Growing at Home – Health and Safety Concerns for Personal Cannabis Cultivation
This webinar is presented as part of the CPHA Cannabis Webinar Series.
Personal cultivation as described by the Cannabis Act (2017) permits adults to cultivate up to four cannabis plants per household. This provision is intended to both promote equity by facilitating access to legal cannabis, particularly when retail outlets are difficult to access, and to undercut the black market. However, indoor cultivation and processing of cannabis may also introduce or exacerbate certain environmental health risks in the home.
This session will focus on five key environmental health risks anticipated from growing at home:
- Access and accidental poisoning;
- Indoor air quality;
- Inappropriate use of pesticides;
- Electrical and fire hazards; and
- Radiation hazards.
After exploring each of the risks, participants will also learn about policy and practice considerations relevant to each risk, interventions that have been implemented in other legalized jurisdictions, and key risk messages concerning each hazard. The presentation will close with a brief discussion on cannabis risk communication. Improved knowledge about the environmental health risks associated with personal cannabis cultivation will help public health professionals navigate changing guidelines, create consistent messaging approaches across jurisdictions, and facilitate collaboration to create proactive solutions to these emerging environmental health concerns.