CodeBlue 129: Risikomanagement wegen Zerschlagung (RiZe) des National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

Rahmenprojekt: CodeBlue 

Das Projekt soll ein Risikomanagement wegen der Zerschlagung des National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) bearbeiten und umfassen.

Wenn die "NIOSH" nicht mehr in der Funktion, Arbeitsweise, Organisation zur Erfüllung der zugewiesenen und übernommenen Aufgaben, wie zu Anfang des Jahres 2025 besteht (siehe Wikipedia 15.04.2025), hat das, so die These, unmittelbare und mittelbare Auswirkungen und Folgen für die Arbeitssicherheit und den beruflichen Gesundheitsschutz, sowohl

1. für die Beschäftigen der Einrichtung,
2. die Beschäftigten in den USA, sowie
3. die Beschäftigten in Ländern, die mit den USA vertraglich zusammenarbeiten, sowie
4. für Menschen, die Produkte und Dienstleistungen von Unternehmen, Organisationen und Einrichtungen des Staates nutzen, oder zu nutzen beabsichtigen.

In diesem Projekt sollen die Grundlagen, Aspeke, Beweggründe, Wirkungen, Folgen und weiteren Maßnahmen, eines schlechtesten und eines besten Szenarios zum Fortbestehen der NIOSH betrachtet und bearbeitet werden. Damit sollen die Wirkungen gemäß eines Risikos für Deutschland analysiert werden. Aus der Beurteilung von Risiken und Gefahren sollen jeweils nationale, regionale, lokale und örtliche Maßnahmen zusammengestellt, vorgeschlagen und empfohlen werden.

Bei der Bearbeitung soll die Qualität und Quantität der zum Beginn des Projekt am 18.05.2025 noch in den USA bestehenden "health and safety standards" betrachtet werden, die vermutlich keine bis geminderte Fortschreibung, Verbesserung oder Entwicklung erfahren werden, sofern die Aufgaben der NIOSH  reduziert werden, ruhen oder in Teilen völlig beendet werden. Die Wirkungen der Veränderung bei Standards soll als Risiko nach den oben genannte Bereichen näher betrachtet werden, um negative Folgen, Beeinträchtigungen, Schaden oder gar Gefahren von Deutschland, sowie der EU, abzuwenden, sofern dies über die Bearbeitung des Projekt erkannt und festgestellt wurde.

"(...). Yesterday, word began circulating that Trump and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. had begun the process of laying off at least two-thirds of the staff at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Around 873 staff are expected to be cut from NIOSH, out of 10,000 health staff expected to be eliminated from HHS. That means that this small important agency will sustain almost ten percent of the overall HHS cuts. 
NIOSH has been part of the Centers for Disease Control since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, and RFK Jr recently moved it to his newly created Administration for a Healthy America which is allegedly designed to “implement the Make America Healthy Again goal of ending the chronic disease epidemic.”
(...) 

Without NIOSH’s ability to investigate outbreaks and certify respirators, more healthcare workers, firefighters, construction workers and others will get sick and die Sooner or later this country will face another pandemic and, as with COVID, workers will be on the front lines without the benefit of research to protect them. More workers will die of heat-related illness, and more miners will succumb to dust-related illness and other deadly hazards.

These drastic cuts will eliminate this country’s leading occupational safety and health researchers and devastate the nurse, doctor and safety professional training programs across the country that keep workers safe and productive. The nation already has a critical shortage of the safety workforce, and these cuts will sever that pipeline beyond repair.

As University of California at San Francisco professor Dr. Robert Harrison points out,  “there will be no independent reliable source of information about line speed and crippling back and hand injuries in meatpacking and poultry plants, nor about the thousands of chemicals that cause cancer and reproductive damage, and the stress of work on heart diseases, diabetes, obesity and mental health.”

Anyone who follows the lengthy and tortured path that OSHA must already travel to issue health and safety standards knows that they are highly dependent on reliable science. Must of that science, and the analysis of studies done by non-government researchers is conducted by NIOSH. The destruction of NIOSH will only lengthen the time that OSHA needs to issue new protections and make OSHA standards more vulnerable to legal challenge.

(...) And how much money will more injured, sick and dead American workers save?
NIOSH was created by the Occupational Safety and Health Act to be the lead research agency for the federal government. The agency focuses on workers in the highest risk industries – mineworkers, firefighters, construction workers, healthcare workers and agriculture workers – all who are at high risk of job injuries, illness and fatalities.  While Trump and Elon have allegedly been eliminating agency overlap, the fact is that NIOSH is only government agency that conducts research, and gathers and analyzes the information to keep workers safe.
It’s hard to list in one short post the many activities NIOSH conducts to protect this country’s workers.  But here’s a very short list.

• Research: NIOSH conducts research into health and safety hazards, recommending needed standards for OSHA, conducting educational activities, conducting investigations in to workplace disease outbreaks and certifying respirators among other tasks.
• World Trade Center and Nuclear Veterans: The agency also administers the World Trade Center Health Program that provides monitoring and treatment 0f 9/11 recovery worker following their exposure on and in the months following 9/11, and conducts exposure and health assessments for the government’s program to provide healthcare and compensation to Cold War nuclear veterans who were exposed to radiation and other toxic substances building the country’s nuclear arsenal.  These are the only two programs that are expected to survive.
• Respirator Certification: One of NIOSH’s most important functions is certification of respirators. Most people don’t realize that any respirator will not protect against every hazards. The type of chemical or dust, its concentration, its level of toxicity all go into determining the appropriate respirator.  And even then they won’t work without fit-testing and maintenance. NIOSH tasked with certifying the respirators that are appropriate to any work environment. Without that certification, more workers will choose inappropriate respirators.Also, NIOSH was instrumental in pushing back CDC’s effort to promote surgical masks to protect workers against COVID infection, as well as novel respirator viruses. Countless healthcare workers needlessly lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic because they were not using appropriate respirators. NIOSH’s Respirator Selection Guide for the Healthcare Industry is a crucial resource for protecting healthcare workers.
• Heat: Summer is coming and NIOSH has played an instrumental role in protecting workers against heat-related illness and death. The agency first issued a Criteria Document, recommending an OSHA standard, in 1972. It helped develop best practices for acclimatization and establish wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) guidelines for accurately measuring the effect of heat on the human body. The Heat Safety Tool App, developed by OSHA and NIOSH, provides real-time, location specific heat index readings and life-saving work-rest recommendations. NIOSH’s current criteria document on heat is the international bible for protecting workers.
• Firefighters: NIOSH also protects firefighters. It runs the National Firefighter Cancer Registry which tracks exposure-related illness and studies long-term health effects, and studies hazardous exposures, including research on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of chemicals used by firefighters and chemical manufacturing workers that have been linked to cancer and other health effects.
• Investigations: NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluations investigate mysterious occupational disease outbreaks caused by chemicals or infectious diseases. Its Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program, conducts investigations of fatal occupational injuries. Interested users can have access to the full text of hundreds of fatality investigation reports.
• Mine Safety: NIOSH plays a crucial role in mine safety and mine operators are likely rejoicing at the agency’s demise. NIOSH’s Miner Health Program conducts research, workplace interventions, evaluation, and community engagement in order to eliminate or reduce  mining fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program studies respiratory diseases in miners related to coal mine dust exposure. The program also provides health information to miners through health screenings and surveillance. In recent years, the agency has developed continuous Personal Dust Monitors  to help miners track respirable coal dust exposure, self-contained self-rescuers, which are emergency breathing devices to help miners escape after explosions and cave-ins, proximity Detection Systems which keeps miners safe from being struck by  dangerous machinery.

• Child Labor: While states address labor shortages by making child labor easier, NIOSH protects young workers. Wage and Hour Division at the Labor Department determines what dangerous jobs young workers are forbidden from doing, and the research into those jobs comes from NIOSH. The National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety (NCCRAHS) – tracks and reduce injuries among child workers on farms, and Youth@Work – developed a foundational curriculum for teaching young workers about job safety and health.
• Educational Resource Centers: NIOSH funds 18 Education and Research Centers (ERCs) provide post-graduate training and research in occupational safety and health disciplines. ERC faculty and trainees conduct research to advance occupational safety health. ERCs serve as resources for our nation’s workforce through continuing education and outreach in their region.

(...)" (Barab 01.04.2025).

Weitere Informationen:

Anker:

• CodeBlue 129: Risikomanagement wegen Zerschlagung (RiZe) des National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), siehe URL: https://www.sai-lab.de/index.php/de/projekte/25-sdg-08-codeblue/3066