What does NIOSH stand for?

NIOSH stands for National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Created from the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, NIOSH is a federal agency that is part of the CDC (The Center for Disease Control and Prevention) and focuses much of its efforts towards the prevention of occupational related hazards and illness for all working men and women.

Some of NIOSH 's responsibilities include:

• Designing and developing different recommended "criteria" for exposure standards based on chemical and or toxicological controls.
• Evaluating and certifying respiratory protection safety equipment and other protective equipment.
  
• Researching and providing scientific data to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA ).
• Investigating supposed hazardous working conditions, based on employee or employer requests.
  
• Providing training, recommendations and standards to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA ) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
  
• Publishing criteria based documents based on scientific research and analysis.
• Helping and assuring the safety of working conditions for all people by providing "research, information, education, and training in the field of occupational safety and health."

For more information on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health please visit. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh /