NIOSH personnel on April 1 told one of the occupational safety and health associations that all agency staff, including NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard, received reduction-in-force emails at 5 a.m. this morning. Only two functions within the agency will remain — the World Trade Center Health Program and the Division of Compensation Analysis and Support, according to NIOSH sources.

Approximately 873 staff from a total of more than 1,300 employees are expected to be cut from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), multiple leaders within the agency were told in recent days, according to CBS News.

A NIOSH staffer requesting anonymity told the OHS association, “NIOSH is essentially being eliminated.”

An OHS association executive told ISHN, “It’s horrific.”

The shockingly abrupt and impersonal notification ends Dr. Howard’s 22-year tenure as NIOSH director, dating back to July 2002. He was re-appointed to a fourth six-year term in 2021. He has also served as director of the NIOSH-administered World Trade Center Health Program since the program’s launch in 2011. The program provides medical monitoring and treatment for WTC-related conditions to those directly affected by the September 11th attacks in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

It's unknown at press time if Dr. Howard will continue as director of the program.

Before coming to NIOSH, Dr. Howard was chief of Cal/OSHA from 1991 to 2002. 

Dr. Howard has one of the most impressive resumes in the occupational safety and health field. He received his Doctor of Medicine from Loyola University of Chicago, his Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, his Doctor of Law from the University of California at Los Angeles, and his Master of Law in Administrative Law and his Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.