diff --git a/src/utils.jl b/src/utils.jl
index 7134e9f..dcdeb52 100644
--- a/src/utils.jl
+++ b/src/utils.jl
@@ -15,6 +15,13 @@ macro static_error(msg::AbstractString)
     :(static_error(Val{$(QuoteNode(sym))}()))
 end
 
+"""
+    is_pointerfree_type(T::Type) :: Bool
+
+Return `true` if any instances of `T` do not contain boxed Julia objects.
+"""
+is_pointerfree_type(::Type{T}) where {T} = isconcretetype(T) && Base.datatype_pointerfree(T)
+
 function ceillog2(n::Integer)
     n > 0 || throw(DomainError(n))
     i = trailing_zeros(n)
diff --git a/src/workstealing.jl b/src/workstealing.jl
index c64f022..ee83078 100644
--- a/src/workstealing.jl
+++ b/src/workstealing.jl
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ end
 function CircularVector{T}(log2length::Int) where {T}
     @assert log2length >= 0
     data = Vector{T}(undef, 1 << log2length)
+    Nothing <: T && fill!(data, nothing)  # [^speculative_load]
     T <: Signed && fill!(data, typemin(T))
     return CircularVector{T}(log2length, data)
 end
@@ -51,10 +52,12 @@ mutable struct WorkStealingDeque{T,S}
 end
 
 function WorkStealingDeque{T}() where {T}
-    if isbitstype(T) || Base.isbitsunion(T)
-        # TODO: support Some{Union{Int,Nothing}} etc.
+    if is_pointerfree_type(T)
         S = T
     else
+        # Any element type that may contain a boxed object uses
+        # `CircularVector{Any}` which initialize all locations with `nothing`.
+        # This is for supporting "blind" `buffer[top]`.  [^speculative_load]
         S = Any
     end
     return WorkStealingDeque{T,S}(CircularVector{S}(4), 1, 1)
@@ -139,7 +142,7 @@ function ConcurrentCollections.trypop!(deque::WorkStealingDeque)
     return r
 end
 
-function ConcurrentCollections.trypopfirst!(deque::WorkStealingDeque)
+function ConcurrentCollections.trypopfirst!(deque::WorkStealingDeque{T}) where {T}
     top = @atomic deque.top
     bottom = @atomic deque.bottom
     buffer = @atomic deque.buffer
@@ -147,28 +150,41 @@ function ConcurrentCollections.trypopfirst!(deque::WorkStealingDeque)
     if current_size <= 0
         return nothing
     end
-    if Base.allocatedinline(eltype(buffer))
-        r = Some(buffer[top])
-        if @atomicreplace(deque.top, top => top + 1)[2]
-            return r
-        else
-            return nothing
-        end
+    # TODO: Technically, this should be an atomic load.  See below for some
+    # discussions.  [^speculative_load]
+    y = buffer[top]
+    if @atomicreplace(deque.top, top => top + 1)[2]
+        y = y::T
+        return Some{T}(y)
     else
-        ptr = UnsafeAtomics.load(Ptr{Ptr{Cvoid}}(pointer(buffer, top)), monotonic)
-        if @atomicreplace(deque.top, top => top + 1)[2]
-            # Safety: The above CAS verifies that the slot `buffer[top]`
-            # contained the valid element. We can now materialize it as a Julia
-            # value.
-            GC.@preserve buffer begin
-                r = Some(unsafe_pointer_to_objref(ptr))
-            end
-            return r
-        else
-            return nothing
-        end
+        return nothing
     end
 end
+# [^speculative_load]: The difficulty here is that we don't know the validity of
+# `y = buffer[top]` until the CAS below but we still need to make sure `y` is a
+# ("somewhat") valid Julia object since it has to be rooted before the CAS.
+# This is because successful CAS means that `buffer` may not root `y` anymore.
+# This can be an issue if the compiler inserts a safepoint between `buffer[top]`
+# and the CAS.  The current implementation relies on the stop-the-world behavior
+# of the GC (the "somewhat" part).  That is to say, the object `y` is not
+# *always* properly accessible at the (potential) safepoint before the CAS.
+# However, since the GC (currently) starts traversing the object graph after it
+# knows all worker threads reach the safepoint, the implementation above may
+# actually be OK for now.
+#
+# Another issue is that `buffer[top]` may not be assigned and accessing it can
+# throw if the element type is a boxed value.  The current workaround is to fill
+# `buffer` with `nothing`. Alternatively, checking the buffer with `isassigned`
+# should also work. However, since dequeue can happen many times while the
+# buffer is initialized less frequently (upon construction and resizes),
+# the `isassigned`-based strategy is not used.
+#
+# TODO: The current implementation also expects that it is "OK" to load a
+# pointerfree value non-atomically (it's a data race in C++20 memory model hence
+# an UB). A proper solution may be to store/load these values as a sequence of
+# `UInt`s with relaxed atomics and then type-pun `NTuple{_,UInt}` into the Julia
+# values.  See also the discussion in the C++ standard: [p0690r1: Tearable
+# Atomics](http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2018/p0690r1.html)
 
 function Base.pop!(deque::WorkStealingDeque)
     r = trypop!(deque)