Title: APHA and Section News
Author:
Section/SPIG: Occupational Health and Safety
Issue Date:
Letter to Tommy Thompson, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services
July 16, 2004
Re: NIOSH in the Reorganization of CDC
Dear Secretary Thompson,
We would like to add our voices to the many in the public health community who have expressed concern over the impact of the planned CDC reorganization on NIOSH.
When NIOSH was established by the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, it was created as a separate institute, reporting directly to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. It was intended to have the visibility, status, funding and independence to conduct occupational safety and health research, evaluate workplace exposures, train a cadre of safety and health professionals, and make recommendations directly to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), both headed by Assistant Secretaries. These are very different functions from the rest of CDC and are best administered under a separate organizational structure.
Since President Ford placed NIOSH in CDC, worker health and safety seems to have played a minor role in CDC. CDC’s current vision focuses on providing health information to individuals to assist them in changing their own behavior, not on changing the environment in which individuals live and work. Yet NIOSH has the responsibility under the OSHA law for assuring “so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions.” (our emphasis).
We believe that this proposed reorganization would diminish the national focus on occupational safety and health. It would accelerate the recent trend to reduce the autonomy of NIOSH, shrink NIOSH visibility, and divert its funds to cover general CDC administrative expenses. This is particularly troublesome given the serious erosion of worker safety and health protection under the Bush Administration through repeal of the ergonomics standard, and withdrawal of standards to prevent TB in the workplace and exposure to glycol ethers.
Please listen to the many occupational safety and health professional associations, boards, unions and individuals who have spoken out in support of NIOSH retaining its identity as a separate agency within CDC.
Sincerely,
(Signed by 98 members of the Occupational Public Health Community)
cc: Julie L. Gerberding, MD
John Howard, MD
House Appropriations Subcommittee
Ralph Regula
C. W. Bill Young
David R. Obey
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee
Arlen Specter
Larry Craig
Ted Stevens
Tom Harkin
Patty Murray
Address Correspondence to:
Mary E. Miller, MN, RN
Department of Labor and Industries
P.O. Box 44510
Olympia, WA 98504-4510
(360) 902-6041 or e-mail: <mmar235@Lni.wa.gov>