Like the better-known chemical BPA, BPS is an endocrine disruptor linked to breast cancer and reproductive toxicity.
Holding a receipt for 10 seconds? Damn. And is there any tell for BPS-reduced or BPS free receipt paper?
I have receipts all over my place, though I organized them all recently. But now I know to handle them with gloves on next time.
The problem is with receipts on thermal paper, not those printed with normal ink, so [edit:
manysome] receipts are not an issueany more.If you want to tell the difference, you could try applying heat (like a hair dryer or iron) over the receipts and see which ones change color (usually turning grey or black where heated).
Once you find a few, you’ll likely get a feel for which ones are likely to be thermal paper just by looking and you can practice extra care with those. (Tip: they are usually the ones that appear a bit glossy.)
Most receipts use thermal paper that i’ve seen. You can rub one with a coin quickly and that brings up marks on many.
My question is that is it all thermal paper is problematic or some but there’s no telling the difference except to avoid all of that type?
The problem is with receipts on thermal paper, not those printed with normal ink, so many receipts are not an issue any more.
Um, you’ve got it backwards, most receipts are now thermally printed. The ink printed receipts are the “outdated” ones.
reason being: thermal receipt printers have higher uptime with lower maintenance costs, they print faster, and use no consumable other than the paper.
at my office we don’t print many receipts, but we use plain paper (letter, half letter or photo paper sized–as appropriate) loaded into a normal inkjet printer that uses cheap (~ $2 ea) knockoff ink cartridges that get recycled (we hope, anyway, when we drop them off at a collection point).
I haven’t seen a receipt printed with normal ink in decades. They’re all thermal now.
Oh that’s cool, not like my job requires me to constantly handle reciepts or anything smh
Can you wear gloves?
Maybe, i’ll have to ask
Show them this article, lawsuits aren’t cheap.
If they say no call OSHA and say your employer is denying you the right to PPE.
They should first verify that they use these kind of printers, I guess.
Now if I get some weird cancer one day I’ll probably link it to that one joint I hit that was rolled in thermal paper :/
This the second person saying this. What’s up with you guys?
I mean I’ve been in a situation with no rizla myself but I’ve just used the remains of a cigarette after removing the tobacco.
That’s so much grosser and arguably just as carcinogenic.
I mean a not used cigarette and emptying out the tobacco and using the paper from that.
I doubt that is more carcinogenic than thermal paper coated in BPA.
The cancer you get from cigs is the tobacco.
If your bullshit detectors are going off on this one, you’re not alone. Can we please quantify the risk?
Sure. There’s quantitiative information in the article, and more if you click the links.
You’re always welcome to read the article - I find that they often include additional information related to the headline!
Since you were the slightly snarkier of the two responses, can you point out where in the article it quantities the risk? Not the concentration vs limits. If it’s discussed in the links, just tell me which link to follow. No need to show where.
I would normally follow the links to the primary peer-reviewed journal article, but there isn’t one.
Click the links in the article and follow back to the source my guy. It’s not hard and I don’t understand why you expect these people to prove your claim wrong, you should be the one to substantiate it and to do that you might start following some of the links and reading the source material for it.
It’s pretty obvious that quantitative risk data were not provided in the articles or links. The study doesn’t claim to produce such data.
I’m not even convinced you would know such data if you saw it, but you’re quite confident that if one digs hard enough, one will find it.
Uh fuckin how
How do you do studies that require generations of actual people? That are then peer-reviewed?
How are you “quantifying risk”
Math. The answer is math.
Eww
Yeah they’re using it. In labs. Where they study things.
You don’t get to just model reality, you have to study it
Obligatory Mitch Hedberg:
I don’t need a receipt for a doughnut. I’ll just give you the money, and you give me the doughnut. End of transaction! We don’t need to bring ink and paper into this! I can’t imagine a scenario where I’d have to prove that I bought a doughnut. Some skeptical friend…‘Don’t even act like I didn’t get that doughnut! I’ve got the documentation right here! Oh, wait, it’s back home, in the file. Under d…for doughnut.’
Obligatory Patrice O’Neal retort:
“I do a lot of stuff to protect myself. I keep my receipts. I collect receipts 'cause that’s a trail of where you been, man. Everywhere I go I get a receipt. And I never go more than a half hour without buying something cause you could kill somebody in a half hour, and then you need an alibi.”
My company’s accountant: if there is no receipt, you had no doughnut, you get no reimbursement.
I mean, yes, but that breaks down when you start thinking about a donut, two croissants, a cheese scone, and 3 coffees, 2 regular, 1 large, one with regular milk, one with almond milk, and one black, for me and the two friends in the office who then need to think about reimbursement
American much? 😅
Because only Americans buy more than a single donut?
The only people I’ve ever known to not grasp the friendly concept of “I’ve got next”.
If I’m only getting a scone and a small black coffee, I’m not paying for your soy mocha latte with almond sprinkles and unicorn hair. “I’ve got next” is a luxury of those not on a budget. All my friends get it, and we all agree you pay for your own. We save rounds for the bar where everyone is drinking the same thing
Also, fwiw, I’ve never even been to America
If you’ve got “friends” that aren’t mature enough to know better than to stick anyone else with their bullshit order when you’re grabbing “coffee”, I don’t know what to tell ya — but I’d just tell 'em “Nope” and move along. It’s really not that hard, and setting healthy boundaries helps others with theirs (in a perfect world). 🤷🏼♂️🤞🏼 Good luck!
Also, aside from the scenery, you’re not missing much right now.
We were discussing the usefulness of receipts, why are we now discussing the maturity of my friends and my ability to set boundaries?
I’m more than happy to pick up whatever my friends would like… because they’re my friends, and so long as I have hands to carry it, it’s not an imposition.
I just expect them to pay for it. Expecting me to foot the bill WOULD be an imposition, and I wouldn’t be ok with that. THAT is my healthy boundary.
Receipts help with this.
There is no one size fits all when it comes to group dynamics like this, and I’ll thank you to not make assumptions about my friends like that.
Want your receipt?
Fuck no! That shits toxic!
Gee wiz, does nothing we come in contact with poison us at this point? Good luck getting the Chud Administration to do anything. They would probably tell them to add more poison.
Mean while doctors can’t figure out why cancer rates are spiking
deleted by creator
I’m curious as to your thought process. Why does you working in retail mean it’s bullshit?
Smoking can lead to lung cancer is bullshit because I’ve not got lung cancer.
See how silly that is?
and i thought the prices were making me dizzy
I used to work as a bartender and we kept a pump bottle of hand sanitizer on the sink just in case we were so busy that a 20-second hand wash wasn’t reasonable. -We used thermal paper almost exclusively and I know for a fact that I occasionally had alcohol-laden hands when I was handling that thermal paper.
RIP
Was I not supposed to roll joints with this stuff when I was 18?
Holy fuck that would be so toxic
Stick to the good book, son. That way, you don’t make the baby jeebus cry. Or, you do. I forget. passes left
one of my first joints was made out of binder paper
I wrote poems on them/my semi erotic Great American Novel about Columbine which will never be published for obvious reasons.
You gotta use apples to smoke as a broke kid. That way, when you are done, you can eat it. It’s a nice sweet hydrating snack and there’s no evidence other than the smell afterwards (I think spleefs/whatever are just lying to oneself out of desperation).
Is there a Lemmy community for comments out of context?
Because even in context this is a wild comment; out of context it would be even better
This is a real 1950s, we’ve sprayed things with carcinogens and poison type problem that there needs to be regulation on. The problem is that usually comes from a lawsuit.
From a Kirkland, Washington, USA health hazards sheet that I found in a quick search:
TIPS TO REDUCE EXPOSURES TO BISPHENOLS IN RECEIPTS:
- DO NOT compost or recycle receipts and other thermal paper. BPA & BPS residues from receipts will contaminate recycled paper.
- Minimize receipt collection by declining receipts at gas pumps, ATMs and other machines when possible.
- Never give a child a receipt to hold or play with.
- After handling a receipt, wash hands before preparing and eating food.
- Do not use alcohol-based hand cleaners after handling receipts. A recent study showed that these products can increase the skin’s BPA absorption.
- Take advantage of store services that email or archive paperless purchase records.
- Store receipts separately in an envelope in a wallet or purse.
HAZARDS FOUND IN LABORATORY TESTS INCLUDE:
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Early Puberty
- Cardiovascular system disorders
- Abnormal reproductive system development
- Hormone abnormalities in children
- Susceptibility to various cancers
- Resistance to chemotherapy
- Diminished intellectual capacity
So THAT’S why I’m fat and have a small dick!
Hand sanitizer makes thermal receipts “erasable”.
Lovely to recall how I used to have fun doing this, smearing my fingers all over alcohol soaked receipts to maximize my absorption of BPA.
Above that it mentions:
HAZARDS FOUND IN LABORATORY TESTS INCLUDE:
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Early Puberty
- Cardiovascular system disorders
- Abnormal reproductive system development
- Hormone abnormalities in children
- Susceptibility to various cancers
- Resistance to chemotherapy
- Diminished intellectual capacity
Great, so receipts are going to be like our version of the leaded gasoline and mercury of past generations? 🫠
It’s plastics in general, but yeah. It’s already in your brain, and you’re accumulating more every year.
As I understand it, plastics themselves have no known negative impact on human health - it’s the additives in the plastics that are a problem. But I don’t think the BPA hazards listed above can be fairly generalized to all microplastics.
EDIT:
from the hazards sheet:
HEALTH HAZARDS IN THERMAL PAPER WITH BISPHENOLS (BPA & BPS)
So BPA and BPS, and they’re talking about thermal paper with those in particular.
I guess this has more details about BPA hazards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_Bisphenol_A
The U.S. FDA states “BPA is safe at the current levels occurring in foods” based on extensive research, including two more studies issued by the agency in early 2014.[2] The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reviewed new scientific information on BPA in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2015: EFSA’s experts concluded on each occasion that they could not identify any new evidence which would lead them to revise their opinion that the known level of exposure to BPA is safe; however, the EFSA does recognize some uncertainties, and will continue to investigate them.
As usual, it’s highly contextual when something is a hazard and to what extent it is.
As I understand it, plastics themselves have no known negative impact on human health - it’s the additives in the plastics that are a problem.
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What are these additive-free plastics you’re suggesting exist? Should we make sure the microplastics lodged in our brain are only of the free-range, organic, and crafted with love variety?
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There have already been preliminary studies linking higher concentrations of microplastics with poor medical outcomes with more damning reports coming out very frequently. In the meantime, maybe let’s not pretend that whatever absence of evidence you perceive is evidence of absence.
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Having no known negative impact certainly doesn’t mean they have a known positive impact. So it’s likely good to try to avoid them as much as you can.
I know it sucks because it’s yet another tough to impossible problem to tackle alongside everything else, but that’s just a Monday.
yeah, this is probably a bit like when people thought smoking wasn’t bad for you.
The higher concentration of microplastics are correlation studies, they don’t establish a causal link (which would be huge news and the discovery of a century). For example, the correlation could just be due to the poorer lifestyles of those who consume more microplastics (for example, they’re more common in processed and fast foods, which tend to be less healthy, for example and may also just be more common in people with lower economic status who then have less access to healthcare and more likely to die younger for a variety of reasons). The point is that they don’t have the smoking gun, yet.
We should just be clear about where we are at with the evidence, I’m not saying we shouldn’t be concerned or the lack of evidence is somehow exonerating or that we should be confident this isn’t a public health concern - I am very much concerned.
And of course there are lots of other reasons to avoid plastics, including its impact on the ecology and agriculture. It’s terrifying that China for example will just till plastic sheeting into the soil rather than bother to pull it up (and perhaps concerning plastic sheeting is used as a mulch in the first place, both in China and other countries like the U.S.).
I don’t know what to tell you about additives, they absolutely do make plastics without some of the known-to-be-hazardous additives, though I’m not saying that has in any way been adopted across the board or has solved the problem (I don’t know enough about that to be honest, but I’m cynical industrialists are going to give a shit).
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Scientists also used to not think plastics crossed the blood-brain barrier until they started finding it in cadaver brains, you know? The list of things we understand about how plastics react to the body and its chemical processes is probably a much shorter list than the one of things we don’t understand about plastics.
Yup, though this isn’t an argument for why plastics are certainly dangerous. It doesn’t really matter, there are many reasons plastics are a problem, even if we don’t have that smoking gun yet on how actual plastic is hazardous. BPA, BPS, PVC, and other additives are already horrible, the reliance on plastics are part of what is destroying the earth’s climate, and these materials are not recyclable or re-usable, it’s an environmental disaster on a scale we have never seen, etc.
Retail workers getting fucked again
Food service workers as well.
I thought BPA and derivatives such as BPS were banned at the federal level. I remember hearing these claims back in 2010. There was a whole campaign with plastic bottles and “BPA-free” marketing.
Yet it’s still used today? Absolutely insane.
