After a Bay State cannabis worker suffered an asthma attack and died, the state Department of Public Health is pushing the local marijuana industry to take extra safety steps to prevent work-related asthma.
A Trulieve Cannabis Corp. employee who was packaging ground cannabis into pre-rolls at the company’s Holyoke processing facility suffered an asthma attack and later died in the hospital last year. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated, and the company later settled with OSHA.
DPH and OSHA confirmed that the death of the 27-year-old production technician was the first known occupational asthma fatality in the U.S. cannabis workforce.