Without wanting this to degrade into politics, I must cast a vote in favor of practical regulation. Requirements such as covers on bandsaws and seat belts in cars, cost very little in terms of manufacturing cost and interfere very little with normal, and intended, use of a machine, yet they offer tremendous bang-for-the-buck improvements in overall safety. The same goes for reasonable food and medicine regulations, particularly where mass market enters the equation and the reputation of the grower or manufacture is unknown to the consumer.
The problem with attempts at regulations such as proposed here is that it not only prices a workshop outside the realm of the average homeowner, but it also lacks any apparent science supporting such strict interpretation. Unless I am mistaken, there has been no great rash of exploding workshops as of late, whether it be Meck. Cty. or the country at large. Not only that, but the rationale totally breaks down the first time the shop owner fires up a router, miter saw, or any other universal motor-powered equipment -- including the power sanders that are the ONLY real source of explosive micron-sized dust within a typical shop. Unless this year's power sanders have quietly developed a reputation for spontaneous explosivity in use, I don't see where explosive-proof or dust-proof shop wiring and fixtures comes into play. In fact, the only scenerio where I can see a dust-proof outlet having some practical value is if you happen to locate a receptacle directly behind your miter saw's dust port. I can not imagine any other scenerio whereby a respectable volume of dust -- enough to represent a combustion risk -- would ever sufficiently infiltrate a receptacle or its wiring box.
In point of fact, I have an ordinary single-gang receptacle box wired as part of a custom extension cord (#12/3 SJOW) that provides 240V 20A to my jointer, table saw, and band saw. It rests on the floor between the jointer, table saw, router table, and sanding station and despite 4 years of residence in the same location, there is no measurable sawdust within the wiring box and there is nothing air-tight about the box -- I don't think it could be in a much worse location if dust infiltration were a serious issue!
In fact, with the tremendous focus we modern woodworkers place on dust collection -- both primary point-of-use collection and secondary ambient air filtration, coupled with regular vacuuming or sweeping of the floor -- the risks of explosion or fire related to wood dust should be reduced by many orders of magnitude compared to the shop of old where the floors were typically caked in inches, if not feet, of sawdust. In fact, I would argue that our dust collectors represent about the only practical risk of sawdust explosion, and such explosions in dust collection systems are extraordinarily rare in collectors of 3HP or less (which represents the vast majority of hobby workshops).
Just my $0.02 on the subject!
