass to see this dark magic again. He takes the saw blade off.
(SOUNDBITE OF REMOVING SAW BLADE)
FOUNTAIN: Replaces a part. And we're ready to go.
Can I do it?
GASS: Absolutely.
FOUNTAIN: All right. Let's fire it up.
(SOUNDBITE OF TABLE SAW RUNNING)
FOUNTAIN: Why don't I just try my finger?
GASS: I think that's a bad idea. It just seems like, based on experience, it's unpleasant (laughter) to touch a spinning saw blade, even with SawStop.
FOUNTAIN: I'm going to do it.
(SOUNDBITE OF TABLE SAW BRAKING)
FOUNTAIN: Whoa.
Just kidding. It was a hot dog.
ARNOLD: Now, Gass has been pushing this technology for 20-something years. But many people within the power tool industry - they are not big fans of SawStop. They have a long, smoldering list of things, actually, that they do not like. For one, we have not yet mentioned that Steve Gass is a patent attorney.
FOUNTAIN: Right. And he patented the living daylights out of his new technology. And then he went to the government, specifically the Consumer Product Safety Commission. He lobbied the CPSC to make a rule requiring SawStop or a similar technology on all table saws.
ARNOLD: Susan Orenga is with the industry group that represents power tool manufacturers.
SUSAN ORENGA: I don't think any manufacturer should petition a government agency to mandate a technology that is self-interest. That would then create a monopoly.
ARNOLD: The industry has been saying for years basically that Steve Gass is a greedy patent attorney who wants to line his pockets by getting the government to force the market to adopt his technology.
FOUNTAIN: And sure, requiring a SawStop-like safety feature on all saws would make them safer, but also more expensive, especially the most basic saws. Orenga says that those could double in price.
ORENGA: It could potentially triple it.
FOUNTAIN: Triple the cost, you're saying.
ORENGA: There's a potential for those low-cost - you know, some saws start at 150. It's a significant cost.
ARNOLD: And all this raises a bigger question, which is, who should bear the cost of making something safer? Because losing your fingers - that has a cost, too.
FOUNTAIN: Bob Adler, a former commissioner at the CPSC, says that before they make a rule, they have to check for three things.
BOB ADLER: Does it unduly increase the price of a product? Does it unduly affect the availability of the product? Does it unduly impact the utility of a product?
FOUNTAIN: He says they crunched the numbers over and over. And for him, this new safety rule is worth it because the cost of the thousands of injuries a year is just so much bigger than the cost of adding the safety features to the saws.
ADLER: The cost-benefit ratio is just spectacular.
ARNOLD: The government says the benefits outweigh the added cost by up to $2.3 billion every year. And for inventor Steve Gass, that is just a winning argument.
GASS: So it's easy for the power tool companies to position me as a greedy patent attorney. I may be; I may not be. But it doesn't really matter because it doesn't change whether or not society benefits from a rule preventing these injuries. That really should be decided on the economics. Is society better off if we make a rule that all saws include this kind of technology? And the answer is clearly yes.
ARNOLD: After looking at this for two decades, the Commission may be on the verge of passing a final rule requiring a SawStop-type safety feature on all saws. It's expected to vote on the rule next year. And if the rule passes, SawStop now says it will give away the related patents for the public good.
Chris Arnold.
FOUNTAIN: Nick Fountain.
ARNOLD: NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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