Job Health Agency Caught in Tug of War
A key agency charged with protecting the on-the-job health of 120 million Americans moved to the nation’s capital last year to bring new attention to workplace hazards.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health got more attention than it bargained for: It’s now on the congressional chopping block, accused of wasting taxpayer dollars.
“We could lose the only federal agency mandated to conduct research and training in this field,” said NIOSH Director Dr. Linda Rosenstock. “I have grave concerns about what that would do to worker health in this country.”
Every day, 17 Americans die from injuries incurred on the job and another 137 die from job-related illnesses. NIOSH is the sole agency whose doctors do research on preventing worker health problems.
Doctors, industry and the Clinton Administration are banding together to save NIOSH.
The controversy started when John Liu, a policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, declared NIOSH a carbon copy of OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Liu now concedes that was an error. Now Liu argues that other agencies should shoulder NIOSH’s work. The National Institutes of Health could add occupational diseases to its roster, while the Justice Department is a logical researcher of workplace homicide, he said.
Based on the Heritage Foundation’s arguments, House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-Ohio) last month recommended that NIOSH be eliminated by 2000. His plan would save $339 million over five years.
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