NIOSH Decimated by Staffing Cuts
This is a developing story and this article has been updated to reflect new information.
Most civilian positions at NIOSH have been eliminated, according to sources within the agency who shared the news with AIHA earlier this week. Agency staff, including NIOSH Director John Howard, received reduction-in-force emails at 5 a.m. on April 1. The cuts will bring staff numbers down from around approximately 1,400 full- and part-time employees to fewer than 150 and will affect programs ranging from mining safety research to the certification of personal protective equipment. Only two functions in the agency will remain: the World Trade Center Health Program and the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program.
The news follows an announcement last week from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that indicated NIOSH would become part of a new Administration for a Healthy America.
The cuts to NIOSH are part of a wider reduction in staffing levels across the Department of Health and Human Services. AP reported that almost 25 percent of HHS staff are being removed either through layoffs or early retirement. The cuts eliminate positions for approximately 3,500 staff at the Food and Drug Administration, 2,200 from CDC, 1,200 from the National Institutes of Health, and 300 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Many stakeholders consider NIOSH the world’s foremost workplace health and safety agency. Created along with OSHA by the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act, NIOSH’s many contributions include criteria documents for developing OHS standards, training grants for developing OHS professionals, production of the NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods (NMAM) for sampling and analyzing workplace contaminants, current intelligence bulletins on multiple OHS topics, Education and Research Centers and Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health for training the OHS workforce, publication of a research agenda for OHS, the NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards, and the NIOSH Certified Equipment List, a searchable database of all NIOSH-approved respirators. An index of NIOSH publications from 1977 through the present day, including links to the documents, is currently still available on the agency website.
In an email to the AIHA membership, AIHA CEO Larry Sloan indicated that AIHA is partnering with allied associations to respond to the cuts and engaging with policymakers and legislators to highlight NIOSH’s importance to workplace health and safety. Sloan called on AIHA members to support NIOSH by contacting their local and state representatives and invited them to register for an online town hall that AIHA will hold at 3 p.m. ET on April 16.
“The reductions to NIOSH's workforce and funding pose a significant threat to the advancement of occupational safety and health,” Sloan wrote. “Through collective action and advocacy, we can strive to ensure that NIOSH continues to fulfill its vital mission in safeguarding worker health and safety.”
In a post to LinkedIn, former OSHA Director David Michaels expressed distress at the news. "NIOSH's research has saved the lives, lungs, and limbs of millions of workers, preventing work illnesses, injuries, and deaths among coal miners, chemical workers, firefighters, hospital and healthcare workers, and countless other workers exposed to deadly workplace hazards," Michaels wrote.
This article expands and updates an earlier article titled “Sources: Significant Staff Reductions at NIOSH” that was originally published on April 1.
