David Michaels

Background

About David Michaels

Dr. David Michaels is an epidemiologist and professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health. He was Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health (2009-2017), the longest serving in OSHA's history, and was Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety and Health (1998-2001) charged with protecting workers, residents and the environment around US nuclear weapons facilities. Much of Dr. Michaels' work has focused on the relationship between safety and health management systems, operational excellence and sustainability. He has lectured extensively on the topic and directed OSHA's first activities on sustainability in environment, social and governance (ESG). Dr. Michaels served as Chair of the Executive Committee of the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) from 2011 to 2017, and was a member of the NTP’s Board of Scientific Counselors 2018-2022. Dr. Michaels is a leader in efforts to defend the integrity of the science underpinning public health and environmental protections. He is the author of The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception (Oxford University Press, 2020) called “a tour de force” by Science Magazine and “a brave and important book, raising the alarm about the systemic corruption of science” by the journal Nature, and Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health (Oxford University Press, 2008). At OSHA, he expanded the agency's activities to protect whistleblowers under Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank, and 19 other statutes, and issued OSHA's first compliance guide and recommended practices for employers for preventing and addressing retaliation. Under his leadership, OSHA strengthened exposure standards for silica and beryllium, and issued new rules on safety, injury record-keeping and reporting, and hazard communication. While at the Department of Energy, Dr. Michaels developed the initiative to compensate nuclear weapons workers who developed cancer or lung disease as a result of exposure to radiation, beryllium, silica, or other hazards. The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, which has provided $30 billion in benefits to sick workers and the families of deceased workers. Dr. Michaels has received the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award; the American Public Health Association's David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health; and the John P. McGovern Science and Society Award given by Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.