A new federal program from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) will attempt to identify and minimize risks to workers in Colorado’s legal cannabis industry, with the agency’s offices in the cities of Denver and Englewood undertaking an initiative centered on outreach and enforcement.
The intent of the new “Local Emphasis Program for Cannabis Industries” is “to encourage employers to take steps to address hazards, ensure facilities are evaluated to determine if they are in [compliance] with all relevant OSHA requirements, and to help them correct hazards, thereby reducing potential injuries, illnesses, and death for their workers,” the federal agency said in an executive summary of the campaign.
“Workers employed in the cannabis industry are exposed to a wide variety of safety and health hazards,” the directive says. “Activities such as extraction and production of concentrates involve the use of flammable liquids and have resulted in serious injuries to employees from burns and explosions. Other hazards such as electrical issues, exposure to hazardous chemicals, and unguarded machinery are also prevalent.”
To that end the new OSHA efforts aims to “reduce the incidence of serious health and physical injury or death from hazards associated with cannabis processing, growing, cultivating and
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