Hundreds of cannabis workers fall ill in Albanian village -- Why? (Serious Question)

See the article: http://www.trust.org/item/20131101135156-681gv

Essentially hundreds of cannabis workers have become ill harvesting cannabis (or perhaps creating hash?).

I'm an Occupational Health RN and am curious as to what's going on. Creating finger hash seemingly has no ill effects. I know of no toxic constituents of cannabis that is absorbed through the skin. I doubt any pesticides are being used. Might anyone here have an idea as what's going on?

There is an illness that affects tobacco leaf harvesters who pick tobacco leaves when damp from dew. It's called "green tobacco sickness."

See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1763894/

Tobacco dew (if one were to collect it) contains 9 milligrams of nicotene per 100 millileters. Dermal absorption rate is unknown but clearly pickers can become ill by nicotene poisoning.

However I cannot imagine a constituent of cannabis that is either toxic or water soluble. Deer can eat large quantities of green cannabis to no ill effects so there doesn't seem to be anything toxic involved.

Anyone have any ideas as to what's going on here?

Thanks

 

government probably sprayed the area with paraquat. and while this isnt used in the USA/Mexico anymore. theres no saying where the stockpile the shit went.. even if the Albanian gov denies its use. note the practice of harvesting is illegal and they are just poor peasants. who give a fuck is what the gov really says.

 

like the responses on the article, most likely pesticide.

 

More important questions:

If pot was grown for the last 2 decades, why are harvesters only coming up sick now?

Are we to believe the exact same refugee harvesters have been working in the fields for that long when teen's are reported ill in the same report?

And what about the roma also in the area who are known for being nomadic?

And why have there been no reports of cannabis related illness in other countries to discourage legalization in anti-cannabis countries?

Further, where is the report of people getting sick from smoking or eating Albanian grown pot? After all, why package it if you don't sell it to someone after, legal or not? No dealer would waste that kind of money on labor for a personal stash, legal or not.