The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a small but critical federal agency entrusted with protecting worker health and safety, is facing disastrous layoffs due to sweeping federal staffing cuts.

Up to 1,000 employees are being laid off from the agency, including its director, Dr. John Howard, effectively ending key research and programs like the Firefighter Cancer Registry, respirator certification lab (which first created the N95 masks) and the World Trade Center Health Program. 

NIOSH has led important research on workplace hazards for more than 50 years and has not only improved worker safety but has also saved the nation millions in health care and workers’ compensation costs.

The layoffs have triggered a wave of backlash from unions, public health experts and industry leaders who warn that dismantling NIOSH will have catastrophic effects on workers. Without NIOSH, the U.S. risks weakened protections from occupational illness, slower identification of new workplace hazards and the loss of critical oversight over safety equipment that protects millions of frontline and essential workers. This opens the door to foreign producers who can inundate the market with substandard protective gear, further endangering our workers.

The impact of NIOSH cuts will be felt deeply here in California, where its funding supports vital occupational health education and research programs at UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Davis (Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety), UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco (California Labor Lab). These programs not only train the next generation of occupational health professionals but also conduct community-based research on California-specific worker safety challenges. Without continued federal support, their future is uncertain, and the risks for California’s frontline workers will grow.

Worker advocates and attorneys should be prepared to support efforts to maintain and expand research into workplace hazards to ensure that California remains at the forefront of addressing emerging worker safety challenges.

Beyond the health and economic impacts, the federal workforce reductions at NIOSH signal a troubling departure from evidence-based policy while eroding workplace safety across the board. This will disproportionally affect vulnerable workers in agriculture, manufacturing and emergency response. Decades of life-saving research and community trust in programs are being erased and will leave workers at greater risk. As NIOSH is gutted without transparency or direction, the nation is not only losing a vital public health institution, but a half-century commitment to protecting America’s most vulnerable workers.    

This opinion by the California Applicants' Attorneys Association communications team is republished with permission from the CAAA website.