Overview

• The U.S. cannabis industry has reported its first occupational asthma death, a 27-year-old woman working in a Massachusetts cannabis cultivation and processing facility.
• The woman, identified as Lorna McMurrey, experienced worsening work-related respiratory symptoms that ended in a fatal asthma attack in January 2022.
• The facility was owned by Trulieve, a Florida-based company that has since closed its operations in Massachusetts. Trulieve paid a reduced fine of just over $14,500 for failing to study whether ground cannabis dust constitutes a 'hazardous chemical.'
• The report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that allergic diseases such as asthma are a growing concern in the U.S. cannabis industry, which has grown rapidly in recent years due to a wave of state-level legalizations.
• The report also emphasizes the need for evaluation of workers with new-onset or worsening asthma in cannabis facilities, as well as the implementation of more safeguards in the cannabis industry to prevent such incidents.