BPA on the receipts you handle

[glatt]

Remember a year or two ago when there was the scandal about all the BPA in plastic water bottles made by Nalgene and in can linings made by numerous companies? Those products were removed from some stores' shelves nationwide, and many bottle companies reformulated their plastic recipes to get rid of the BPA in the bottles.

Turns out there is an even greater source of BPA that we all come into contact with frequently. Sales receipts. Especial those printed on that thin shiny thermal paper.

In a recent sampling of receipts from around the country, a consumer group tested 36 receipts. Of that sample group, 29 were contaminated with BPA at very high levels. That's roughly 80% that are contaminated.

You can't tell by looking at them, which receipts are contaminated or not.

Safeway was the worst, with a receipt that was 2.8% BPA by mass and 20.7 milligrams total. To put this in perspective:

The receipt for a McDonald's Happy Meal™ purchased in Clinton, Conn. on April 21, 2010 had an estimated 13 milligrams of BPA. That equals the amount of BPA in 126 cans of Chef Boyardee Overstuffed Beef Ravioli in Hearty Tomato & Meat Sauce, one of the products with the highest concentrations of BPA in EWG's 2007 tests of canned foods (EWG 2007).

It's kind of freaky that there is such a ubiquitous source of this toxin. Sales receipts! And it explains why studies have shown that adults who work in retail have 30% more BPA in their bodies than other adults.

Suggestions for limiting your exposure to BPA on receipts include:

* Minimize receipt collection by declining receipts at gas pumps, ATMs and other machines when possible.
* Store receipts separately in an envelope in a wallet or purse.
* Never give a child a receipt to hold or play with.
* After handling a receipt, wash hands before preparing and eating food (a universally recommended practice even for those who have not handled receipts).
* Do not use alcohol-based hand cleaners after handling receipts. A recent study showed that these products can increase the skin's BPA absorption (Biedermann 2010).
* Take advantage of store services that email or archive paperless purchase records.
* Do not recycle receipts and other thermal paper. BPA residues from receipts will contaminate recycled paper.
* If you are unsure, check whether paper is thermally treated by rubbing it with a coin. Thermal paper discolors with the friction; conventional paper does not.

I've frequently held receipts in my teeth to free up my hands as I put the cash change away into my wallet. Guess I won't be doing that any more.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Don't eat that.

[Spexxvet]

Damnit! I handle that stuff all day.

[Pico and ME]

I just finished eating a Kashi Go Lean bar. Im betting the wrap it came in is coated with that stuff too.

[glatt]

I'm glad I don't work in the fax room. Those poor SOBs are exposed to tons of that shit all day long. It's all thermal paper.

[Clodfobble]

Recent studies have also shown that BPA levels are significantly linked to food allergies, autoimmunity, and a subgroup of autism cases.

[glatt]

To be fair, it's not clear how much of the BPA will rub off of the receipts and onto you when you handle them.

In an effort to quantify how much BPA would transfer to a person’s hand, the laboratory performed wipe tests on four BPA-laden receipts. In all four cases, BPA transferred from the receipts to the wipes. An average of 2.4 percent of the receipts’ total BPA content wiped off, suggesting that a person who handled receipts would be exposed to some BPA in the thermal paper. There have been no published studies of BPA residues inside pockets, purses and wallets, on wet produce in grocery bags or on the hands of people after they crumpled and discarded a receipt.

So if that McDonald receipt in my first post contained 126 times the BPA found in a very contaminated can of ravioli, and the tests show that 2.4% of the BPA rubs off a receipt, then rubbing the receipt will expose you to about three cans of that BPA laden ravioli. Eating the receipt will expose you to the full 126 cans of ravioli.

So like Bruce says, don't eat the receipts. And don't rub them either. And wash your hands before you do eat. But you should do that anyway.

[Flint]

Great. Every time I go to the store with the kids, I let them hold the receipt on the way to the car, and I explain to them how goods are exchanged for money, and how the numbers on the paper represent the goods purchased and the amounts of money, and how I go to work every day to exchange work for the money which in turn we exchange for goods. This is the basic concept of modern man representing objects and transactions with commonly understood symbols (written language).

But I want to stress this part: I do not let them eat the receipts.

[lookout123]

Wow. It's scary to think about that shit. Hell, just the other day I used a McDonald's receipt to snort my bump. Those bastards were poisoning me and I didn't even know it!

[jinx]

Shit. I guess the kids and I will stop making origami infant hats to donate to the local hospital out of them...

[lookout123]

The Cellar: Perfecting gallows humor daily.

[Shawnee123]

I thought we should always save our receipts. Ever run out of toilet paper?

[squirell nutkin]

The East European Judges give 10, 10, and 10!

[Shawnee123]

(Counts...one 10, two 10, three 10...sigh) I guess I don't get one of them there tens.

[Flint]

I read that bad dust is on the slip they give you.

I tell you this as I use the rule of four. This is due to a post that UT (the main dude of this site) made, here.