Wellness & Well-being Highlights November 4

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of November 4, 2024

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog looks at how workplace violence is impacting employees at library and health care settings—to the need to contain a drug war in the Middle East from spreading to Europe and the USA—to the importance of supporting blue- and white-collar women in the workplace. This week I would like to take this opportunity to take a closer look at the interesting dance that OSHA has underway with the state of Colorado’s cannabis industry.

While marijuana may be legal in many states—for medical and/or recreational purposes—it remains illegal in the eyes of the federal government. Nevertheless, Fed OSHA takes the stand that workplaces in the US fall under their purview. Fittingly, it appears that Colorado’s cannabis industry has had 3 workplace fatalities in the past 7 years. And, upon a number of OSHA’s worksite inspections, among other dangers cited, a lack of respiratory protection and personal protective equipment were cited. The former is important due to the airborne irritants like dusts and molds present in some of these facilities. To this end, one OSHA director described a related 2022 employee’s death as “the first fatality from occupational asthma in the US cannabis industry.”

Although these incidents were found in Colorado’s (legal) commercial cannabis production sites, OSHA intends to implement their “emphasis program” nationwide. As mentioned,

“The aim 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.”

NOTE: OSHA actually offers free evaluation services to employers with under 251 employees.

In an industry where nearly 1 in 4 workers do NOT receive health & safety training, OSHA stepping in to provide outreach services (training and e-newsletters) may seem proactive. However, in the eyes of at least 3 families these steps are reactive. As with so many industrial settings in our nation’s history, workers MUST die BEFORE meaningful changes take place. In an attempt to end on a positive note for the greater good: Better late than never!

Source: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/federal-officials-discuss-new-osha-program-on-marijuana-industry-workplace-hazards/

Prepping for Daylight Savings Time

Opioids & Workplace Injuries

Libraries & Workplace Violence

Workplace Violence & Health Care

Trauma / Emotional Labor / Health Care Workers

Harm Reduction & Vending Machines

Xylazine Addiction & Pregnancy

Captagon & Middle East’s Drug War

Sinaloa Cartel & 42k Seized Pills

Who is running Mexico?

What’s Next?: Pink Cocaine