Receipts Give you Cancer

We have all heard that BPA is bad for us.  What you haven't heard is that BPA and its chemical cousin, BPS, are used as a developer in thermal printed receipts.  You don't handle any thermal receipts through right?  Yes, you do, they are the ones you get at the grocery store, at the mall, at the library, at restaurants and fast food establishments, your plane ticket and luggage tags, and the little receipt the gas pump spits out when you fill up your vehicle.

But there isn't very much BPA or BPS on a little slip of paper right?   Wrong again.  Because BPA and BPS are used as the developer on the paper it is unbound, which means it is on the surface and it transfers to your skin with ease.  Receipts tested for both chemicals found 37 to 79 micrograms of either BPA or BPS per square centimeter.  

So who's at risk?  Anyone handling receipts obviously but especially pregnant women, nursing mothers, women of childbearing age, or children and adolescents of both sexes that are still developing.  Cashiers have been shown to have higher levels of BPA and BPS in their bodily fluids than other occupations.  

Why does it matter?  BPA and BPS are reproductive, developmental, and systemic toxicants.  They are known to be estrogenic and carcinogenic.  When BPA and BPS are not seeping into your body through your skin, the receipts are causing contamination of wastewater from recycling plants and recycled paper.

You're welcome for this PSA.