After seeing cannabis workers fall ill without explanation, a University of Colorado researcher will use federal funding to study airborne hazards in cultivation and manufacturing.
The National Institutes of Health -funded study at the University of Colorado Boulder will examine airborne mold, allergens and other potential hazards inside cannabis facilities, Denver TV station 9News reported.
The grant follows previous research that found a string of cannabis workers developing asthma and other serious health issues.
For Tess Eidem, a CU senior scientist and the principal investigator, the project is “personal” and stems from “years working in the cannabis industry,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“I watched good people develop coughs, allergy symptoms, and experience asthma attacks, and when I went looking for the research that would explain what was happening to them, it barely existed,” she wrote.
“Workers were getting sick and there was almost nothing to point regulators or employers to.”
Are there dangerous levels of mold and other allergens in cannabis grows?
The goal of the study is to determine what levels of mold and allergens are safe.
“We want to give these workplaces the tools to understand what’s going on in their own facilities,” Eidem told Denver-based 9News.
“Right now, they’re operating completely in the dark.”
Researchers will collect air samples looking for airborne allergens as well as other bioaerosols, Eidem posted on LinkedIn.
The federal attention comes amid heightened concern after recent cannabis-worker deaths.
Yufang Lan died Aug. 27 after working at Joel Michaely Farms, a permitted cannabis cultivation operation in Lake County, California. Authorities later found thousands of plants, processed cannabis, illegal chemicals and contaminated liquid requiring specialized disposal at the farm.
All of the cannabis was destroyed.
California regulators subsequently suspended the facility’s license and recalled cannabis products tied to the operation.
How many cannabis workers have died?
Lan’s death is not an isolated event.
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) alleged that ground cannabis dust at a Massachusetts cannabis facility owned by Florida-based Trulieve Cannabis contributed to the death of worker Lorna McMurrey.
Trulieve Cannabis agreed to study the potential hazards of ground marijuana dust as part of a settlement with OSHA. In 2024, Massachusetts regulators fined the company $350,000 in connection with the death in.
In 2020, a California cannabis company worker in his 20s died from work-related asthma.
