Dozens of the 200 federal employees whose jobs were set to be cut at the Bruceton Research Center south of Pittsburgh will keep their jobs, according to U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio.

The employees are respirator certification workers at the center. In layman’s terms, they test the efficacy of things like the N-95 mask that became ubiquitous during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bruceton facility is located along Cochran Mill Road on the border of South Park and Pleasant Hills.

Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel, was among the elected officials who lobbied against the cuts, which were part of an overhaul of the American bureaucracy led in part by Elon Musk, the wealthiest person in the world.

The Bruceton center is part of the Pittsburgh Mining Research Division of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC is among the agencies supervised by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that is led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

It’s a win for public safety, Deluzio said, and he will continue to lobby for the positions that remain on the chopping block, including the mining research team, which has an office in Hempfield.

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