According to multiple officials and laid-off employees, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health laid off nearly all of its remaining staff on Friday, gutting programs ranging from new safety equipment approvals to firefighter health.
Much of the work at NIOSH, an arm of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had already stalled following an initial round of layoffs on April 1 ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
New requests for investigations into firefighter injuries and workplace health hazards had already stopped being accepted. The layoffs also resulted in the cancellation of a CDC plan to assist Texas schools in reducing the spread of measles.
Some NIOSH employees who received layoff notices late Friday worked on the World Trade Center Health Program, miner safety, and firefighter health programs. Following congressional requests, some workers for those programs were asked to return to work for an additional month or two.
Two CDC officials confirmed that nurses and scientists were among those laid off from NIOSH’s World Trade Center Health Program. Staff responsible for enrollment, member services, and other administrative tasks were also reduced.
Workers received layoff notices on Friday that were nearly identical to those received in the first round of Kennedy’s cuts, stating 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 went into effect: workers were placed on leave until their official separation from service on July 2, rather than in June.
The layoffs also halted operations at the agency’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory. This NIOSH division was the government agency in charge of testing safety equipment such as N95 masks and breathing devices used by emergency workers.
According to one laid-off official, the laboratory’s respirator approval program was currently processing approximately 100 applications for personal protective equipment.
Work is stalled due to changes required to meet new standards issued by the National Fire Protection Association this year. No equipment is currently certified to meet those standards, and the agency has not been able to refund manufacturers’ application fees.
The layoffs also halted efforts to detect and warn of counterfeit personal protective equipment, according to officials.
“Millions of workers in various industries, including healthcare, construction, and emergency services, rely on NIOSH-approved respirators. Without these approvals, their safety is jeopardized, potentially leading to illness, injury, or even death,” laid-off employees stated in a letter shared with CBS News.
It is unclear what will happen to the agency’s work now that the majority of its teams have been disbanded. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.