National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health NIOSH

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is a federal agency within the United States which makes recommendations and conducts research to ensure worker safety, to eliminate injury, and to reduce illness in the workplace.

The goal of the NIOSH is to provide practical solutions to businesses for the more than 155 million workers in the U.S. The goal is to eliminate all work-related fatalities, injuries, and illnesses in the United States, injuries which cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars each year in loss of productivity and medical expenses. To accomplish this goal the NIOSH is given federal investment money for research to improve the health and safety of all workers.

Mission of Niosh

NIOSH works to create and implement practical solutions. They focus much of their attention in work environments which have traditionally been the most dangerous including agriculture, construction, and mining. But their attention has also shifted to address, prevent, and predict new issues that could arise in the current workplace. According to NIOSH, they "partner with diverse stakeholders to study how worker injuries, illnesses, and deaths occur."

When did the NIOSH begin?

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 established the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which currently has over 1,200 employees. Each employee comes from a diverse background and brings a wide array of skills to their job including epidemiology, medicine, nursing, industrial hygiene, safety, psychology, chemistry, statistics, economics, and many branches of engineering.

The NIOSH has partnered with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) department for many years to help ensure workers have safe and healthy working conditions. They currently have headquarters in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia.