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Allied Association Blog: Repetitive Motion Injuries and the Importance of Ergonomics in the Cannabis Industry

By Alex Hearding, Chief Risk Management Officer, National Cannabis Risk Management Association

Repetitive motion injuries, also known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are temporary or permanent injuries to muscles, nerves, ligaments, and tendons caused by performing the same motion over and over again. Common repetitive motion injuries are carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2013, repetitive motion injuries cases accounted for 33% of all worker injury and illness cases.

These injuries can be mitigated or controlled through ergonomics. Ergonomics is defined as: “The scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of the interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.” Or more simply put: ‘Fitting the job to the person.’ The goal is to eliminate discomfort and risk of injury due to work. Ergonomics can prevent or reduce work-related MSDs and increase work efficiency. 

Every industry and business has tasks that require repetitive motion, the cannabis industry and businesses are no exception. Cannabis operations have some motions and tasks that are similar to many industries, like lifting heavy objects, computer work, and standing for long periods of time. Cannabis operations also have some motions and tasks that are similar to other agricultural operations like pruning and harvesting. 

But there is a task and motion in the cannabis industry that is uniquely its own: trimming. There are many different methods to marijuana trimming, including: pre-harvest trimming and pruning, wet trimming, dry trimming, and machine trimming. All trimming methods have the same goal: to manicure the flower (or bud) to its final product ready for the customer or patient. The process is a tedious one where the trimmer removes the leaves of the marijuana flower with scissors while leaving the calyx and resin (the good parts of the bud). The quality of smoke, vapor, and ultimately the consumer’s experience is affected by the quality of the trim job. 

Traditionally, most marijuana trimming has been done seasonally around the harvest season. Most cannabis grown outdoors is harvested around October and it is common for cannabis farms to have ‘trim crews’ help them for a couple of months. As medical and adult-use laws expand, so do indoor and greenhouse operations. These operations are capable of ‘perpetual harvests’ meaning they can harvest more often; this has to do with the ability to control light and dark cycles. This means many operations can plan to harvest plants monthly, weekly, or daily if they choose. This has changed the demand for trimmers from largely seasonal you year-round demand, increasing the trimmers’ likelihood of repetitive motion injuries.

There is still a lot of confusion with workers in the industry about their rights. While many states have legalized marijuana, it is still federally illegal. Many workers do not know while it is federally illegal, they still have the same federal worker rights and protections every other U.S. worker has including the rights under the Occupation Safety and Health Act of 1972. Under this law, employers must provide a safe workplace, train employees in the hazards of the workplace, and inform the employees of the rights to report work-related injuries. Cannabis industry workers must also be covered by workers’ compensation if they become injured at work.

The lack of awareness about worker rights has likely led to the under-reporting of these injuries. As awareness of worker rights grows, the reporting workers’ compensation claims of these work-related MSD injuries will likely grow too. Pinnacol, Colorado’s largest workers compensation provider, reported that strains were the most common injury reported by cannabis workers in 2018. This should concern everyone in the industry. Cannabis businesses should heed the warning signs and keep their workers safe by developing their own internal ergonomic processes and practices for their operations. 

California is in a unique position as when it comes to cannabis and ergonomics. California is the largest producer of cannabis and has more stringent ergonomic standards. If a California company has more than one employee report a repetitive motion injury, they are required to establish an ergonomic program to reduce repetitive motion injuries. These ergonomic programs require:

  1. A worksite evaluation
  2. Control of exposures which have caused the repetitive motion injury 
  3. Training of employees

Additionally  employers in California are required to have an effective written Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP), to comply with the California Code of Regulations, title 8, section 3203. The IIPP must include procedures to identify and correct health and safety hazards in the workplace and provide effective training to all employees so they can perform work safely.

The cannabis industry is still immature and searching for best practices of operations. While many workers and operators in the industry understand the need for ergonomic standards the reality is that ergonomic standards still need to be defined. This has been the goal of the National Cannabis Risk Management Association (NCRMA) and Dr. Chris Hughes with Atlas Performance Technologies, LLC. They have developed four courses to educate the industry on ergonomics, including: Introduction to Cannabis Ergonomics, Lift Like a Pro, Prune Like a Pro, and Trim Like a Pro. These courses are available through the NCRM Academy and can be found online here: https://ncrma.net/ncrmacademy/ These courses are designed for entry level cannabis workers to inform them of their rights, the ergonomic hazards, proper hazard controls, and best practices to stay safe and increase productivity. 

Alex Hearding has an educational and professional background as a water and soil scientist and safety professional. He has legally cultivated marijuana as a medical caregiver and as a facility manager in a licensed greenhouse. He has experience starting marijuana businesses including license application, facility design, construction, operational development, and management. He currently provides services including occupational safety & health services and training and risk management for the cannabis industry. 

 

Guest Post: Work and Well-Being in the Cannabis Industry

By Kevin M. Walters, Colorado State University

Across countries, continents, and cultures, we humans all have certain things in common. Generally speaking, one of those commonalities is work, which we all spend a huge portion of our lives doing. Since we all devote so much time to work, I often ask myself: “how can we make all this time spent working into the best experience it can be?” As such, my research is devoted to understanding and creating positive work environments that foster a sense of well-being, such as this latest project among workers in the cannabis industry of Colorado.

This isn’t always an easy task to accomplish. A quick Google search on “job stress” or “job safety” will instantly provide thousands of pages showing daunting statistics about how stressed out today’s worker is (like this report by NIOSH) or how dangerous some jobs are based on injuries, illnesses, and fatalities (which the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks). The general takeaway from all these numbers is that 1) job stress is very real, and continues to increase in society; and 2) while we are continually developing better ways to make safe and healthy workplaces, there is still much more work to be done.

With these discussions in mind, you might be asking yourself: how does all this relate to workers in the cannabis industry? The short answer is “we don’t know yet”. The longer answer is “we don’t know how this relates to workers in the cannabis industry, because no one has ever asked these workers until now.” And that’s where we (my research team and I) come in, to ask these questions and provide the longest (and most thorough) answer we can.

When I first became involved with the cannabis industry, I was on a team to conduct a general health, safety, and well-being assessment for a dispensary in the Denver area. After speaking with the management and workers there, our team quickly realized that best practices for health, safety, and wellness on the job had not been addressed for this industry on a large scale. While we were able to provide our services and fill this void for that particular dispensary, it was only one piece of the puzzle – we need more pieces in order to really know how we can help this whole industry, which is constantly growing and is economically valuable to Colorado.

Additionally, there is more to satisfaction at work than simply being physically safe and healthy. Emotions, relationships, interpersonal communication, thoughts, and feelings all matter, and all play a role in determining how satisfied and happy we are with the work that we do. With that in mind, my research team and I are here to play our part in ensuring a healthy, safe, and happy future for workers in the cannabis industry.

Our team of researchers comes from Colorado State University and the University of Colorado-Denver. We are experts in a variety of fields and topics, including psychology, stress, occupational health, public health, health promotion, training, vocation, and quality of life. In this project, we are combining our skills to conduct a survey about work-related health, stress, and well-being among workers in the cannabis industry of Colorado. We are trying to understand a number of things, including why people choose to work in the industry, what sorts of jobs these workers perform, and how they feel about their job and work environment. We will then give this information back and provide results and recommendations for the industry, free of charge and with no catch.

SurveyIconWe need help from workers in the cannabis industry of Colorado to complete an anonymous and confidential 30-45 minute online survey about your work environment and experiences. Ideally, entire organizations will participate (including management and workers) because this will allow us to paint a better picture of what is happening across the entire industry. In return, each person who completes the 30-45 minute survey will receive $20 in cash or a gift card as a “thank you” for your help! As mentioned above, we will also provide survey results and recommendations to the industry when the project is completed.

Interested in helping? If so, please complete this very brief survey to answer a few questions. After you complete this brief survey, a member of our research team will contact you to follow up and arrange to take the 30-45 minute survey. We are ready and available to come to your worksite with tablets for you to complete the survey on. If in-person tablet surveys are difficult to schedule, we can also email you a survey link or conduct pen-and-paper surveys the old-fashioned way.

Thank you for playing your role in ensuring a safe and healthy future for this industry! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at the email address below.

NOTE: While we recognize the importance of health, safety, and well-being on a global scale (i.e., among industries and workers in other states and countries), we are focused only on Colorado in this study in order to have confidence in how we interpret the data. If we included other states and industries, there would be too much “noise” in the data to really know what we were seeing, given that this study is the first of its kind. Ideally, we will be able to conduct future projects that can examine and answer these questions in other industries as well.

Kevin M. Walters, graduate student at Colorado State University in Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Kevin M. Walters, graduate student at Colorado State University in Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Kevin M. Walters is a graduate student at Colorado State University in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (the scientific study of the workplace) and a trainee in Occupational Health Psychology (applying psychology to improve the quality of work life, and to protect and promote the safety, health and well-being of workers). He works closely with his advisor, Dr. Gwenith G. Fisher, and his research focuses on positive aspects of the work environment, such as job satisfaction and meaningfulness of work. You can contact him with any questions, comments, or concerns via email at kevin.m.walters@colostate.edu.

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