Dramatic cuts at federal workplace safety research agencies increase the risk of illness and injuries to U.S. workers and undermine public health emergency preparedness, fired employees warn.
The Trump administration ordered extensive layoffs at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when it issued a “forced” notification to about 85% of the agency’s 1,100 worker employees on April 1.
Some of these terminations were later reversed following pushbacks from trade unions and the public, but only 328 employees recovered.
“The immediate impact is that we are not prepared for any kind of public health emergency,” said Dr. Micah Niemeyer Walsch, an industrial hygienist at Niosch, Ohio. “In the long term, the Trump administration says it wants to bring back and expand certain sectors of the economy, such as mining and manufacturing. These are jobs that really rely on Niosch’s work.”
For example, Jenica Veranca worked to train emergency responders in the mining industry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her role has ended.
“That’s very difficult. Everyone here works hard to help the health and safety of miners and other workers,” she said. “I am worried that no one else is trying to fill this gap, and there is a reason why the government offers this safety net.
“In our case, the safety net is to help workers return to their families’ homes every day and make sure that nothing bad happens.”
Veranka questioned the central debate of reductions (efficiency of federal spending) by noting that long-term research projects may be currently being unraveled.
“When we’re gone, no one will give this information,” she said. “And with all this work we did, because we were so suddenly cut off in the middle of the project, we can’t release this as a completely public product. In my opinion, it’s a waste of government money.”
Nie Mayer Walsh, vice-chairman of U.S. Federal Employee Local 3840, said the cut in force was a “final massive blow to our work” since Donald Trump took office in January.
“Our ability to succeed as a lab depends on the rest of our NIOSH employees because our work is so interrelated,” Niemeier-Walsh said. “I’m very concerned about what this means for all American workers if we can’t fully recover NIOSH. These cuts are not based on science. They’re not based on public health needs. They’re based on politics, and that’s bad for American health.”
She cited it as an example of a health hazard assessment programme established to recommend ways to reduce workplace risks and mitigate risks that have been revived after previous cuts. However, they rely on chemists to develop analytical methods to measure chemicals in the workplace, and engineers design solutions. These chemists and engineers have not been revived, she said.
Since the agency was established in 1970, recordable workplace illnesses, injuries and deaths have declined significantly in the United States. The rate of non-fatal workplace injuries and illnesses fell from 10.9 cases per 100 full-time workers in 1972 to 2.4 cases in 2023.
The largest union federation in the United States, AFL-CIO, and several other unions, filed a lawsuit this month to restore NIOSH’s Cut Program, claiming that “Congress is required to live the lives of workers whose safety and health depend on NIOSH.”
While some of the initial cuts have been reversed, “There is a deep concern that the whole reason Niosh started from the beginning is still being eliminated,” said Rebecca Reindel, director of occupational safety and health at AFL-CIO, to ensure healthy working conditions with all men in the United States.
Reindel expressed particular concern about the disruption in the long-term research project.
“All of the research they do have been chasing people for 40 years, where they have these big cohorts,” she said. “And now they are being cut off for these profession future cohorts, where they chase them over the years to see what diseases are developing.
“If you’re just working on these cohorts now, you’re really losing 40 years of work. Even if they reboot, you’ll lose so many people for follow-up.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services did not comment on the record. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., they argued that NIOSH’s critical services remain unscathed and that they are working to continue as agents streamline their operations.