Wtf is this?
“Filling pre-rolls She said she couldn’t breathe. Not being able to breathe Marijuana kief (dust) At 11:00 p.m. on January 7, 2022, an employee was grinding cannabis flowers, and packaging ground cannabis in pre-rolls. The employee could not breathe and was killed, due to the hazards of ground cannabis”
Know your allergies people
Holy shit!
Im tired of everyone pretending cannabis manufacturing is only dangerous if butane or propane is involved.
If true, this is insane Trulieve allowed this to happen and hopefully is a wake up call that results in better working conditions. Anyone running a lab that uses silica based powders take notice. Your employees need to be protected and if someone has a pre-existing condition they need to be warned of the hazards if they can’t be completely eliminated.
I have no clue for sure but I would bet she had a pre-existing condition that made this worse.
Wow she deserves an award for being the first person ever to die from cannabis
Sad story if true and happened the way the say. Sounds like allergies killed her not cannabis
Jesus thats horrible.
An epi-pen or asmtha inhaler nearby could have made all the difference.
back in ye old hempin days, i had an employee who we found out was deathly allergic to the plant. We brought him onboard as a basic entry level dude, he was the night shift; filling bags, grinding biomass, running the fuge etc etc. dude seemed like he loved the gig and was an excellent worker. enjoyed his position.
untill one day, about a week or so after he started he started to complain about his allergies, we didnt realize at the time, but he was struggling to breath, and whereever biomass touched his bare skin, he would get a rash. he was a good sport about it and kept trying to do his job, but he just couldnt do it, and we couldnt allow him to continue to beat on himself.
we did everything we could to accommodate the guy, but eventually just had to move him into a office position.
some people are super sensitive to this kinda stuff!!
There are dangers in any profession. Dealing with any small airborne particulate this is the inherent risk. Not necessarily a cannabis issue exclusively. However, I give my condolences, it’s unfortunate.
I’m getting an inhaler and epi pen for the wooks. Kief is brutal. I have occasional outbreaks of allergic reactions… depending on the biomass perhaps? I get worse reactions from hay in the springtime than any weed kief. I wonder if my body is adapted to it?
Too soon?
I mean anything dusty can do this, so she really should have had a respirator or mask at least. Sorry to hear it happened, that’s very sad.
Had a buddy who tried helping me process, I started with having him strip bud off branches and break the bud down slightly before packing. He couldn’t even break up bud in any amount over a few grams. He would break out in hives and have a super hard time breathing. Def could see something like this happen…
It was the wildest shit. Super healthy, younger guy, welder, not scared of getting his hands dirty, helped me with my grow throughout the process without any issues. But the dust or whatever the duck it is really jacked him up.
Also had a few friends who claim they developed asthma while working in a (legal, Iirc it was “the Virginia company”) grow that had long term mold/mildew problems. They still have issues and over the last few years their symptoms have gotten way worse…
Add Benadryl to the list of things to always have handy. It sounds crazy but a Benadryl can treat anaphylactic shock long enough to get medical attention/ access to prescription antihistamines. I keep a tablet in my wallet at all times. I’ve met multiple people who had been out doing regular things and that’s literally all it took to save their throat from closing up.
The trap full of trimmers definitely aggravates my otherwise no longer present childhood asthma
Yep yall should be using n95 masks at least when working with ground cannabis.
Cannabis dust is a known hazard… Respiratory symptoms and lung function in hemp workers. - PMC
“The data suggest that occupational exposure to hemp dust is a significant risk factor for the development of acute and chronic lung disease in workers employed in this textile industry.”
I’ve known that some trimmers can develop allergies and break out in rashes but this is the first anaphylactic reaction I’ve heard of.
My allergies have only gotten worse.
If I’m working with any raw flower I need a full mask and paint suit, can’t have any exposed skin or immediately get covered in hives.
I’ll have a full-blown asthma attack if I get any of the stuff in my lungs, I’ve never had asthma before and now I’ve got inhalers; It’s all from weed work, and by most accounts it only gets more intense with more exposure.
Most of my trimmers get herpes sores but it may be from something other than cannabis.
Same here. It will be interesting to see what the report says when it’s closed, and whether the cause is modified. Also, ~$35K violation for a human life seems paltry. RIP.
Too many employers are lax with PPE or cave to employees who are anti-mask. My rule: when appropriate, wear a K95 mask for particulate inhalation hazards or respirator with P100 pre-filter and appropriate cartridge for specific chemical/fume hazards, along with eye protection, or find another job.
This makes me think about the grain dust explosion hazard that brewers have to worry about in their barley milling area.
I could definitely see that. I’m asthmatic and have allergies, I’ve had some allergic reactions from packing columns and a close friend of mine has been hospitalized.
We both got pretty sick from some material that we realized shortly after was very moldy. We both took activated charcoal thinking maybe it would help with the mycotoxins, it seemed to help a lot but maybe that was just placebo. Idk. I’ve also reacted to material that wasn’t moldy and still gotten hives, itchy eyes, and wheezy breathing but didn’t feel quite as sick, if that makes sense.
I try to always take allergy meds and bring my inhaler if I’ll be around random material.
I’m sure there’s people with much worse allergic reactions than mine as well.
I just want to say that while I have been managing large cannabis companies for a while now, I’ve seen a lot of these issues related to anaphylaxis from allergic reactions to cannabis dust/kief. I have not had a team member die, but I have had them go to the hospital. And yes, I keep E-pens in my med kits. And yes, I let people know that itchy, scratchy throat is not normal
I build grinding rooms with their own dust collectors. I build trimming rooms with 10 air changes per hour and continuous ceiling to floor circulation to keep as much dust as possible away from the team. There’s always PPE but really engineering controls FTW. <3
Its not funny. Worker harm is real in any industry, including ours. Its not all explosions and fires. It can just as easily be slips, trips and falls (#1 reason for work injuries in most places…) in a flower room from a water leak.