Thousands of Urine and Tissue Samples Are in Danger of Rotting After Staff Cuts at a CDC Laboratory

Cathy Tinney-Zara, a worker at NIOSH’s Pittsburg facility who spoke to WIRED in her capacity as the union representative, says that before they lost their jobs, the researchers at the Morgantown facility had been actively studying how Gulf War soldiers were affected by exposure to Mustard Gas, how pregnant workers have been affected by exposure to PFAS chemicals, and how manufacturing workers contract lung fibrosis after inhaling nanoparticles.

Two Morgantown researchers—who like others in this story, asked to remain anonymous to avoid professional repercussions—say that their laid off colleagues were also researching how agricultural workers are impacted by inhaling dust from hemp plants, and a possible link between exposure to chemical disinfectants and asthma. The lab was also about to begin developing a rapid toxicity test for chemicals that US troops may be exposed to while they are deployed.

Mandler says he was researching why some people who manufacture, cut, and install stone countertops were starting to get silicosis—a potentially fatal lung scarring and inflammation disease that makes it difficult to breathe—after just a few years on the job. Generally, he says, workers tend to get the disease after spending decades in the field.

“I have listened to men younger than me sit across the table and talk about how they feel like they’re drowning in their own lungs because of these exposures, and they can’t see their children grow up,” Mandler says.

He adds that some of the NIOSH staffers who lost their jobs were testing how lung tissue reacts after being exposed to the dust from different brands of commercial synthetic quartz. The material, commonly used in countertops, is thought to cause more severe lung damage than exposure to pure natural quartz, Mandler says. He believes something in the manufacturing process may be to blame, but now that his research team at NIOSH has been dismantled, Mandler fears it will take longer for the scientific community to find the root cause.

Three Morgantown researchers who were affected by the job cuts tell WIRED that they have not received any information about who would be in charge of the facility’s biological samples after the reduction in force, how custody of them could be transferred, or what their ultimate fate may be. Since entire divisions at NIOSH were eliminated, one researcher says, they don’t even know who could take responsibility for the samples they oversaw at the facility.

Another researcher says that when the layoffs happened, the only instruction they received was “to destroy our purchase and travel cards, and maintenance was available to help us take personal items to our cars.”

The researcher says that CDC guidelines direct employees to keep physical samples and accompanying personally-identifiable information under lock and key, and only certain authorized staff are permitted to access them. “My colleagues and I took this responsibility very seriously,” the researcher tells WIRED. “Many are worried about samples and what will become of them, sensitive and otherwise.”

Even before the recent reduction in force, Mandler and two other laid off researchers say that a federal spending freeze ordered by the Trump administration in January had reduced the Morgantown facility’s supply of liquid nitrogen to “critical” levels. It took several weeks to restart the shipments.