Cannabis Health & Safety

By Erika LaBlonde

Why Health & Safety in the Cannabis Workplace is a good thing!

The scope of cannabis cultivation, processing, and retailing is changing and expanding throughout Canada and the world. There are some of the big questions that need answering right now. Among them, how to work at identifying workplace safety hazards, exposure risks, and mitigation strategies within an almost legal cannabis industry.

Recognizing workplace hazards in the cannabis industry, including within the growing, harvesting, and processing environments is going to be a crucial part of legalization and applying health and safety programs in the workplace, such as hazard assessments and personal protective equipment assessments are going to quickly become the way things are done. Period.

Identifying ergonomic issues alone on cannabis farms is going to be a tremendous help to cannabis farmers across the board. Overall this is an important issue because it protects the well being of employers, visitors and customers. Looking after Health and Safety makes good business sense. Workplaces which neglect health and safety risk prosecution, may lose staff, and may increase costs and reduce profitability.

Those of us who are working within the cannabis industry can feel so fortunate to be here that we can sometimes forget to pay attention to health and safety procedures in the cannabis industry compared to the general workplace. I find excitement or inexperience when working with new cannabis extraction technologies or equipment can often cause us to forget simple rules to follow according to regular workplace WHIMIS training.

There are many cannabis workplace standards and equipment that varies from growing to extraction, so if you are new the industry be prepared to learn safety produces with machinery or handling corrosive chemicals or solvents.

The number one rule to remember with any career in the cannabis workplace is to pay attention to your p r e p a ra t i o n t o a n y t a s k , t h e ventilation of your work area and the temperature of the chemicals you are working with.

If you find yourself taking care of cannabis plants, you will get to know phosphoric acid. This acid is used in combination of growing nutrients and it can burn your skin if you come into contact with this chemical commonly known as PH down. Simply wearing gloves can avoid burns when pouring

PH down into hydroponic systems or water mixtures.

Be aware when working with heating up solvents to extract cannabis oils because burns can often occur by vapor versus physical contact with boiling chemicals.

Don’t learn the hard way and make sure your eyes are protected from chemical vapors when working with any open cannabis oil extraction system indoors or outdoors. It can take 30 min or a few hours after your eyes are exposed to harmful vapors from boiling solvents to feel burnt

and sting as well as impair your vision.

I have run into trouble in the cannabis workplace when eye wash equipment was nowhere close to me a few hours after my eyes were exposed to boiling solvent vapors and I was not prepared for the intense pain that followed.

I highly recommend to have a chemical eyewash safety station or kit close by to any area cannabis extractions with solvents are performed or buy a chemical eye wash kit for home.

MAGAZ NE

By Erika LaBlonde