Abstract
Innovations and evolutions in safety technology present opportunities for safety professionals to enhance workplace safety. Such advances can, however, pose problems for product manufacturers and standards-setting committees. Manufacturers who improve product safety often fear such changes will expand the legal liability of products without the improved feature and increase manufacturing costs. Industrial standards-setters who delay upgrading a standard are often criticized for failing to act in a timely, responsible way. These dilemmas are discussed, as are ways that standards-setters, safety professionals, manufacturers and employees can speed implementation of safety improvements.