This week, federal officers and researchers discussed the risks of allergens for employees in the cannabis industry, as part of a regional Occupational Security and Health Administration (OSHA program) to reduce the risk of occupational injury, illness and death at marijuana businesses.
Meredith Submit, a compliance assistant specialist at OSHA’s Denver regional office, and Jason Furlow – a industrial hygienist – were the presenters for the OSHA webinar. Bradley King is an industrial hygienist at the National Institute of Occupational Security and Health (NIOSH) and Tess Eidem is a research scientist from the University of Colorado Boulder who investigates molds and allergens.
The event was held in conjunction with a program to focus on local hazards that are present within Colorado’s cannabis-legalized business. OSHA announced in September that it would offer free inspections to cannabis businesses as part of the system.
Submit explained at Tuesday’s webcast that the program was designed to lower injury and illness costs in the cannabis sector. “Our focus will be on cannabis production, growing, cultivation and manufacturing services.”
She explained that the regional focus program is applicable to both marijuana and hemp operators.
Since the beginning of this program, I have been asked a lot about hemp. Submit the following. “And you can be sure that if you are processing any of the plant material we protect, you fall beneath the jurisdictions of this program.”
This system doesn’t, nevertheless, cowl retail services—solely workplaces producing and processing cannabis merchandise.
Submit reported in October, “Inspecting businesses that sell cannabis isn’t a new thing for us.” Submit stated in October that they had decided to implement an emphasis program so as to reach out to more places and to be proactive about some of the accidents and illnesses we are beginning to see not only in Colorado but nationwide.
In the past seven-year period, OSHA’s Denver and Inglewood offices conducted 44 inspections. Citations were issued to operators, primarily for failing adequately to discuss workplace hazards or implement worker safety programs. But they also examined three fatalities in the cannabis trade, although Submit noted this week at least two of those weren’t related to cannabis businesses themselves.
She said, “One involved a fall off a mountain peak. The other was an ATV rolling over at a climbing facility. And the opposite involved a rescue in a confined space.” “On the other hand, we’re kind of teetering between whether or not that was part of our process.” This is a case which is currently being reviewed.
Lots of Tuesday’s webinar Focused on allergens linked to hemp or marijuana which can trigger respiratory distress and other well-being issues.
Eidem, the College of Colorado researcher and a former cannabis business employee herself, mentioned her work bioaerosols—airborne natural compounds like mould spores and different pathogens that may accumulate at cultivation services.
“While it’s primarily a crop, you can get it from your substrate supplies, fertigation methods. They can be spread by people. Eidem explained. “Your air flow system could spread them around, and allow accumulation within the dry therapy.” When you are working with the plant material, it is possible that the bioaerosols produced in this part of the process come from the plant itself. It could be the finely chopped floor flower for prerolls. Or it could be the mud from trichomes.
While there are no peer-reviewed papers that specifically examine allergens found in the cannabis manufacturing process, the researcher states “we do realize that mould spores may be excessive.” We know that the protein levels can be excessive.
She added, “The scientific group hasn’t been able to catch as much as the group that cannabis has in order to establish these.” There are at least 5 allergens that have been identified in cannabis.
Eidem said, “It’s a huge challenge to be an educator at a federally-funded establishment. I can’t research cannabis produced commercially in the lab.” “Even though I have a Schedule I licence, I can only supply cannabis to the DEA.”
To get round that impediment, a lot of her work has taken place in her residence kitchen, the place she’s grown her personal cannabis from which to take protein samples—evaluation of which confirmed the presence of a minimum of two allergens.
Eidem explained that “even though everyone I’ve met in the cannabis trade loves the plant, the plant can produce allergens.” You must be aware that this is an allergen source and could sensitize your employees.
In the cannabis trade, these allergens appear to have been triggering well-being points for a large portion of employees.
“A survey of various flower technicians in Massachusetts confirmed {that a} good chunk of them, 40 p.c of them, had some sort of respiratory tract or pores and skin irritation when working with cannabis,” Eidem stated. Washington State has also reported that flower-processing and cannabis mud are linked to workplace bronchial asthma.
“Another research from Washington State,” she said, “surveyed 32 employees, and 21 reported signs. This is a pretty high ratio.
With a greater understanding of what allergens are current in cannabis services and the best way to higher mitigate them—resembling by way of using UV mild—business operators can extra successfully guard towards office hazards.
Eidem said, “It shows that some of these novel interventions methods could be effective at doubtlessly reducing exposure to those allergens across all environments including doubtlessly cannabis workplaces.”
Furlow, from OSHA, responded to a question that it is the employers’ duty to safeguard workers.
He explained, “So, after they develop allergies, the employer must provide a safe work environment for these workers, whether or not it’s providing them, as Dr. Eidam said, with some sort of respirator or engineering controls in order to make sure that their allergy symptoms don’t flare up while they are at work.”
Furlow explained that in some cases, where the allergic symptoms are dangerous (which can happen, even when using respirators, or the airflow or another thing), you may have to switch the worker to a new job to avoid exposing them to the allergens.
King, of NIOSH, an federal research company, noted that John Howard, the director of NIOSH’s, wrote a paper in 2020 calling for more research on how cannabis, work, and other factors intersect.
In addition to aerosol hazards, other health dangers include exposure to chemical substances such as butane and Ozone.
King, who is a specialist in respiratory problems, is currently working with researchers at the Nationwide Jewish Hospital, Denver. He said that the hospital is nationally recognized for its work on respiratory health and allergy symptoms. They will survey up to 300 employees of the cannabis industry and collect direct measurements.
King famously said, “As far as I know, it is the first time anyone has attempted to gather and judge air samples for this specific allergic protein from cannabis in a workplace setting.” “We’re lacking something new, I believe, when we try to develop methods for evaluating airborne levels of this particular protein.”
He said that the analysis could also measure ozone, microbes including micro organisms and fungi as well as mud particles, terpenes and other substances.
King cited as an example of workplace risks the death of a 27 year-old woman who collapsed and suffered respiratory problems while working at a Trulieve plant in Massachusetts. The corporate paid OSHA $14,502 to settle the case, additionally agreeing to conduct a research to “decide whether or not floor cannabis mud is required to be labeled as a ‘hazardous chemical’ within the occupational setting,” in accordance with a press launch on the time.
The webinar is the latest outreach by OSHA officers from Colorado in the new native accent program. The goal is to “encourage employers to take action to address hazards and ensure services are evaluated to determine if they are ineffective”. [compliance] According to a government summary of the campaign, “the goal is to make sure that employers are in compliance with all OSHA requirements and assist them eliminate hazards, thus reducing potential accidents, illnesses, and death for their employees.”
A report on the brand new Native Emphasis Program for Cannabis Industries is anticipated to be issued someday round early 2027—in addition to on the finish of this system, in 2029.
The fines for major violations can be as high as $16,000. Repeated or willful violations can cost more than $160,000. If you fail to eliminate office hazards, you can be fined up to $16,000 per day.
Individually, an OSHA official stated in 2023 that the federal authorities’s ongoing prohibition of marijuana makes the company’s job “difficult” relating to guaranteeing the protection of employees within the cannabis business.
Andrew Levinson of OSHA’s Directorate of Requirements and Steering stated that at a gathering of NACOSH (National Advisory Committee on Occupational Security and Well being) in the past, “the cannabis industry is a bit of a challenge for federal firms as cannabis stays illegal on a federal stage.”
“So, there is a state-level exercise taking place.” “We still exit and deal with these points but the coverage issues there are difficult,” said he, adding that at the time he was not sure if there were office deaths in the marijuana industry.
Additionally in 2023, the chief of one of many nation’s largest labor unions known as on President Joe Biden to finish federal marijuana prohibition and urged the president to permit OSHA to “instantly begin work on a nationwide office security customary for authorized cannabis enterprise, utilizing the rules set by California as a mannequin.”
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Picture courtesy Chris Wallis/Aspect Pocket Pictures.