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Any plan to restructure the Department of Health and Human Services should ensure continued certification of respiratory protective devices, the NAM and more than 40 other business organizations told HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday. 
 
What’s going on: In March, following a February executive order by President Trump, HHS announced an overhaul of the agency’s divisions, including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and its National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory.  

• This week, the NAM and allied groups urged Kennedy to safeguard the functions of NIOSH and NPPTL in the “prevention of work-related injury and illness.” 
• “NIOSH tests and certifies respiratory protective devices at the NPPTL,” the organizations told Kennedy. “Through the Respirator Approval Program, respiratory protective devices are examined, inspected, tested and certified for use in occupational settings.” 

Why it’s important: The certification of these devices is key to the health and safety of American workers and continued U.S. competitiveness, they added. 

• “Manufacturers benefit from NPPTL expertise and certification as they work to provide workers with trusted protection—for example, supplied air respirators are used to protect workers involved in the manufacture of automobiles and other industries, and emergency first responders depend on devices such as self-contained breathing apparatuses for their own safety and to provide critical services,” they said. 
• In addition, the certification stops “unscrupulous actors from flooding the market with counterfeit PPE.”  

What should be done: HHS should “fully consider potential impacts to manufacturers and workers in America before finalizing any reductions in force at NPPTL,” the groups concluded.  

• “Together we can ensure the continued competitiveness of manufacturing in America and the protection of American workers.”