Worker safety agency NIOSH lays off most remaining staff

Nearly all of the remaining staff at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health were laid off Friday, multiple officials and laid-off employees told CBS News, gutting programs ranging from approvals of new safety equipment to firefighter health.

Much of the work at NIOSH, an arm of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had already stalled after an initial round of layoffs on April 1 at the agency ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

New requests for investigations of firefighter injuries and workplace health hazards had already stopped being accepted. A CDC plan to help Texas schools curb the spread of measles infections was also scrapped due to the layoffs. 

NIOSH employees receiving layoff notices late Friday included some workers for the World Trade Center Health Program, miner safety, and firefighter health programs. Workers for those programs had been asked to temporarily return to work for another month or two, after pleas from members of Congress.

Layoff notices received by workers Friday were almost identical to those received in the initial round of Kennedy’s cuts, which said that their duties “have been identified as either unnecessary or virtually identical to duties being performed elsewhere in the agency.”

The main difference with Friday’s layoff notices was the date they take effect: workers are being put on leave until an official separation from service on July 2, instead of in June.

The layoffs also stopped work at the agency’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory. This NIOSH division had been the government body tasked with vetting safety equipment like N95 masks and breathing devices used by emergency workers.

The laboratory’s respirator approval program had been in the middle of processing around 100 applications for personal protective equipment, one laid-off official said.

Stalled work includes changes needed to meet new standards issued by the National Fire Protection Association for this year. No equipment is currently certified to meet those standards, nor has the agency been able to issue refunds to application fees paid for by manufacturers.

Efforts to spot and warn of counterfeit personal protective equipment was also halted due to the layoffs, officials said.

“Millions of workers across various sectors – including healthcare, construction, and emergency services – depend on NIOSH-approved respirators. Without these approvals, their safety is compromised, leading to potential illness, injury, or even death,” laid-off employees wrote in a letter shared with CBS News.

It is unclear what will happen to the agency’s work now that most of its teams have been eliminated. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.