WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Ohio lawmaker is urging the Trump administration to reverse the firings of nearly 1,500 federal occupational health and safety workers, including more than 400 workers in Cincinnati.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) researches and helps implement best practices to prevent work-related illness, injury, disability and death.

Earlier this month Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced nearly all of the agency’s 1,500 employees would be laid off, effective June 1. The layoffs affect a number of programs, including black lung screening for miners and a lab that certifies respirator masks.

NIOSH was created in 1970 and has since grown to offices and labs in eight cities, including Cincinnati; Pittsburgh and Spokane, Washington.

Three NIOSH divisions are based in Cincinnati:

• The Division of Science Integration (DSI), which creates and distributes recommendations to uphold workplace safety
• The Division of Field Studies and Engineering (DFSE), which gathers data on work-related illness
• The Division of Compensation Analysis and Support (DCAS), which helps workers who develop cancer after being exposed to radiation

All three divisions would be shut down by the layoffs.

“I just think it speaks to, the incompetence, the recklessness in which these firings have been pursued, that they would go after people who are focused entirely on worker safety and health,” said Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio.

Landsman joined more than 100 other House Democrats to sign a letter urging Kennedy and President Donald Trump to reinstate the fired workers.

Unions for miners, nurses, flight attendants and others have also criticized the cuts, saying they will make workplaces more dangerous.

For example, the cuts could affect a national registry of cancer rates in firefighters, as well as a program to compensate firefighters who develop chronic illnesses, including 9/11 first responders.

“This is central to the health and safety of all American firefighters, not just New York City firefighters,” said Andrew Ansbro, president of a union representing firefighters in New York City.

Landsman said he was optimistic that public opposition to the cuts could pressure the Department of Health and Human Services to reinstate some, if not all, of the fired workers.

“When you start getting the mine workers and the steelworkers, the firefighters saying this was a huge mistake, they will pay attention,” Landsman said.

The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The NIOSH job cuts come as part of a larger layoff of about 10,000 workers from the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has said the layoffs were part of Trump’s efforts to cut government spending.