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Lorna McMurrey, 27, of West Springfield, was filling pre-rolled joints at the Trulieve facility in Holyoke on Jan. 4, 2022, when she told her coworkers that she couldn't breathe and fell unconscious, the report said. Paramedics rushed her to an area hospital, where she remained on life support until her death three days later.
The medical examiner ruled that McMurrey died of “brain death, due to cardiac arrest (12 hours prior), due to respiratory arrest (spanning four days), due to presumed severe asthma attack.”
The report from the Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation said McMurrey was one of four people who worked near a grinder, which ejected cannabis dust into the air.
She'd worked at the facility since 2021, and despite wearing a respirator and protective equipment, she developed an allergy to the plant and later asthma. The report said she didn't have the breathing disorder when she started working at the company.
Investigators cited three contributing factors in McMurrey's death. They include:
- Failure to recognize ground cannabis as a potential occupational respiratory hazard
- Failure to adequately control the spread of airborne cannabis dust
- Lack of a comprehensive safety and health program and overall safety training
Trulieve announced it had reached a settlement with OSHA on the anniversary of McMurrey's death to pay $14,502 and would begin training employees of a potential allergic reaction to cannabis, the company announced in January.
Trulieve announced earlier this year that it would end operations at three Massachusetts facilities by the end of the year.
Click here to read the FACE report.
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