1. United States
2. Kan.
3. Letter

My dad was a firefighter and captain on hot Norfolk Naval Base. My brother is retiring now as a Battalion Chief for the mid Atlantic region as a firefighter. My son-in-law is retired from the Stillwater Oklahoma fire department. Two of those men have fatal illnesses, one is in the final stages of Parkinson’s and the other has progressive supernuclear palsy. My friend Dave was a forest firefighter. He has Parkinson’s. NIOSH protects firefighter health and safety among other important jobs. The study of chemicals and the regulation of sale in work areas can protect hardworking heroes like the ones I mentioned from tragic endings. My nephew is a federal firefighter; I would hope he’d have more protection than generations before him, but Trump’s recent cuts to NIOSH make these jobs more dangerous than ever. According to cbs news, “The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, is expected to lose upwards of 900 employees — the vast majority of its staff — by the end of June as a result of the mass firings carried out by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” Congress is supposed to have the purse strings but you’re watching as our government is dismantled. Stand up for what’s right. Restore appropriations. Fund NIOSH