'A gut punch': Trump administration reductions eliminate firefighter health and safety programs
Individuals both within and outside the government have expressed to PMG their concerns that the cuts will result in significant setbacks in comprehending the health risks associated with firefighting.
TroibNews 
A federal health team comprised of 10 members was assisting Iowa firefighters in managing their exposure to fumes from idling vehicles when news surfaced earlier this month that nearly all team members had been terminated.
The Cincinnati team of scientists arrived in Iowa last August after three fire stations sought assistance out of concern for their workers’ exposure to diesel exhaust. They were scheduled for a follow-up visit this summer to assess pollutant levels in various rooms — such as eating and sleeping areas for firefighters — and to recommend optimal ventilation methods.
“That's all been put on pause,” remarked Hannah Echt, a team member and a union representative at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). “We haven't been able to travel since the end of January, and now … there's no one to do the traveling.”
The cuts are part of the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan, which has led to a reduction of over 10,000 employees in NIOSH’s Health Hazard Evaluation program — a vital resource for ensuring the health and safety of firefighters and other workers.
Firefighters face frequent exposure to toxic substances and chemicals that jeopardize both their physical and mental health, with these issues exacerbated by stress and irregular sleep patterns. Research by NIOSH indicates that firefighters have a 9 percent higher likelihood of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14 percent higher chance of dying from cancer compared to the general population.
With years of collaborative work aimed at improving firefighters’ health outcomes, there is growing concern among government officials and advocates that these cuts will result in serious setbacks. Insights shared by several current and former NIOSH employees, alongside active and retired firefighters and lawmakers, reveal numerous instances where data collection, safety assessments, and essential support services for firefighters have ceased due to job losses.
Staffers of the Center for Firefighter Safety, Health and Well-being — which oversees the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, examining the factors contributing to firefighter illnesses and fatalities — were laid off. Additionally, the cuts have hindered services for the hundreds of thousands exposed to toxins on 9/11, including many firefighters, due to reductions in NIOSH’s World Trade Center Health Program, which investigates and addresses cancer and other health issues linked to the attack.
Furthermore, the majority of those maintaining the CDC’s National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, authorized by former President Donald Trump in 2018, were also let go.
Kenny Schroeder, a firefighter who was hired by the CDC to assist with recruiting for the cancer database, expressed his dismay at the cuts, calling them “really a gut punch.”
“It was the Trump administration that put the registry in place,” said Schroeder, who received his termination notice in February as a probationary employee. “It’s very disheartening. The government is supposed to assist us all — they're there in place to do work for us as the people of this country.”
Polling data indicates that firefighters and other first responders largely supported Trump’s re-election, with the president frequently acknowledging their essential contributions.
An HHS representative did not respond to a request for comments regarding the layoffs.
NIOSH’s Health Hazard Evaluation program has operated for decades as a free consulting service for various workplaces facing health and safety risks, allowing workers to make anonymous requests for support.
The recent reductions have disrupted numerous investigations concerning firefighters and workers in other sectors — from mining to cannabis processing to academia — and have stalled the initiation of new projects. An email dated April 22, obtained by PMG, informed a New Mexico university that, due to staffing cuts, the NIOSH team was “not able to continue our health hazard evaluation” and was also “not accepting any new requests.”
“Basically, we're being told to close up shop,” Echt explained. “We’ll close out what evaluations we can, and then we'll be issuing letters to requesters explaining about the reduction in force.”
Another NIOSH researcher, who requested anonymity to avoid repercussions, said their team was investigating methods to eliminate contaminants from firefighting gear after fires had been extinguished when they received their termination notices. Their research included examining PFAS — often referred to as forever chemicals — in firefighting equipment, as well as studying its degradation and certifying service providers responsible for laundering such gear.
“All of that research is basically halted,” the individual stated. “We also had a nationwide exposure assessment study, and the analysis was actually complete, the data is sitting there.”
Research focused on firefighters’ exposure to carcinogens during electric vehicle fires and the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, which looked into on-duty deaths, has also been suspended.
"I don't feel like there was a thoughtful, intelligent process going into this," commented John Goodman, president of IAFF Local 29, a firefighters’ union in Spokane, Washington. “They're just cutting big budget items … without even looking into what it is. I think that even the people that voted for [Trump] are feeling that way.”
The International Association of Firefighters, which endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020 and 2024 but withheld endorsement for either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, declined to comment on PMG's findings related to the Trump administration's inaction concerning the cuts to NIOSH programs for firefighters. The union referred PMG to an April 3 statement from general president Edward Kelly characterizing the eliminated programs as "vital investments" that “help prevent future tragedies” and expressed intentions to “continue working with the President” to restore them.
Several Democratic lawmakers, local firefighter unions, and other organizations are urging the Trump administration to reverse the cuts, arguing they significantly amplify risks in an already perilous profession without yielding substantial savings.
Michael Barasch, a leading attorney for survivors of 9/11 and a cancer survivor himself, is leading a coalition of unions and patient advocates to Washington on April 29. Their aim is to advocate for reinstated personnel in the World Trade Center Health Program who were laid off.
Due to chronic underfunding and staffing shortages, appointment wait times had already reached four months, and Barasch noted this has now escalated following the layoffs.
“I’m afraid of what we're going to see with all these delayed mammograms, prostate exams, whole-body skin exams, and every blood cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, and brain cancer case that's going to go undiagnosed for months unnecessarily,” he expressed. “I just can't believe that Mr. Trump, who signed the permanent extension of the [September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act] in 2019, would allow this to happen if he had any idea how these cuts have affected the health program that's taking care of so many people who voted for him.”
Firefighters have celebrated the signing of the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act in 2018, which mandated the CDC to establish a database containing firefighter health data, facilitating federal tracking of the industry’s higher cancer rates.
As tens of thousands of firefighters have since submitted health data to this database, NIOSH scientists hoped to glean insights about effective practices and protective gear. However, with most team members responsible for managing this unique database now terminated and the data inaccessible, there are uncertainties about the continuity of this crucial research.
“This is going to set the science back years and years,” remarked Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3840, who previously worked on firefighter health research at NIOSH. “The research that needs to get done to keep firefighters safe and to know how to keep them safe isn't going to get done.”
A handful of Republican lawmakers have voiced concerns regarding the layoffs. For instance, Senator Shelley Moore Capito sent a letter to Kennedy urging the reinstatement of terminated NIOSH employees researching coal-mining safety, though she did not address the cuts impacting firefighter programs.
More than 100 Democratic House members reached out to the administration earlier this month demanding a reversal of NIOSH cuts, but no Republicans signed the letter, and HHS has yet to provide a response.
“Mine workers, steel workers and firefighters have reached out to my office and they want to know: Why is the Trump administration undermining the people who are keeping them safe?” queried Representative Greg Landsman, whose district houses NIOSH’s Cincinnati office. “RFK himself said that they made a mistake, that they went too far, so they need to own their mistakes, reverse these decisions and put these people back to work.”
Landsman expressed a desire for a hearing on the cuts in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and has requested that the Republican chair compel Kennedy to testify.
“The sooner, the better,” he said. “Time is of the essence when it comes to people's jobs and worker safety and the health of this country — it is all on the line.”
Ramin Sohrabi for TROIB News
The Cincinnati team of scientists arrived in Iowa last August after three fire stations sought assistance out of concern for their workers’ exposure to diesel exhaust. They were scheduled for a follow-up visit this summer to assess pollutant levels in various rooms — such as eating and sleeping areas for firefighters — and to recommend optimal ventilation methods.
“That's all been put on pause,” remarked Hannah Echt, a team member and a union representative at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). “We haven't been able to travel since the end of January, and now … there's no one to do the traveling.”
The cuts are part of the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan, which has led to a reduction of over 10,000 employees in NIOSH’s Health Hazard Evaluation program — a vital resource for ensuring the health and safety of firefighters and other workers.
Firefighters face frequent exposure to toxic substances and chemicals that jeopardize both their physical and mental health, with these issues exacerbated by stress and irregular sleep patterns. Research by NIOSH indicates that firefighters have a 9 percent higher likelihood of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14 percent higher chance of dying from cancer compared to the general population.
With years of collaborative work aimed at improving firefighters’ health outcomes, there is growing concern among government officials and advocates that these cuts will result in serious setbacks. Insights shared by several current and former NIOSH employees, alongside active and retired firefighters and lawmakers, reveal numerous instances where data collection, safety assessments, and essential support services for firefighters have ceased due to job losses.
Staffers of the Center for Firefighter Safety, Health and Well-being — which oversees the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, examining the factors contributing to firefighter illnesses and fatalities — were laid off. Additionally, the cuts have hindered services for the hundreds of thousands exposed to toxins on 9/11, including many firefighters, due to reductions in NIOSH’s World Trade Center Health Program, which investigates and addresses cancer and other health issues linked to the attack.
Furthermore, the majority of those maintaining the CDC’s National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, authorized by former President Donald Trump in 2018, were also let go.
Kenny Schroeder, a firefighter who was hired by the CDC to assist with recruiting for the cancer database, expressed his dismay at the cuts, calling them “really a gut punch.”
“It was the Trump administration that put the registry in place,” said Schroeder, who received his termination notice in February as a probationary employee. “It’s very disheartening. The government is supposed to assist us all — they're there in place to do work for us as the people of this country.”
Polling data indicates that firefighters and other first responders largely supported Trump’s re-election, with the president frequently acknowledging their essential contributions.
An HHS representative did not respond to a request for comments regarding the layoffs.
NIOSH’s Health Hazard Evaluation program has operated for decades as a free consulting service for various workplaces facing health and safety risks, allowing workers to make anonymous requests for support.
The recent reductions have disrupted numerous investigations concerning firefighters and workers in other sectors — from mining to cannabis processing to academia — and have stalled the initiation of new projects. An email dated April 22, obtained by PMG, informed a New Mexico university that, due to staffing cuts, the NIOSH team was “not able to continue our health hazard evaluation” and was also “not accepting any new requests.”
“Basically, we're being told to close up shop,” Echt explained. “We’ll close out what evaluations we can, and then we'll be issuing letters to requesters explaining about the reduction in force.”
Another NIOSH researcher, who requested anonymity to avoid repercussions, said their team was investigating methods to eliminate contaminants from firefighting gear after fires had been extinguished when they received their termination notices. Their research included examining PFAS — often referred to as forever chemicals — in firefighting equipment, as well as studying its degradation and certifying service providers responsible for laundering such gear.
“All of that research is basically halted,” the individual stated. “We also had a nationwide exposure assessment study, and the analysis was actually complete, the data is sitting there.”
Research focused on firefighters’ exposure to carcinogens during electric vehicle fires and the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, which looked into on-duty deaths, has also been suspended.
"I don't feel like there was a thoughtful, intelligent process going into this," commented John Goodman, president of IAFF Local 29, a firefighters’ union in Spokane, Washington. “They're just cutting big budget items … without even looking into what it is. I think that even the people that voted for [Trump] are feeling that way.”
The International Association of Firefighters, which endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020 and 2024 but withheld endorsement for either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, declined to comment on PMG's findings related to the Trump administration's inaction concerning the cuts to NIOSH programs for firefighters. The union referred PMG to an April 3 statement from general president Edward Kelly characterizing the eliminated programs as "vital investments" that “help prevent future tragedies” and expressed intentions to “continue working with the President” to restore them.
Several Democratic lawmakers, local firefighter unions, and other organizations are urging the Trump administration to reverse the cuts, arguing they significantly amplify risks in an already perilous profession without yielding substantial savings.
Michael Barasch, a leading attorney for survivors of 9/11 and a cancer survivor himself, is leading a coalition of unions and patient advocates to Washington on April 29. Their aim is to advocate for reinstated personnel in the World Trade Center Health Program who were laid off.
Due to chronic underfunding and staffing shortages, appointment wait times had already reached four months, and Barasch noted this has now escalated following the layoffs.
“I’m afraid of what we're going to see with all these delayed mammograms, prostate exams, whole-body skin exams, and every blood cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, and brain cancer case that's going to go undiagnosed for months unnecessarily,” he expressed. “I just can't believe that Mr. Trump, who signed the permanent extension of the [September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act] in 2019, would allow this to happen if he had any idea how these cuts have affected the health program that's taking care of so many people who voted for him.”
Firefighters have celebrated the signing of the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act in 2018, which mandated the CDC to establish a database containing firefighter health data, facilitating federal tracking of the industry’s higher cancer rates.
As tens of thousands of firefighters have since submitted health data to this database, NIOSH scientists hoped to glean insights about effective practices and protective gear. However, with most team members responsible for managing this unique database now terminated and the data inaccessible, there are uncertainties about the continuity of this crucial research.
“This is going to set the science back years and years,” remarked Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3840, who previously worked on firefighter health research at NIOSH. “The research that needs to get done to keep firefighters safe and to know how to keep them safe isn't going to get done.”
A handful of Republican lawmakers have voiced concerns regarding the layoffs. For instance, Senator Shelley Moore Capito sent a letter to Kennedy urging the reinstatement of terminated NIOSH employees researching coal-mining safety, though she did not address the cuts impacting firefighter programs.
More than 100 Democratic House members reached out to the administration earlier this month demanding a reversal of NIOSH cuts, but no Republicans signed the letter, and HHS has yet to provide a response.
“Mine workers, steel workers and firefighters have reached out to my office and they want to know: Why is the Trump administration undermining the people who are keeping them safe?” queried Representative Greg Landsman, whose district houses NIOSH’s Cincinnati office. “RFK himself said that they made a mistake, that they went too far, so they need to own their mistakes, reverse these decisions and put these people back to work.”
Landsman expressed a desire for a hearing on the cuts in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and has requested that the Republican chair compel Kennedy to testify.
“The sooner, the better,” he said. “Time is of the essence when it comes to people's jobs and worker safety and the health of this country — it is all on the line.”
Ramin Sohrabi for TROIB News
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