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From her office, Dr. Linda Rosenstock can see the U.S. Capitol and Independence Avenue. She also sees a lot of things she wants to change at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the agency she now directs.
Rosenstock has an ambitious agenda. Her wish list includes making NIOSH more visible; improving its outreach and training efforts; focusing research on emerging issues; and enhancing cooperation with other agencies, especially OSHA. Perhaps most important, she wants to improve the effectiveness of NIOSH.
Rosenstock came to Washington, D.C., from Seattle, where she was director of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program at the University of Washington. As director of the program she often worked with Joe Dear, who was head of Washington state's Department of Labor and Industries before taking the job as director of OSHA.
WASHINGTON MOVE
NIOSH moved its headquarters from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., in April. Rosenstock and company set up shop in the Department of Health and Human Services Building at the Corner of Independence Avenue and Second Street.
"We're well placed within Washington," Rosenstock said. "We've been able to respond to numerous requests to testify before Congress."
NIOSH's new headquarters is just across the Washington Mall from the Department of Labor and OSHA. That proximity allows cooperation between the two agencies that is overdue, said John Moran, health and safety director f the Laborers' National Health and Safety Fund. "The general view has been that there is very poor coordination between NIOSH and OSHA. They need to develop a sense that both OSHA and NIOSH are on the same team, speaking of the same purpose, which is worker safety and health," he said.
"I meet at least monthly, one-on-one with [OSHA Administrator] Joe Dear," Rosenstock said. "Joe and I also meet once or twice a month with Lynn Goldman, assistant administrator at EPA, and with Tara O'Toole, assistant secretary of energy. The four of us come together as the four principals in occupational safety and health trying to find important common areas of concern."
Dr. Donald Millar, former head of NIOSH, does not agree with the move. "The first thing I would say is get the headquarters back to Atlanta," he said. "It doesn't make sense for the headquarters to be...