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This is really cool. I used to enjoy toying with thermal printers until I found out the paper is coated with a very fine dust of BPA. Still they sell thermal pr

This is really cool. I used to enjoy toying with thermal printers until I found out the paper is coated with a very fine dust of BPA. Still they sell thermal printer cameras on Amazon marketed for children

lionpixel 2y ago
Indeed. But there are some good BPA-free alternatives on the market
- echoangle 2y ago
  Is there any way to verify that without getting a Lab to do an analysis? I'm not sure if I can trust stuff labelled BPA-Free from Amazon for example.
  - kube-system 2y ago
    Even if they are, that doesn't mean they're safer https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/are-bpa-substitutes-any-safer-bpa https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/are-bpa-substitutes-any-s...
    - heeton 2y ago
      That study looked at 6 similar plasticizers. The alternative chemicals for thermal paper are totally different. That's not to say that they are guaranteed safe, but that study is inapplicable. E.g. one type of paper claims to use Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C). No idea what else is in it of course, but it's not a BGA-analogue plasticizer.
      - kube-system 2y ago
        > E.g. one type of paper claims to use Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C). No idea what else is in it of course, but it's not a BGA-analogue plasticizer. How would you know it doesn't, if you don't know what's in it? Regardless, my point is that many BPA-analogue containing products advertise their BPA-free status.
        heeton 2y ago
        My comment was that BPA is not used in thermal paper as a plasticizer, which that linked study was examining.
        kube-system 2y ago
        Yes, it's a used as a developer, but as is common in many cases when replacing chemicals with other chemicals -- similar chemicals have similar properties. And in fact, some BPA-free thermal paper use BPS for example.
  - heeton 2y ago
    Buy from a reputable seller for anything important, instead of amazon. Or, there are apparently at-home testing chemicals that look simple to use. I haven't done it myself though.
    - echoangle 2y ago
      The question is who is reputable. Even when buying from a well known store, I don’t know how they audit their suppliers, because the paper is bound to be made by some company I’ve never heard of.
  - xp84 2y ago
    Yeah I would assume that given how easy it is to start a new Amazon seller account and how impossible it is for some random seller in China to face legal repercussions from the US, the likelihood of finding an “_____-free” item to actually be made of whatever the cheapest and most readily available formulation is. (Including the _____), is pretty high.
detritus 2y ago
Yeah, I've had a couple of odd looks from other people in the supermarket when my daughter's piped up about not being allowed to touch the shopping receipts, haha. I do get the impression companies are beginning to move back to traditional printed receipts, at least a bit, here in the UK.
madphilosopher 2y ago
Look for kitchen printers. They're dot-matrix / ink ribbon receipt printers for use in restaurant kitchens, where the plate warmers and other sources of heat will turn thermal paper completely black. So, instead, they use rolls of ordinary bond paper. The fact that they make a loud noise every time an order comes through is useful for a restaurant kitchen, too. The Epson TM-U220 is one model to consider.

lionpixel 2y ago

Indeed. But there are some good BPA-free alternatives on the market

echoangle 2y ago
Is there any way to verify that without getting a Lab to do an analysis? I'm not sure if I can trust stuff labelled BPA-Free from Amazon for example.
- kube-system 2y ago
  Even if they are, that doesn't mean they're safer https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/are-bpa-substitutes-any-safer-bpa https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/are-bpa-substitutes-any-s...
  - heeton 2y ago
    That study looked at 6 similar plasticizers. The alternative chemicals for thermal paper are totally different. That's not to say that they are guaranteed safe, but that study is inapplicable. E.g. one type of paper claims to use Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C). No idea what else is in it of course, but it's not a BGA-analogue plasticizer.
    - kube-system 2y ago
      > E.g. one type of paper claims to use Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C). No idea what else is in it of course, but it's not a BGA-analogue plasticizer. How would you know it doesn't, if you don't know what's in it? Regardless, my point is that many BPA-analogue containing products advertise their BPA-free status.
      - heeton 2y ago
        My comment was that BPA is not used in thermal paper as a plasticizer, which that linked study was examining.
        kube-system 2y ago
        Yes, it's a used as a developer, but as is common in many cases when replacing chemicals with other chemicals -- similar chemicals have similar properties. And in fact, some BPA-free thermal paper use BPS for example.
- heeton 2y ago
  Buy from a reputable seller for anything important, instead of amazon. Or, there are apparently at-home testing chemicals that look simple to use. I haven't done it myself though.
  - echoangle 2y ago
    The question is who is reputable. Even when buying from a well known store, I don’t know how they audit their suppliers, because the paper is bound to be made by some company I’ve never heard of.
- xp84 2y ago
  Yeah I would assume that given how easy it is to start a new Amazon seller account and how impossible it is for some random seller in China to face legal repercussions from the US, the likelihood of finding an “_____-free” item to actually be made of whatever the cheapest and most readily available formulation is. (Including the _____), is pretty high.

detritus 2y ago

Yeah, I've had a couple of odd looks from other people in the supermarket when my daughter's piped up about not being allowed to touch the shopping receipts, haha. I do get the impression companies are beginning to move back to traditional printed receipts, at least a bit, here in the UK.

madphilosopher 2y ago

Look for kitchen printers. They're dot-matrix / ink ribbon receipt printers for use in restaurant kitchens, where the plate warmers and other sources of heat will turn thermal paper completely black. So, instead, they use rolls of ordinary bond paper. The fact that they make a loud noise every time an order comes through is useful for a restaurant kitchen, too. The Epson TM-U220 is one model to consider.