National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

NIOSH logo

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (or NIOSH) is the United States’ federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness. NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

NIOSH is headquartered in Washington, DC, with research laboratories and offices in Cincinnati, Ohio; Morgantown, West Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Denver, Colorado; Anchorage, Alaska; Spokane, Washington; and Atlanta, Georgia.^[1] NIOSH is a professionally diverse organization with a staff of over 1,400 people representing a wide range of disciplines, including epidemiology, medicine, industrial hygiene, safety, psychology, engineering, chemistry, and statistics. The director of NIOSH is John Howard.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act, signed by President Richard M. Nixon, on December 29, 1970, created both NIOSH and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). NIOSH was established to help ensure safe and healthful working conditions by providing research, information, education, and training in the field of occupational safety and health. NIOSH provides national and world leadership to prevent work-related illness, injury, disability, and death by gathering information, conducting scientific research, and translating the knowledge gained into products and services.^[2]

Strategic goals

NIOSH abides by a strategic plan for meeting institutional goals and allocating resources. The Institute has three overarching goals:^[3]

• To conduct research to reduce work-related illnesses and injuries
• To promote safe and healthy workplaces through interventions, recommendations and capacity building
• To enhance global workplace safety and health through international collaborations

The goals are supported by NIOSH's program portfolio. The portfolio categorizes Institute efforts into 8 groups representing industrial sectors. The program portfolio further subdivides efforts into 24 cross sectors.

NIOSH authority

Unlike its counterpart, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, NIOSH is not a regulatory agency. It does not issue safety and health standards that are enforceable under US law. Rather, NIOSH's authority under the Occupational Safety and Health Act [29 CFR § 671] is to "develop recommendations for health and safety standards", to "develop information on safe levels of exposure to toxic materials and harmful physical agents and substances," and to "conduct research on new safety and health problems." NIOSH may also "conduct on-site investigations (Health Hazard Evaluations) to determine the toxicity of materials used in workplaces" and "fund research by other agencies or private organizations through grants, contracts, and other arrangements."^[4] NIOSH was intended to function as an agency at the same level as, and independent from, the Centers for Disease Control. NIOSH was initially placed within the Centers for Disease Control in order to obtain administrative support from the Centers until NIOSH was ready to assume those responsibilities for itself; The Centers, however, never relinquished control and the original intent of the Act never came to pass.

Also, pursuant to its authority granted to it by the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, NIOSH may "develop recommendations for mine health standards for the Mine Safety and Health Administration", "administer a medical surveillance program for miners, including chest X-rays to detect pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) in coal miners", "conduct on-site investigations in mines similar to those authorized for general industry under the Occupational Safety and Health Act; and "test and certify personal protective equipment and hazard-measurement instruments."^[4]

NIOSH publications

Alerts are put out by the agency to request assistance in preventing, solving, and controlling newly identified occupational hazards. They briefly present what is known about the risk for occupational injury, illness, and death.

Criteria Documents contain NIOSH's recommendations for the prevention of occupational diseases and injuries. These documents are submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or the Mine Safety and Health Administration for consideration in their formulation of legally-binding safety and health standards.

Current Intelligence Bulletins analyze new information about occupational health and safety hazards.

The National Agricultural Safety Database is published by NIOSH and contains citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles and reports about agricultural health and safety.

The Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program publishes occupational fatality data. Data is used to publish fatality reports by specific sectors of industry and types of fatal incidents.^[5]

The NIOSH Power Tools Database contains sound power levels, sound pressure levels, and vibrations data for a variety of common power tools that have been tested by NIOSH researchers.

In popular culture

• In the Iris Alternate Reality Game to hype Halo 3, it is called the NIOSH and is referenced alongside the CDC in helping in a "cleanup".

See also

• American Society of Safety Engineers
• Back injury
• Ergonomics
• Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program
• Health Hazard Evaluation Program
• National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System
• NIOSH ERC
• NORA, the National Occupational Research Agenda
• Occupational Safety and Health
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
• Safe-In-Sound Award Excellence in Hearing Loss Prevention Award
• SENSOR-Pesticides

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

• NIOSH
• Global Environmental and Occupational Health e-Library online database of environmental health and occupational health and safety training materials
• NIOSH Power Tools Database online database of sound and vibrations data for various power tools

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