Changes at CDC not likely to affect lab

WASHINGTON – Controversial changes in the federal Centers for Disease Control agencies are not expected to affect a Spokane lab that researches mining safety, the lab’s director said.

The CDC is restructuring its agencies in ways that former directors of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say will undermine the institute’s independence.

However, John R.M. Hill, director of the NIOSH mining safety lab in Spokane, said its daily operations are unlikely to change.

“We’re a long way removed from the policy changes,” he said. “I can’t imagine us being affected.”

However, some, including four former NIOSH directors, say that moving the agency further into the CDC bureaucracy will make it more susceptible to political influence over scientific findings.

“To downgrade NIOSH and blur its mission by combining key functions with other CDC programs will erode its independence and visibility and weaken the scientific contribution that has long benefited American workers and employers,” read a letter signed by every former NIOSH director still living and sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. Dr. John Howard, the current director, supports the changes.

Established in 1970 by the same act that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, NIOSH oversees five laboratories throughout the nation that research workplace safety.

While OSHA was charged with enforcing often controversial federal workplace regulations, NIOSH remained a politically neutral vehicle for independent research into workplace safety concerns. Labs such as the one in Spokane report their findings to OSHA, which can use them to draft safety rules.

That neutrality may be called into question by some in Washington, D.C., after NIOSH and several other agencies come under the supervision of an intermediary agency Oct. 1. The director of NIOSH will no longer report directly to the director of the CDC, a relationship that once gave it more political autonomy within the agency.

“At the national level, this is a big concern,” said Mike Spahn, a spokesman for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

He cited Murray’s use of NIOSH research on the dangers of asbestos in legislation that could eventually ban the material’s use. Murray is on Senate committees that shape the budget for the CDC, and therefore retains some oversight regarding the agency.

Also on the committee is Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who told the Washington Post that he plans to hold a hearing on the CDC changes before October. Murray’s spokesman said she supports the hearing and intends to “question the reasoning behind the proposed change.”

The CDC maintains that the overhaul will benefit NIOSH.

“The left hand and the right hand often don’t coordinate,” said Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the CDC. He said that under the new agency, NIOSH will be able to tap into expertise from other groups in the Coordinating Center for Environmental Health, Injury Prevention and Occupational Health.

NIOSH will become part of the coordinating center in September.

Skinner said that under the new agency the NIOSH director will still have access to the director of the CDC and may even receive more funding.

Howard will be visiting the Spokane lab in September.

Projects there include using lasers to identify unstable rock in mines from several feet away and a new series of safety videos for miners that has been distributed internationally.