Month: November 2010

Welcome to www.thermalpaperfacts.org, your resource for reliable information about the safety and numerous benefits of thermal paper.

Thermal paper technology is the leading printing technology of choice for a number of sectors, from everyday retail to healthcare. These sectors have relied on the safety, durability, speed and cost-efficiency of thermal paper technology for decades.

This web site is sponsored by a consortium of companies, scientists and other experts dedicated to presenting accurate, unbiased and scientifically rigorous facts about chemicals in the environment.  For more information, email [email protected].

Thermal paper poses no health risk

There is no evidence that thermal paper containing BPA poses any health or safety risk to the public or to workers who handle it on a frequent basis, according to the most recent review of all relevant studies by the nonprofit Environmental Health Research Foundation.  Specifically, the Foundation “found no evidence to suggest adverse health effects from the small amounts of BPA that may migrate from thermal paper to human skin.”   It also found no evidence to support commercial advertising claims suggesting that the use of “BPA-free” thermal paper presents any health or safety benefit to cashiers or other workers handling such paper.   The fully documented report can be found here.

Evidence found lacking in chemosphere study

three ideas to help you create like a pro app development companiesA study recently published online by the journal

Chemosphere (Zalko et al, 2010) has attracted some media attention for its claims that BPA from thermal paper is efficiently absorbed through the skin, where it is converted to water-soluble metabolites (byproducts of BPA, once it is metabolized in the human body).  These byproducts are known to be completely lacking in estrogenic activity and are efficiently excreted from the body in urine.

The authors claim the inactive BPA metabolites are then re-converted into an estrogen-active substance, and that this process “contributes substantially” to BPA exposure due to breakdown of the metabolite and release of free BPA within the body.

This is a very troubling conclusion, as the authors provide no evidence that inactive BPA metabolites are reconverted into estrogenic BPA in the human body.  Therefore, this appears to be simply speculation on the part of the study’s authors.