Photo of overheated worker in yellow vest by Coffeekai, courtesy iStockphoto
“If the federal government backs completely out of helping our miners and industry with some of these monumental problems, we’re going to see a rise in fatalities, injuries and illnesses.”
— Anthony Iannacchione
Engineered stone countertops, with their smooth surfaces and glistening bits of quartz and other rock, have grown in favor with homeowners in the past decade because of their good looks and lower cost.
But as the popularity of the countertops surged, so did health problems in workers, some of whom toiled in cramped spaces with poor ventilation and inadequate protective equipment. More than 200 cases of cases of silicosis have been reported among countertop workers in California alone, resulting in lung transplants and deaths.
As researchers, workers and journalists drew attention to the growing problem in recent years, safety officials — including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration — issued new alerts and standards on exposure, safety practices and medical screenings designed to protect countertop workers. Awareness of the risks and crackdowns on employers that follow unsafe practices have been rising.
But the ability of such agencies to identify problems that threaten worker health and quickly take action is increasingly in jeopardy under current federal leadership. In April, the Trump administration fired almost all of NIOSH’s staff, including the agency’s director, leaving gaping holes in its work on mining protections, firefighter health, respirator safety and more.
“It’s really an enormous threat to worker health, safety and well-being,” Glorian Sorensen, PhD, MD, a research professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told The Nation’s Health.
Cadets wear respirators while participating in a fire training drill at a fire department facility in Houston in May. NIOSH, which tests and approves workplace respirators, including those used by firefighters, has lost almost all of its staff under cuts levied this year by the Trump administration. NIOSH also operates a national cancer registry for firefighters.
Photo by Brett Coomer, courtesy Houston Chronicle/Getty Images
Founded in 1971, NIOSH, along with its partner federal agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, has been instrumental in helping to reduce injuries, illnesses and deaths on the job. NIOSH, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducts research on worker hazards and equipment and releases recommendations, while OSHA is responsible for setting and enforcing regulations.
Before the current presidential administration took office, NIOSH had eight offices across the country, with work ranging from research on farm tractor rollovers to a pocket guide on chemical hazards.
Among its other work was investigating occupational chemical exposures for firefighters, who have higher risks for some types of cancers. In April, registration for NIOSH’s National Firefighter Registry for Cancer went offline. While the administration has walked back some cuts, labor groups report funding for research on firefighter safety has slowed.
In 1970, prior to the launch of NIOSH and OSHA, nearly 40 deaths happened at work every day, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. By 2023, on-the-job daily deaths fell to 15. In 1972, nearly 11 of 100 employees lost workdays because of injury or illness, dropping to 2.4 employees 50 years later.
Together, NIOSH and OSHA conduct research and set standards that help keep U.S. workers safe on the job. But that work is threatened by recent cuts.
Photo by Andresr, courtesy iStockphoto
“NIOSH was providing the glue and oversight for a large amount of programs going on in every state,” Gregory Wagner, MD, a former NIOSH senior advisor, told The Nation’s Health.
Among the most dangerous occupations in the U.S. are construction, fishing, agriculture, firefighting, hazardous material disposal and mining.
Scientists at NIOSH centers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Spokane, Washington, spent 15 years developing a personal dust monitor that miners now wear to gauge dust exposure in real time, a game changer in miner health. Miners can change their work environment if the monitor detects overexposure.
“Industry is not going to be able to devote years to that kind of work,” Anthony Iannacchione, PhD, a former deputy director at NIOSH’s Mining Research Division in Pittsburgh, told The Nation’s Health. “That is the type of mining research that only the federal government can do.”
Mining employs a broad workforce that includes underground and open pit workers excavating all kinds of stone and metals. About 500,000 people work in the U.S. mining sector.
Retired coal miner Emory "Curly" Carter, who has black lung disease, holds his miner’s cap in April in West Virginia. The axing of NIOSH staff by the Trump administration has U.S. miners worried who will monitor and protect their health.
Photo by Ricky Carioti, courtesy The Washington Post/Getty Images)
The 45,000 underground coal miners in the U.S. face an array of challenges every day. Workers are at risk of hearing loss from loud machinery and silicosis and black lung disease from breathing dust. The illnesses can leave miners gasping for breath after carrying groceries from the supermarket to their car.
As the Trump administration dismantles NIOSH, sister agencies OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which leads research in black lung, are also in the crosshairs. The federal government has closed 11 OSHA offices and over 30 MSHA offices.
Though some NIOSH mining staff have been reinstated, the abrupt firings have left a knowledge gap at a critical time, Iannacchione said. Black lung cases had been declining for decades thanks to work from NIOSH and MSHA. But recently there has been an uptick of cases as miners dig deeper into bedrock for remaining coal seams.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has paused a Biden-era final rule that would impose stronger silica standards to improve worker safety. The rule would prevent thousands of silica-related illnesses and deaths among mine workers, according to the Department of Labor.
“You really need to have research going on looking at these new developments and trying to come up with mitigation strategies to lessen their impact,” Iannacchione said. “If the federal government backs completely out of helping our miners and industry with some of these monumental problems, we’re going to see a rise in fatalities, injuries and illnesses.”
Another increasing danger is extreme heat, which is taking a toll on laborers in agriculture, construction, warehouse work and more. Dozens of workers die and thousands become sick each year from heat-related causes.
NIOSH recognized the growing number of workers exposed to extreme heat and offered guidance and best practices for employers. In 2016, NIOSH published criteria for a recommended standard for occupational heat stress.
Last year, OSHA proposed a long-awaited federal heat standard rule that would require heat injury and illness prevention plans, and institute measures such as shade, water and paid breaks. But President Trump stalled the rule upon taking office in January. With NIOSH now devastated, public health experts are afraid research on the rising problem of workplace heat will not happen.
“NIOSH had really been doing an enormous amount of work of trying to think about the implications of climate change, of heat exposure, of how to prepare workers for this, how to work with employers around mitigating some of these factors,” Sorensen told The Nation’s Health. “This is another huge piece of what is going to be missing.”
As the federal government pulls back, states and health departments may take a larger role in protecting worker safety, experts say. Seven states have standards to protect workers from extreme heat, and other states are considering creating their own worker heat standards. In addition, mining states have many laws in the books supporting miner health and safety.
Minnesota and California are state leaders in passing effective laws and regulations governing occupational health.
In addition, labor unions may have some leverage to uplift worker health and safety, Wagner said. Unions have a vested interest in a healthy workforce, as shown in a lawsuit filed by 13 unions against the Trump administration cuts.
Still, state governments, local health departments and labor unions do not have the tremendous resources of NIOSH or OSHA. And even if lawsuits are won and more NIOSH staff are rehired in coming months, restarting the agency’s work will not be simple, he said.
“It’s really easy to break things,” Wagner said. “It’s really hard to reconstitute them.”
For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/niosh and www.osha.gov.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
