April 1 was Pearl Harbor Day for NIOSH, with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effectively eliminating the institute by dismissing 90 percent of its staff. That reportedly included at least 900 employees.  

The layoffs put a halt to work at NIOSH’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL), which oversees the Respirator Approval Program. The NPPTL was in the middle of processing around 100 applications for respirators, one laid-off official told CBS News.

Ongoing vetting, approving, certifying and conducting investigations to ensure the safety of lifesaving respiratory protection equipment used in throughout industry, in confined spaces, firefighting, mines, ships, and emergency response among many applications has abruptly stopped with the termination of 90 percent of NIOSH’s workforce, Rich Metzler, former director of the institute’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh, told CNN.

“Nothing is happening… to make sure that (respirators) continue to be safe for their intended use, that they continue to perform,” said Metzler.

NIOSH approval is the global gold standard for respirators, according to the Industrial Safety Equipment Association (ISEA). The NPPTL is the federal government’s “trusted source of respiratory protection insight, information and research, states ISEA on its website.

From 2021 through 2023, the lab achieved 1,776 respirator approval decisions. ISEA estimates there are 49 million respirator users, with firefighters a significant cohort.

In May, intense lobbying efforts by a coalition of 460 industry, labor, professional, education and scientific organizations; a coalition of 28 labor unions; combined with campaigns by the American Industrial Hygiene Association, the American Society of Safety Professionals, and ISEA led to a partial restoration of NIOSH staffing and funding.

“I don’t think the administration realized how many friends the Respirator Approval Program had,” says Dan Glucksman, ISEA’s senior director of policy.

The Department of Health and Human Services responded by reinstating 328 employees. Work at the NPPTL, which conducts respirator and protective garment research, recommendations and guidance in addition to testing and approving respirators, was reduced to solely operating the respirator approval program, according to sources.

For the six weeks between April 1 and mid-May, when NIOSH was essentially out of business, no work was done in the respirator approval program, according to sources and as stated by Metzler. Then there was a period when the NPPTL only reviewed respirator approval applications but couldn’t do testing. “Now it’s limited from its heyday, but all kinds of certifications are being done, from N95 masks to self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs),” says one source.

“I would say respirator manufacturers are watching the situation closely.  They are pleased respirators are being approved,” says Glucksman. “There are no delays in getting products to market. But getting funding, robust funding, to work on respirator approval applications in a timely manner is still a question for the next fiscal year. People are holding their breath for adequate funding next year.”

AIHA Chief Executive Officer Larry Sloan says lobbying efforts in the House of Representatives and Senate appear to be successful to ensure the approval program remains funded in fiscal year 2026. Glucksman says ISEA and the respirator manufacturer community would “gladly accept flat funding that keeps NOISH’s budget at its FY25 level.”

That money could complete the process of upgrading NIOSH’s technology platform for modernizing application, testing and certification functions, streamlining and accelerating the application process and reducing bottlenecks and drains on staff time. “We are not sure why this project hasn’t been completed yet.,” says Gluckman.  “We will be contacting CDC’s new director, Jim O’Neill, to make this one of his priorities.”