Mass Firings Take Out 85% of NIOSH

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health lost 850 of its 1000 employees to mass firings throughout the Department of Health and Human Services, obliterating federal protection of safety in the workplace.

NIOSH is especially well known for its work to protect miners from lung disease. Its research and recommendations underpin many workplace safety regulations set by other federal agencies. Studies indicate NIOSH is behind millions of dollars worth of avoided workers’ compensation and other costs each year.

The abrupt demolition of most of the agency has discarded years, or in some instances decades, of research. In some instances laboratory animals must be killed in the midst of an experiment. Such research cannot be resumed if it is being conducted by part of the 20% of firings that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. estimates he will need to rescind as mistakes. The researchers might be rehired, but they will have to go back to the beginning of their projects and start over.

The mass firings also close, as an example, the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory. That NIOSH office tests and certifies fitted respirator masks, rating how well they protect wearers from hazards that can be inhaled. N95 and N99 are NIOSH standards for the most popular types of face masks worn against COVID-19. Without that lab to rate masks, manufacturers that do not invest in high quality will have an advantage in the marketplace, since there will be no way for buyers to distinguish a highly protective mask from a mask that does not provide as much protection.

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