OSHA Documents Reveal Realities of Trulieve's “Special Industrial Air Filtration System” In Holyoke Facility
FOIA Request Leads to Release of Nearly 400 Pages of Documents Detailing Investigation Into First Cannabis Worker Death From Occupational Asthma
At 5:30AM on April 20, 2022, as most cannabis industry workers and consumers were still asleep ahead of celebrations of the impromptu holiday of 4/20, inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) were in a Trulieve cultivation facility in Holyoke, Mass., measuring air quality as part of an investigation into the death of employee Lorna McMurrey.
Despite the fact that the fatal incident had occurred in January, it would be many more months before the general public, the mayor of Holyoke, or even the five commissioners who govern the cannabis industry in Massachusetts would become aware of Lorna’s death. By the time McMurrey’s passing was reported in the media, OSHA’s investigation had already concluded. By that point, the agency was in the middle of attempting to determine if a settlement could be reached with the company, or if litigation would be required.
Eventually, a settlement was agreed upon. In Dec. 2022, Trulieve put out a press release to announce that they had entered a voluntary agreement with OSHA that would see the original fine of $35,219 reduced to $14,502. The agreement also allowed for two of the three citations to be withdrawn.
In exchange, Trulieve agreed to take a number of actions designed to improve employee safety. They also signed off on conducting a NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation in partnership with OSHA to determine whether ground cannabis dust should be considered a hazardous chemical.
Less than six months after the agreement was announced, Trulieve revealed that they were ceasing operations in Massachusetts by closing their retail dispensaries and the cultivation/production facility in Holyoke.
A press release by the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health released in July stated that the NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation is unlikely to occur now that Trulieve has ceased operations in Massachusetts. A spokesperson from the Department of Labor declined to comment on whether or not Trulieve has met the obligations of their settlement agreement.
Details of OSHA’s federal investigation into Trulieve have so far been scarce, but documents released as part of a Freedom of Information Act Request submitted by Burn After Reading now offer the public a first glimpse into how it was conducted. These documents include new details about the air quality tests conducted at the facility. The report also raises questions regarding Trulieve’s public claims about the facility’s air filtration system.
This investigation marked the agency’s first attempt to investigate a cannabis worker death as the result of occupational asthma, a feat made more challenging by the industry’s relatively recent emergence and the fact that cannabis remains a federally illegal drug.
[WeedWeek also filed a FOIA request for these documents and was the first outlet to report on them. You can read that article here. You can also see the complete packet of documents released in the FOIA request here.]
“I Can’t Breathe in Here”
Documents in the FOIA request confirmed several details of the events leading up to McMurrey’s death that have already been reported, including the fact that she had been sent to the hospital from work via an ambulance after she experienced difficulty breathing in November 2021.
These documents also confirm that — other than moving McMurrey’s workstation to a location farther away from the grinding room — few concrete actions were taken as McMurrey’s reaction to the working environment became more and more severe over the course of four to five months.
A consultation report completed by OSHA’s Office of Occupational Medicine and Nursing (OOMN) states that McMurrey had no symptoms of asthma before starting her employment at Trulieve in May 2021. The report also said that her symptoms got progressively worse during her time working there.
According to testimony obtained during the completion of the report, McMurrey was witnessed having issues with coughing while at work even before she was moved to pre-roll production in October 2021. The report states that her symptoms appeared to become more severe after the move.
[OSHA made efforts to redact all references to the names of the rooms in the facility (pre-roll room, grinding room, etc..,) citing a provision that allows for the removal of “trade secrets.” However, they failed to redact several references to these locations within the documents, allowing the location of air quality tests and McMurrey’s workstations to be confirmed.]
McMurrey increasingly had difficulty breathing when working in the room where the grinder was located. The OOMN report says that interviews of her co-workers revealed that she often had to leave the room due to her symptoms.
The report also states that she was heard telling a coworker “I gotta get out of here, I can’t breathe in here.” She also stated on at least one occasion that the room where the grinder was located was “too small.”
McMurrey’s workstation was eventually moved further away from the grinding room, but the doors between the grinding room and the location where McMurrey worked were often left open to help alleviate the heat caused by machinery, according to documents.
On Nov. 9, 2021, McMurrey requested a break from her manager. After she returned from the break, she said that she was not feeling well and requested that she be allowed to go home. According to the OOMN report, it was at that point her manager noticed her difficulty breathing and called 911. An ambulance took McMurrey from the hospital to the facility.
At the hospital, McMurrey was given oxygen, an inhaler, steroids, and Zyrtec. The report notes that she returned to work the day after this first health incident. It also states that McMurrey told the physician at the hospital that she thought her symptoms were work-related, but the health care provider did not follow up on that information.
After returning to work, McMurrey experienced increasing symptoms in the two weeks preceding her death.
On Jan. 4, 2022, McMurrey was seen using her inhaler at work several times, according to a review of video footage that was conducted by OSHA investigators.
Later in the day, McMurrey was returning from a break when she told her manager that she was having difficulty breathing. As she became more short of breath, the manager called 911, according to a Non-Mandatory Investigative Tool that was submitted by Trulieve to OSHA.
Documents submitted by Trulieve then state that the 911 dispatcher instructed the manager to move McMurrey to the floor. She then went unconscious, and the dispatcher instructed the manager to perform CPR. Paramedics arrived at the scene, taking McMurrey to BayState Hospital.
McMurrey was pronounced dead at the hospital on Jan. 7, having never regained consciousness.
The OOMN determined that McMurrey died from “respiratory and subsequent cardiac arrest from a severe exacerbation of OA (Occupational Asthma).” Their report states that this finding was supported by the fact that her symptoms began after she began working at Trulieve and worsened until her death.
A representative from Trulieve informed OSHA on Jan. 8 that McMurrey’s family had informed him that she had passed away the night before. This began an investigation that would last several months.
OSHA’s investigation determined that other employees at Trulieve’s facility were also experiencing apparent allergic reactions to the work environment. A narrative report in the FOIA request showed that an interview with an ex-employee revealed that they had also experienced work-related asthma and hives. This individual stated that they had exercise-induced asthma as a child, but they had not needed an inhaler for years before they started working at Trulieve.
Even workers in other departments that did not handle pre-roll production were aware of the allergic reactions that some employees were facing, although they did not appear to understand the gravity of the situation; one worker told OSHA investigators that the allergic reactions were “nothing benadryl can’t fix.”
On Jan. 24, an OSHA investigator contacted Trulieve, telling them that they should investigate whether any other employees were experiencing symptoms. According to the narrative report included in the FOIA request, here’s what happened next:
Subsequent to that, they moved the other employee who was coughing when [redacted] ran, and also had hives, to a job in housekeeping on the second shift. That employee didn’t want housekeeping, or the second shift. He got angry, and they fired him. They said he had threatened a manager and admitted it, but he said he didn’t threaten anyone. He filed a whistleblower complaint.
The whistleblower complaint was included in the report, but details regarding the alleged retaliation were redacted.
“When The Old Shop Vac Was In Use, Dust Was Visible In The Air While Grinding”
In a statement to NBC Boston in October 2022 that was released in response to media reports of McMurrey’s death, Trulieve said: "To maintain air quality that is healthy and easily breathable, the Holyoke facility has a special industrial air filtration system that exchanges the air in the grinding room and has been certified by an independent engineer."
OSHA’s investigation revealed that this “special industrial air filtration system” was a standard shop wet/dry vacuum motor that was attached to a 5-gallon bucket. At the time of McMurrey’s death, the filter installed on the shop vac was not designed to filter air.
The investigation also confirmed that there was no exhaust hood present in the grinding room, a common feature in industrial settings when potentially harmful dust or fumes may be created.
According to documents provided in the FOIA request, McMurrey specifically complained about the need to replace the shop vac in the months leading up to the fatal incident, claiming that there was too much dust in the air.
Following McMurrey’s death, Trulieve replaced the shop vac with an upgraded unit. According to details provided in the FOIA request, this setup included a similar shop vac motor (2023 retail value: $29.97), a five gallon bucket ($4.97) and a Rigid 5-layer HEPA filter ($32.97) that could be attached to the vacuum.
When originally asked by an OSHA investigator to provide more information about the filter being used on the shop vac, Trulieve’s Environmental Health Safety Coordinator Mitch Osterhout emailed details regarding the new upgraded filter that was installed after McMurrey's death. When the investigator followed up with a request reiterating that they were asking for the old shop vac filter, Osterhout did not respond to the email. When the inspector sent yet another follow-up email over a week later, Osterhout then revealed that the original filter on the shop vac was a VF2000 bag.
VF2000 bag filters are designed to catch household debris such as dirt and hair, according to the product's Home Depot page. The manufacturer specifically notes that the filter is "not recommended for fine dust." This filter is also not intended for use as an air purifier.
A three pack of VF2000 bags generally sell for just under $13.
The OSHA Inspector stated in their report that the vacuum had been covered in plastic and said that "when the old shop vac was in use, dust was visible in the air during grinding."
“[Redacted] Will Be The Strain Being Used on 4/20/22 in [Redacted]”
Trulieve was allowed to use this new shop vac while air samples were collected by OSHA on April 20. These samples were collected 103 days after McMurrey passed away.
The company also received ample notification that the tests were going to occur.
On April 11, Osterhout emailed OSHA to "remind you that [we] will be needing a documentation letter/email from you guys about your next visit on 4/40/22 [sic]," a reference to the upcoming air quality tests on April 20 which apparently had already been discussed during a prior conversation. The email stated that the documentation should include “whose coming [sic], why there coming [sic], and what they will be doing.” He also requested that this documentation be sent within the next two days.
OSHA immediately complied with this request. Approximately one hour after Osterhout sent the request for documentation, a representative from the agency replied:
As we discussed, [redacted] will be the strain being used on 4/20/22 in [redacted]. [Redacted] will be accompanying me to assist me, and I'm planning to do 8-hour personal sampling for endotoxins and respirable dust in [redacted].
On the day the samples were to be collected, a certified safety and health official from OSHA and an industrial hygienist arrived at the facility before sunrise. Starting at 5:08AM, they collected a number of samples in the grinding room. These tests were focused on respirable dust and endotoxins, which are toxic substances that are present inside bacterial cells that get released upon the cell’s death.
Weeks later, the tests revealed that the levels of respirable dust in the room were too low to be detected in three out of the four samples that were collected. The fourth sample that was collected over an eight hour period showed a time-weighted average level of 0.012mg/m3, well below the permissible exposure limit of 5mg/m3.
The endotoxin results were a slightly different story, as all four samples showed detectable levels. Two of the eight hour time-weighted average samples showed levels below two endotoxin units per meter cubed (EU/m3), but one eight hour sample showed levels of 27 EU/m3. Furthermore, a 15 minute test that was conducted while the grinding machine was operational saw levels of 14 EU/m3.
There is no defined permissible exposure limit for endotoxins, so OSHA used a recommended occupational exposure limit of 90EU/m3 that was created by the Dutch Expert Committee on Occupational Safety. Use of this standard allowed both Trulieve and OSHA to state that endotoxins were “below applicable standards.”
However, the connection between levels of endotoxins in the air and illness caused by endotoxins is poorly understood. The OOMN report on the incident says that “allergic symptoms, as with immunologic diseases, are not well correlated with exposure levels.”
EMLab P&K — the same lab that conducted the sample testing on behalf of OSHA — states in a document on its website that “exposure to airborne endotoxin levels as low as 28 EU/m3 for an extended period may result in significant damage to the respiratory system and the lung.” The EMLab document also states that indoor endotoxin levels of over one EU/m3 are “rather unusual,” even with the lack of scientifically established correlation to any particular illness.
Despite the apparent lack of respirable dust, testing conducted with a direct particulate meter by OSHA revealed values that were over baseline while grinding was occurring. High levels of particulate matter were also detected when the RocketBox pre-roll machine was being used and when the floor was swept up at the end of the work day, according to a investigative narrative included in the FOIA documents.
The report did not detail the specific levels of particulate matter that were measured, nor did it opine on the potential impact of these particulates on worker health. It also did not include any data from the DustCount 8899 device used to conduct this test.
The OOMN report also mentioned that “it was determined that the shop vac was connected incorrectly on the day of sampling” but the author(s) did not elaborate on what exactly that meant, who made that determination, or if this incorrect connection had any measurable impact on the test results.
The samples collected on April 20 marked the only time that OSHA attempted to test the air quality in the facility.
In response to a question asking the agency if they felt this air quality test accurately reflected working conditions at the time of McMurrey’s death, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson issued the following statement:
Determining the cause of death and work-relatedness in this case was complicated. Once it was determined that the employee died from work induced asthma and was working in an environment with exposure to ground cannabis which was implicated as causing work-related asthma, OSHA had to determine a sampling strategy for airborne contaminants. There is no air sampling method or standards for exposure to airborne ground cannabis, however, information obtained from air sampling for total dust and endotoxins performed in April of 2022 contributed to OSHA’s understanding of, and conclusions regarding, the cause for this employee’s death from work-induced asthma.
Trulieve did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
This is part one of a look into OSHA’s investigation. Part two of this story will examine how Trulieve was able to reach a settlement agreement with OSHA and how the company influenced the agency’s public records regarding the investigation. It will also take a deeper look into the use of pesticides at Trulieve’s facility.