The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will stop collecting data on injuries from incidents such as car crashes, falls, alcohol-related cases, adverse drug effects, and workplace accidents starting this Friday.
This decision comes after significant staff reductions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has affected the joint data collection program known as the All Injury Program (AIP).
The data collection has been done through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a 47-year-old program that gathers injury information from about 100 hospital emergency departments nationwide.
Injury is the leading cause of death for Americans under 45, and the data from NEISS helps guide product recalls, safety rules, and public health policies aimed at preventing injuries and deaths.
Originally, NEISS collected injury data only related to specific consumer products like lawnmowers or household chemicals.
However, in 2000, the CDC partnered with CPSC to expand the system to include a wider range of injury types through the All Injury Program.
This broader data collection is now ending due to layoffs and budget cuts at the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
An internal email sent to hospitals and data contractors on April 11 explained that the AIP-supported portion of NEISS will end abruptly because the CPSC does not have the resources to manage a gradual shutdown.
This change is expected to reduce NEISS data collection by 20% to 65%, depending on the injury type.
While other agencies like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration collect some injury data, NEISS’s hospital-level data is often more detailed and comprehensive.
This development is part of broader disruptions caused by significant job cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Trump administration, which have also impacted public health research and responses to health crises such as bird flu outbreaks.
The CPSC has stated it will continue collecting injury data related to consumer products but has not commented on the impact of CDC staffing cuts or the sudden end of the All Injury Program.
In summary, the halt in collecting injury data from a wide range of incidents due to CDC staff cuts will limit the availability of important information used to improve public safety and health policies across the United States.
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