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Do people know most paper receipts are harmful to their health?
I'm going to get up on my soapbox for a minute, but do people realize how pretty much everyone is being overloaded with endocrine disruptors like BPA/BPS on a near-daily basis??
I don't think many people understand that ever since most of the world transitioned to thermal paper receipts (cheaper than ink), almost every receipt you handle from the gas station to the grocery store to the Square terminal printer at the local co-op is coated with Bisphenol-A (BPA) or its chemical cousin Bisphenol-S (BPS).
These chemicals have not only been proven to cause reproductive harm to human and animals, they've also been linked to obesity and attention disorders.
Not sure if your receipt is a thermal receipt? If you scratch it with a coin and it turns dark, it's thermal.
BPA/BPS can enter the skin to a depth such that it is no longer removable by washing hands. When taking hold of a receipt consisting of thermal printing paper for five seconds, roughly 1 μg BPA is transferred to the forefinger and the middle finger. If the skin is dry or greasy, it is about ten times more.
Think of how many receipts you handle every day. It's even worse for cashiers and tellers, who may handle hundreds in a single shift. It is also a class issue, since many people who work retail and food service are lower-income and will suffer worse health consequences over time from the near-constant exposure.
Not only that, receipts printed with thermal ink are NOT recyclable, as they pollute the rest of the paper products with the chemicals.
People don't know this and recycle them anyway, so when you buy that "green" toilet paper that says "100% recycled"? Yup, you are probably wiping your most sensitive areas with those same chemicals (for this reason, I buy bamboo or sugarcane toilet paper as a sustainable alternative to recycled paper).
This page from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has some good links if you want to learn more.
As consumers, we need to demand better from our businesses and from our governments. We need regulation of these chemicals yesterday.
If you are a buyer or decision-maker for a business, the link above also contains a shortlist of receipt paper manufacturers that are phenol-free.
If you work at a register, ask customers if they want a receipt. If they don't and you can end the transaction without printing one, don't print one!
As a consumer, fold receipts with the ink on the inside, since that's where the coating is. Some more good tips here.
And whatever you do, DO NOT RECYCLE THERMAL RECEIPTS
'Eco-friendly' paper drinking straws contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals, a new study has concluded.
of fucking course.....they fucking coated paper straws with pfas......its a fucking nightmare
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Long-lasting 'forever chemicals', which can cause damaging health issues, found in 18/20 brands of paper straws
In the first analysis of its kind in Europe, and only the second in the world, Belgian researchers tested 39 brands of straws for the group of synthetic chemicals known as poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
PFAS were found in the majority of the straws tested and were most common in those made from paper and bamboo, the study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Food Additives and Contaminants, found.
PFAS are used to make everyday products, from outdoor clothing to non-stick pans, resistant to water, heat and stains. They are, however, potentially harmful to people, wildlife and the environment.
They break down very slowly over time and can persist over thousands of years in the environment, a property that has led to them being known as "forever chemicals."
They have been associated with a number of health problems, including lower response to vaccines, lower birth weight, thyroid disease, increased cholesterol levels, liver damage, kidney cancer and testicular cancer.
"Straws made from plant-based materials, such as paper and bamboo, are often advertised as being more sustainable and eco-friendly than those made from plastic," says researcher Dr Thimo Groffen, an environmental scientist at the University of Antwerp, who is involved in this study.
"However, the presence of PFAS in these straws means that's not necessarily true."
A growing number of countries, including the UK and Belgium, have banned sale of single-use plastic products, including drinking straws, and plant-based versions have become popular alternatives.
A recent study found PFAS in plant-based drinking straws in the US. Dr Groffen and colleagues wanted to find out if the same was true of those on sale in Belgium.
To explore this further, the research team purchased 39 different brands of drinking straw made from five materials -- paper, bamboo, glass, stainless steel and plastic.
The straws, which were mainly obtained from shops, supermarkets and fast-food restaurants, then underwent two rounds of testing for PFAS.
The majority of the brands (27/39, 69%) contained PFAS, with 18 different PFAS detected in total.
The paper straws were most likely to contain PFAS, with the chemicals detected in 18/20 (90%) of the brands tested. PFAS were also detected in 4/5 (80%) brands of bamboo straw, 3/4 (75%) of the plastic straw brands and 2/5 (40%) brands of glass straw. They were not detected in any of the five types of steel straw tested.
The most commonly found PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), has been banned globally since 2020.
Also detected were trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFMS), "ultra-short chain" PFAS which are highly water soluble and so might leach out of straws into drinks.
The PFAS concentrations were low and, bearing in mind that most people tend to only use straws occasionally, pose a limited risk to human health. However, PFAS can remain in the body for many years and concentrations can build up over time.
"Small amounts of PFAS, while not harmful in themselves, can add to the chemical load already present in the body," says Dr Groffen.
It isn't known whether the PFAS were added to the straws by the manufacturers for waterproofing or whether were the result of contamination. Potential sources of contamination include the soil the plant-based materials were grown in and the water used in the manufacturing process.
However, the presence of the chemicals in almost every brand of paper straw means it is likely that it was, in some cases, being used as a water-repellent coating, say the researchers.
The study's other limitations include not looking at whether the PFAS would leach out of the straws into liquids.
Dr Groffen concludes: "The presence of PFAS in paper and bamboo straws shows they are not necessarily biodegradable.
"We did not detect any PFAS in stainless steel straws, so I would advise consumers to use this type of straw -- or just avoid using straws at all."
A significant change is the regulation of toxins in drinking water or so-called “forever chemicals” that can build up in the environment and
If we don't research it, we won't know the harms to public health. And if we don't know the harms to public health, there aren't any, right? -
They could have run with the current Totally Asking For It theme wrt the Titanic and named it "Tit".
This man built an eco-friendly and self-sufficient home out of local upcycled materials to bring awareness to environmental pollution
#Earth #Environment #ClimateCrisis #NowThis
the environment isn’t racist, but people are
the environment isn’t racist, but the people who designed our environments are.
My degraded health from living in an environment that was polluted was not due to a natural occurrence. But rather a system that was designed to punish and keep communities like mine below while indoctrinating us to believe that we didn't work hard enough to live in a society that had access to clean air, water, and soil. I grew up thinking that living near toxic facilities, having no access to green spaces and living miles away from grocery stores was regular. You might be thinking, “Oh my gosh, how?”. The truth is, in Western society access is also privilege. Health is also privilege. Human supremacy rhetoric that is often thrown out in environmental discussions gets me angry because it misses the mark of addressing the root causes of these issues. The environment isn’t racist, they say. How could it be? As environmental justice and environmental racism have become more known in digital and academic spaces, thanks to the legacy of environmental justice leaders who paved the way for these concepts, I cannot stop thinking of the times I've had to explain to sit down with people that reject the idea. Indeed, nature itself would not churn out pollutants of its own accord, and BIPOC peoples also evolved to live on Earth. That much is true. Still, the dominant narratives and cultures that enable nature to be degraded, utilized for resources, and tied to an economic lens, has allowed those who reap the benefits of capitalism to perpetuate the idea that this system of thinking is natural when it’s actually cultural. Yes, Earth is a great, plentiful piece of magic floating through the galaxy, and we evolved to live here. It’s not Earth that’s the problem, it’s the cultural behaviors and practices of an oppressive foundation. For many of us, our environments are not the benefits of Earth (green space, access to healthy food, clean air/water/soil), but the negative externalities of our culture (air pollution, water pollution, food deserts). The establishment of polluted industries came from white supremacy and it actively colonized, displaced and enslaved Black & Indigenous communities to accomplish its goals. To this day, we see the legacy of redlining where communities of color were rejected to have any housing opportunities in affluent White neighborhoods because they didn't want us there. How subsidized public housing is built near toxic environments, or how people who are imprisoned by the prison, immigration, or military-industrial complex are being poisoned as we speak. This is why we must continue to recognize that our framing of discussions must be precise to hold ourselves accountable. Outsourcing pollution will not fix the crisis we have today. At COP26, I had the pleasure to meet Dr. Robert Bullard, the father of environmental justice and it’s an experience I’ll never forget.
-queerbrownvegan
