About NIOSH
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 established NIOSH as a research agency focused on the study of worker safety and health, and empowering employers and workers to create safe and healthy workplaces. NIOSH is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It has the mandate to assure “every man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources.” NIOSH has more than 1,300 employees from a diverse set of fields including epidemiology, medicine, nursing, industrial hygiene, safety, psychology, chemistry, statistics, economics, and many branches of engineering.
Vision
Safer, Healthier Workers
Mission
To develop new knowledge in the field of occupational safety and health and to transfer that knowledge into practice.
Values
NIOSH programs are responsive to the occupational safety and health problems that burden today’s and tomorrow’s workers.
- Quality - NIOSH utilizes only the best science, the highest level of data quality, and the most transparent and independent peer review.
- Partnership - NIOSH accomplishes our mission in partnership with industry, workers, governments, academe, and scientific and professional communities, both nationally and internationally.
- Transparency - NIOSH openly shares information about our work processes and our customers can obtain all NIOSH products and services through traditional, electronic and mobile sources.
- Impact - NIOSH programs are results-oriented and are evaluated by how well they solve the occupational safety and health problems found in today’s workplaces and the workplaces of tomorrow.
- Diversity - NIOSH employees and contractors reflect the full spectrum of diversity found in the American workforce and our research and interventions reflect the diversity of solutions needed for the American workplace.
Mission Goals and Objectives (2016-2020)
Goal 1: Conduct research to reduce worker illness and injury, and to advance worker well-being.
- Track work-related hazards, exposures, illnesses and injuries for prevention.
- Generate new knowledge through intramural and extramural research programs.
- Develop innovative solutions for difficult-to-solve problems in high-risk industrial sectors.
Goal 2: Promote safe and healthy workers through interventions, recommendations and capacity building.
- Enhance the relevance and utility of recommendations and guidance.
- Transfer research findings, technologies and information into practice.
- Build capacity to address traditional and emerging hazards.
Goal 3: Enhance worker safety and health through global collaborations.
- Take a leadership role to share knowledge and best practices.
- Provide workplace illness and injury reduction strategies.
- Build professional capacity to address workplace hazards through information sharing and research experience.
NIOSH also has a strategic plan for fiscal years 2019-2023. To view it, go to NIOSH Strategic Plan.