Major safety proposals get the ax from the new Trump-appointed safety regulators
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has withdrawn multiple proposed safety rules, including standards targeting table saw injuries, hazardous off-highway vehicles, and toxic aerosol dusters.
Consumer advocates blasted the decision as politics and cruelty, warning it will mean more amputations, impalements, and poisonings.
Acting Chairman Peter A. Feldman defended the move as a return to sound science and common sense, while affirming the agency will not regulate gas stove emissions.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced Wednesday that it is scrapping several proposed regulations meant to reduce product dangers, from table saw blade-contact injuries to off-highway vehicle rollovers and aerosol duster inhalation deaths.
The withdrawn rules include a table saw blade safety standard, a recreational off-highway vehicle stability rule, a debris penetration hazard standard, and a ban on aerosol dusters with certain propellants.
Consumer advocates say the decision will put lives at risk. The withdrawal of vital safety rulemakings is not grounded in evidence or morality, but in politics and cruelty, said Daniel Greene of the National Consumers League in an email to ConsumerAffairs. The CPSC chose less safety and more amputations, impalements, and poisonings.
New leadership, new priorities
The withdrawals come under new CPSC leadership appointed by the Trump Administration. Acting Chairman Peter A. Feldman said the agency is shifting course, rejecting rules he called outdated, unscientific, and costly to industry.
Regulations and practices that do not reasonably advance safety but instead promote unscientific ideological agendas, impose unnecessary costs, restrict consumer choice, or reduce competition, entrepreneurship, and innovation are no longer agency priorities, Feldman said in a statement.
The agency also rescinded long-standing rules it deemed obsolete, including regulations on citizens band radio antennas and 1950s refrigerator safety mandates.
Gas stoves and the value of life
Feldman highlighted the Commissions decision to abandon proposals related to gas stoves, rejecting research on harmful indoor emissions as climate ideology. Critics, however, point to a growing body of evidence linking nitrogen dioxide from gas stoves to serious health risks.
The CPSC is also rescinding guidance on the statistical value of life, with Feldman arguing that it inflates benefits used to justify regulation. The statistics are frequently used in personal injury and wrongful deaths lawsuits to estimate the value of a life lost to defective products.
Documented hazards
Despite Feldmans framing, the risks associated with the withdrawn rules are well-documented:
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Table saws: An estimated 29,000 ER visits per year for blade-contact injuries, according to past CPSC data.
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Off-highway vehicles: At least 169 fatalities and 299 injuries tied to rollovers and ejections between 2003 and 2010.
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Aerosol dusters: More than 1,000 deaths and 21,700 injuries linked to inhalation incidents from 2012 to 2021.
Advocates say Congress may need to step in. Its time for lawmakers to do what the CPSC wontrequire these safety standards by law, Greene urged.
Posted: 2025-08-21 20:34:45