DOGE Layoffs Hit MIOSH Lab Researchers

 

Workers Fired From Spokane MIOSH Safety Lab

  • DOGE Services layoffs from the Spokane (Washington) Mining Research Division at the CDC’s NIOSH research laboratory have eliminated at least three researcher jobs.
  • The Spokane Mining Research Division researches health issues from working in mines, including dust, noise, gases and ergonomics, according to its webpage.
  • It is one of two NIOSH mining research facilities; the other is in Pittsburgh.
  • The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a hearing Feb. 6 on the importance of domestic mining for national security. Mining industry experts and executives highlighted the need to ramp up mining production because the U.S. relies on adversarial countries like China for critical minerals.
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NY Construction Site Deaths Reach Decade High

  • Seventy-four construction workers died in New York state in 2023, the most recently available data, according to a New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health report released last week,
  • In New York City, 30 construction workers died in 2023, meaning that both the city and the state saw the highest raw number of deaths in the last decade, NYCOSH found.
  • The annual NYCOSH report uses OSHA, Bureau of Labor Statistics and NYC Department of Buildings data to inform the annual report and offer recommendations on how to better protect construction workers.
  • NYCOSH indicated that on jobsites where workers died, “employers had coinciding OSHA violations 74% of the time.”
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Saskatchewan Workplace Injury Rates Fall to New Low

  • Saskatchewan’s workplace injury and death rates both dropped in 2024, setting a new historical low for the province, dropping for the second consecutive year.
  • According to data from the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board, the province’s workplace injury rate of 3.91 per 100 workers in 2024 set a new historical low for the province, dropping for the second consecutive year.
  • The 2024 injury rate represents a 1.01 per cent decrease over the 2023 rate of 3.95 injuries per 100 workers.
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