BOSTON — Eight months after she started working in a Holyoke marijuana cultivation facility in 2021, 27-year-old Lorna McMurrey died from an asthma attack after inhaling ground cannabis dust — a death that drew national attention as it was the first to be traced to dust and mold deposits found within marijuana workspaces.

Her death, which followed repeated occupational asthma attacks, has cascaded into advocacy for not only dispensary workers, but even consumers, who aren’t immune from the deleterious impacts of mold and dust deposits in marijuana dispensaries and grow facilities.

Earlier this month, McMurrey’s mother, Laura Bruneau, testified before the state’s Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy in support of a bill filed by state Rep. Susannah Whipps, I-Athol, to address both worker and consumer safety in cultivating facilities and dispensaries.

“I am testifying today because my daughter Lorna’s death was preventable,” Bruneau, of West Springfield, told the committee on April 9.

The bill, H.194, which is also dubbed “Lorna’s Law,” seeks to establish a department of workplace and consumer safety within the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC), the state’s regulatory body for marijuana products.

That department would be charged with investigating workplace safety including, but not limited to, air quality and first responder access, the bill states. The department would also be tasked with ensuring consumer safety by compiling data related to mold testing and reporting that data to the commission.

These moves would have alleviated the conditions faced by McMurrey leading up to her death at Trulieve Holyoke, according to those who testified before the joint committee.

“The facility had locked doors and no windows, and when she collapsed they wouldn’t even let first responders go in and save her,” Bruneau said.

That’s why the bill advocates for greater ventilation, more oversight of workspaces and products, and requires first responders be allowed entry during an emergency.

“Imagine working in a poorly ventilated, small room ... grinding moldy cannabis for eight hours a day, five days a week for a year,” said Danny Carson, a friend of McMurrey who co-founded the Cannabis Coalition for Worker Safety after she died. He testified alongside Bruneau at the joint committee hearing.

“Mold poses a significant threat within this industry,” he said, noting that the harmful deposits are prevalent in grow facilities, whether in small or large operations.

“Over the past six months I have personally initiated testing on over 100 off-the-shelf cannabis products and had them tested for yeast and mold. Shockingly, 47% of those products exceeded the safe threshold set by this state,” Carson said.

These findings are consistent with those of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in 2023 found that four out of 10 Trulieve employees with similar duties to McMurrey were dealing with respiratory tract or skin symptoms.

The Cannabis Control Commission in February said it will continue to raise its standards for testing after cannabis contaminated with mold and mildew had been found in more than 20 dispensaries statewide, including those in Northampton, Easthampton, Greenfield and Montague.

“It is clear that workplaces in the Massachusetts cannabis industry are not safe,” Carson said.

When speaking on workplace safety during the hearing, Ryan Arias Dominguez, a member of the Cannabis Control Commission’s advisory board, said there is currently a need for “standardization” but did not explicitly endorse Whipps’ bill.

Whipps, who is Carson’s aunt, said on Monday that she sees this legislation as an opportunity to “step back” after the recreational marijuana industry has been active in Massachusetts for more than five years now.

“With a new industry, it’s important to learn as we go,” she said, adding that she is “happy to ring the bell” for the state’s cannabis workers.

Whipps hopes to see the bill leave the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy favorably this legislative session.

Eight months

McMurrey began her job at Trulieve, formerly located at 56 Canal St. in Holyoke, in May 2021. Six months later, she experienced her first asthma attack.

“On Nov. 9, 2021, Lorna was working in a small room with other workers grinding and rolling cannabis materials. On that day, Lorna suffered her first occupational asthma attack,” Bruneau testified.

Bruneau recounted how her daughter “was taken by ambulance to the hospital. The next day she went back to work in the same place she had the first asthma attack.”

Then, just eight weeks later, a follow-up asthma attack led to her collapsing at work on Jan. 4, 2022. Three days later, on Jan. 7, she died at Baystate Medical Center.

“After three agonizing days in the hospital, I watched Lorna take her last breath, which was caused by occupational exposure to cannabis dust,” Bruneau said. “Lorna was my world. I have no world anymore.

“Her life mattered the way the lives of every hard-working individual in this industry matters. Consumers who buy these products matter,” she continued.

In late 2022, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Trulieve following an investigation into McMurrey’s death, but exonerated the company of direct responsibility.

In June 2023, Trulieve closed its Holyoke cultivation business and three dispensaries, including one in Northampton, citing a multi-million-dollar loss in the value of its operations due to competitive pressures.

That same year, the McMurrey family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Trulieve in Hampden County Superior Court, which is still being heard.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.