Band Saw Safety Stats and Facts

FACTS

1. A bandsaw can be hazardous when improperly used. Incidents could include electric shock, fire, or personal injury.

2. Band saws use a powered and rotating continuous metal blade to make even and precise cuts on metal, wood, and other objects. Because the moving blade has cutting teeth, serious injury and even death can occur if you use a band saw incorrectly.

3. Band saws may cause the following: 

• Cuts and amputations
• Musculoskeletal injuries 
  
• Muscular pain and discomfort
• Physical and mental fatigue.
• Eye irritation or damage, breathing problems, lung damage, cancer and worsening of existing health conditions.
• Contact dermatitis, breathing problems, illness and can worsen existing health problems.
• Can contribute to noise-induced hearing loss.
  

STATS

• A retrospective survey of 1002 woodworkers established that the band saw accounted for 6% of injuries and 2% of 366 amputation incidents; 37% of all injuries were finger amputations and 52% of the injuries involved the pulp or fingertip alone.
• Band saw injuries represent 11.5% of all reported saw injuries.
• Fatality and catastrophe investigation data from 1984 through 2017 indicate that 4,160 incidents occurred related to the search term saw, many of these being finger amputation injuries. 
• The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) estimates that band saws are the cause of 3,550 injuries per year (Woodworkers Guild of America, 2019).
• A separate survey of 283 woodworkers reported that 59% of respondents had been injured by powered saws and equated band saw injuries with a reported incidence of 2.6 per 1000 person-hours