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Committee Insights | 7.13.23 | Know Your Hazards – Occupational Health and Safety Considerations in Cannabinoid Ingredient Manufacturing

NCIA’s #IndustryEssentials webinar series is our premier digital educational platform featuring a variety of interactive programs allowing us to provide you timely, engaging and essential education when you need it most.

In this edition of our NCIA Committee Insights series, originally aired on July 13, we were joined by members of NCIA’s Cannabis Manufacturing, Scientific Advisory and Hemp Committees for an in-depth discussion highlighting the occupational health and safety considerations to make during the manufacture of cannabinoids and provide recommendations for mitigating risk.

There is no mistaking that manufacturing cannabinoids is here to stay. It is more and more prevalent to see historically plant/naturally derived bulk ingredients being manufactured in a controlled environment in the lab or through innovative processes like precision fermentation. It is likely that bulk ingredient manufacturing of cannabinoids will go this route too.

For cannabinoids like HHC, that do not exist naturally in the plant or in high enough quantities to be commercially viable for extraction, it is most certainly the case that manufacture of these compounds will occur in the lab. To produce these compounds safely, we can luckily look toward existing regulations and occupational health and safety guidelines for producing novel ingredients for use in foods and non-foods.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognizing common occupational safety hazards associated with manufacturing cannabinoids and recommendation to mitigate these hazards

• Learning the different occupational safety considerations between isolation and purification of naturally occurring cannabinoids and the manufacture (synthesis) of cannabinoids in the lab

• Understanding the special safety considerations that processes like hydrogenation and others have and why these are critical to mitigating liability for your business

Panelists:

Jacob Enslein
Consultant
AJ Cannabis Consulting

Rhiannon Woo
Co-Founder & CSO
TraceTrust

Tenay Woodard
Director of Safety & Security
KIVA Brands, Inc.

Tucker Holland
Co-founder, CFO and Processing Director
Entourage Cannabis

Keith Butler
CEO
OP Innovates / Naturia+™

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This is the fourth of five in a multi-part series of #IndustryEssentials webinars. You can watch Parts I-V at the links below.

Defining the Conversation: Minor, Novel & Synthetic Cannabinoids (Part I): https://bit.ly/3D2LReB

Meet the Minors (Part II): https://bit.ly/3qUD8Ip

Safeguarding Consumers in the Cannabinoid Product Landscape (Part III):

Know Your Hazards – Occupational Health and Safety Considerations in Cannabinoid Ingredient Manufacturing (Part IV): https://bit.ly/3rEUeKP

Concepts for Regulatory Consideration – Shifting the Conversation from “Cannabis vs. Hemp” to “The Cannabinoids” (Part V): https://bit.ly/3P3r5AW

Committee Blog: Future-Proofing Your Business – 2021 Series Premier

by NCIA’s Cannabis Manufacturing Committee 

The future is coming and the cannabis (marijuana and hemp) industry is uniquely positioned to offer innovative approaches to best management practices in its manufacturing sector. In 2021, the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Cannabis Manufacturing Committee formed a new group focused on addressing sustainable practices, legal protections, and policy considerations to future-proof your cannabis manufacturing business. The series, Future-Proofing Your Business, will consist of blogs, podcasts, and expert panel discussions focused on providing insight into the coming regulations, processes, facilities, and consumable products. 

Extracts

With the coming vaping emissions and vape product potency regulations, the Future Proofing subcommittee will offer their expertise on what to expect and what manufacturers can do to support compliance and help protect the environment and public health. The outbreak of vaping-related respiratory illness in late 2019 demonstrated the damage a few bad actors can do in a marketplace where regulated and unregulated producers compete for consumer dollars. The committee will discuss these issues and more as manufacturers and regulators work together proactively to protect consumer health.

Processes

Manufacturing processes are evolving as the scientific understanding of cannabis consumables and their various effects and treatments deepens. In their efforts to protect environmental and worker health both inside and outside of the processing area, manufacturing best practices are changing. Regulators are also beginning to determine the standardization of these various processes in an effort to retain product quality without jeopardizing human and environmental health and safety. And new forms of competition will demand an increased focus on protecting intellectual assets. This second part of the Future-Proofing Your Business series will unpack sustainable manufacturing process design including software, equipment, and materials offering recommendations for regulatory approaches. 

Facilities

Building on the processes deployed in the future of manufacturing cannabis (marijuana and hemp) products, facilities will also need to consider more efficient design strategies to reduce the use of energy & waste, increase product safety, and safeguard worker and community health. The rapid pace of energy efficiency technologies development for all utilities means most industries, not just cannabis, are playing catch up. Automation is redefining the best practices surrounding product and employee safety. Increasingly stringent testing standards are demanding greater care for waste and community health. The committee will offer their insights into the technologies and practices that are becoming popular in this multi-industry-wide push for sustainability. 

Biosynthetic Manufacturing

The final topic to be addressed by the new Future-Proofing subcommittee in their 2021 series, will take a detailed look into the future of manufacturing techniques, specifically the use of biosynthetic manufacturing and how this will impact the industry. Tune in to learn more about bioreactors and their application for the concentrate market and genetic modification to cannabis (marijuana and hemp) consumable products.

Prepare to check out the first part of this integral Future-Proofing Your Business series brought to you by the Cannabis Manufacturing Committee. 

Coming, February 2021.

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