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For 55 years, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has sent specialized teams of trained medical detectives into workplaces to investigate what could be making workers sick — everything from dust, fungus, asbestos and radiation. Now, dozens of these ongoing investigations have been canceled.

Laws protecting free speech, along with challenging economic circumstances, make it difficult to cut ties.

Across the Northwest and the country, citizens are facing longer wait times, steep fees and other obstacles to obtaining government records the law says they deserve.