scorch

I don't mean to be glib or to discount the importance of table saw safety. But I just don't see these kinds of numbers as making a compelling case for being overly concerned about the current state of table saw design or standard safety procedures. There are more people dying of diseases that you and I have never even heard of than are getting seriously injured by table saws. That is the problem with reporting the gross figure as opposed to a per capita basis. The general public simply has no way to intuitively grasp the relative insignificance of the data in the context of the many millions of people using tablesaws.

The report mentions 31,000 injuries, of which 10% are the kind we all fear and have nightmares about (i.e., amputations - we've all probably got that Uncle Vernon who likes to scare the kids with his stubbed finger). That means that ~3,100 amateur carpenters and woodworkers have had fingers amputated while using table saws (remember, this study did not include trained professionals in the construction trades). Simple math, and it sounds like a lot of people, right? But if you consider how many millions of DIY weekend warriors and hobbyist woodworkers there are in the US, this number would count as an extremely rare occurrence by any reasonable standard.

It is hard for me to find statistics online for how many people actually do carpentry or woodworking on an amateur basis (the number of professionals is around 15 million). But let's start with an estimate of 2% of the population, which is probably conservative in this Home Depot age. With this estimate, about 6 million people would be doing carpentry outside of the workplace in the US. The total number of table saw injuries would represent .05% of this figure. The number of accidents causing amputation would be .005%. If only 1% of Americans do carpentry on an amateur basis, that would still mean that serious dismemberment (among untrained individuals) only happens in one one-hundredth of a percent of individuals.

To beauty of the table saw is that its inherent dangers are readily apparent and naturally induce the appropriate sense of caution. Use a push stick, keep the material against the fence, clear the work area of any obstructions, take reasonable precautions. That's it!