Workplace Research Agency Cuts Create Chaos for Safety Programs

Layoffs at the federal agency responsible for researching work-related injuries will inhibit the government from effectively responding to occupational hazards, particularly for the mining industry, health safety professionals say.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, notified workers April 1 that nearly 900 staffers would be let go as part of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plans to cut 10,000 employees across his agency.

That amounts to a nearly two-thirds reduction of NIOSH staff and will impede the federal government’s development of worker safety standards meant to address health hazards, former agency officials say. One research facility in West Virginia will lose nearly all its staff.

NIOSH is made up of “disease detectives,” said Gregory R. Wagner, a former NIOSH senior advisor during the Obama administration. They include engineers, biologists, epidemiologists, and health-care professionals whose recommendations are key for setting federal workplace safety standards, he said.

Cutting these workers “puts the health and well-being of everybody who works at risk for a minimal dollar savings, and also it’s a national security issue to lose that expertise,” Wagner said.

NIOSH, which was created under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, provides both the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration as well as the Mine Safety and Health Administration with critical research, training, and resource development for responding to on-the-job injuries and hazards.

For example, OSHA’s proposed heat stress rule cites NIOSH’s criteria for a recommended standard on heat as a recognized workplace hazard and identifies control measures, like acclimatization, that companies can implement to reduce safety risks for workers.

Phillip Russell, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins who represents employers, said cuts at NIOSH won’t necessarily impact worker safety efforts.

“We’re not moving the needle on falls in construction, especially in the roofing industry,” Russell said.

“We don’t necessarily need NIOSH in order to start, let’s go with industry data or BLS data,” he added, referring to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Local Impact

NIOSH has facilities across the country and has a range of service programs to carry out its research.

The NIOSH Spokane Research Laboratory in Washington state, for example, partners with labor, mining associations, equipment manufacturers, mine operators, and other government agencies. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said nearly everyone at that location will be fired. She said the Trump administration is refusing to explain the cuts.

The Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program, located in Morgantown, W.Va., studies respiratory diseases in miners related to coal dust exposure and provides health screenings for the industry.

“NIOSH Morgantown’s research was instrumental in sounding the alarm about the black lung crisis in Appalachia,” said Chris Williamson, former assistant secretary of labor for MSHA during the Biden administration.

More than 500 jobs are being eliminated across NIOSH field offices in West Virginia, Washington, and Pennsylvania, according to representatives from the American Federation of Government Employees. These offices are part of the agency’s mine-site observation and compliance sampling data work, which informs studies on mining technology.

“I seriously do not believe that when the administration is sitting there looking at HHS that they have a clue of what is happening at this lower level—the research associated with NIOSH and mining and how it intertwines with MSHA,” said Lilas Soukup, president of AFGE Local 1916.

AFGE Local 3430 President Cathy Tinney-Zara, whose union represents NIOSH workers in Morgantown, said about 350 to 400 personnel, including union and non-union employees, have been let go. She said those cuts amount to essentially the entire office—creating confusion on all levels about how programs will continue without staff.

“We have laboratories in the facility,” Tinney-Zara said. “We have animals in the facility that, we may have to sacrifice.”

She said she isn’t sure what will happen to the 674 mice and nearly 40 rats in the facility. “The last I heard was we no longer will have a veterinarian on site, which by law we have to have,” she added.

Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va), who was president of coal company Bluestone Oil Corp., said he’s in favor of the administration’s cuts. He said he’s confident that Kennedy understands the importance of coal miner health programs in West Virginia.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), in contrast, said she has raised the issue with Kennedy’s office to understand the depth of the cuts to programs and workforce in Morgantown.

The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association backed NIOSH’s mining program as “essential.”

“NSSGA is currently working with its partners to highlight the value that the Mining Program provides to our association members and the entire aggregates industry,” said interim CEO Michele Stanley. “We have requested that the Trump administration reconsider this action.”

Education Centers in Jeopardy

The OSH Act requires NIOSH to provide an adequate supply of qualified personnel to implement it and as a result the agency funds 18 education and research centers to assist in the pipeline.

Safety professionals say these programs could be in jeopardy as the administration continues to shrink the size of the federal government.

“These students are the pipeline for the workforce that we need to help companies and workers stay safe on the job,” said Robert Harrison, who’s part of one of those centers at the University of California, San Francisco that receives funding to support safety professional training.

Medical school students receive less than two hours of education in the area of injuries and disease that happen at work, according to Harrison. Your average doctor isn’t going to be able to understand what you’re exposed to because they have very little training, he noted.

“The scientists who have lost their jobs at NIOSH are the scientists who teach our students, who our students are placed with, and give them that practical experience,” Harrison said. “This is an incredibly cost-effective agency that directly funds training and the pipeline in the United States.”