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Federal research labs in Cincinnati will get new home

Bill Rinehart
/
WVXU

The Department of Health and Human Services has budgeted $110 million to consolidate safety research facilities in Cincinnati. 

The local offices of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are currently split between two locations: in Mount Lookout and Pleasant Ridge.

Senator Sherrod Brown toured the Mount Lookout facility last year and says he saw crumbling walls, and inadequate facilities.

There is no timetable for the consolidation yet, and so far the federal government hasn't identified possible locations for the new facility.

Brown says the new campus should help with safety research for the entire country.

“When we as a society have not provided the facilities for those who are working at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health with what you need, that was a failure,” he says.  “This today is announcing a success.”

NIOSH researches workplace safety and makes recommendations to prevent injuries and illnesses.

Senator Sherrod Brown says he will also work on getting more money for research at the new facility. 

“I think it’s outrageous,'' Brown says. " This crowd running the Capitol these days that they take pledges that they will never close any Wall Street tax loopholes, so we don’t have enough money to fund medical research in this country.  We don’t have any money to fund what we ought to be doing here.”

Cincinnati is home to the largest NIOSH location in the country, employing about 550 people.

Bill Rinehart started his radio career as a disc jockey in 1990. In 1994, he made the jump into journalism and has been reporting and delivering news on the radio ever since.