At a time when it is needed the most, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a Cincinnati-based worker protection agency, is the latest victim of federal government staffing cuts as 850 of its 1,000 employees are being let go. In total, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will face about 10,000 layoffs.
An HHS spokesman, Andrew Nixon, said what’s left of NIOSH will be moved into a newly created agency dubbed the Administration for a Healthy America. There is the possibility that 20 percent of people laid off might be reinstated where mistakes have been determined to have been made.
The agency was created in 1970 and since that time it has been a pioneer in research on indoor air quality in office buildings, occupational exposures to bloodborne infections, workplace violence, and other workplace health and safety issues.
The decision has been met by major protest from firefighters, coal miners, manufacturers, and a range of others who are concerned for what this could mean for the identification and prevention of workplace dangers, as each cohort has individually benefited from the agency’s work. It will cease, pause, and slow the progress of important programs such as a firefighter cancer registry and the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, the NIOSH office that tests and certifies fitted masks and respirators used in many industries.
The agency is also responsible for leading work related to mining, specifically how doctors are trained and certified to test for black lung disease. NIOSH staff routinely visited mines and rural communities to offer free screenings and information about black lung disease and other workplace health issues.
There will also be cost implications for this, with millions of dollars and time and research spent wasted. Its research and recommendations have been foundational for the Department of Labor’s rules for worker protection and its studies have saved millions of dollars through the mitigation and avoidance of workers’ compensation and related costs.
