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Touching Paper Receipts for 10 Seconds Results in Unsafe Exposure to Highly Toxic BPS: Watchdog.
(www.commondreams.org)
CVS employees!?
this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
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Say receipts are toxic.
People need receipts to return items.
Profit!
I always get my receipts emailed so I don't have to keep track of them and I can just search my email for them.
They fade away after a day regardless.
I remember hearing about basically this literally a decade ago. Nothing's been done about it since then. Nothing will be done about it now. Not unless we make a fuss about it at which point they'll pretend to give a shit about us and make grand gestures towards transitioning away from receipts made from hazardous materials. Meanwhile, they'll continue to knowingly expose us to some other hazardous material for the next decade until some independent research team uncovers how it's slowly poisoning everybody who comes into contact with it. And thus the cycle continues.
Under capitalism, there is no incentive to do anything for the benefit of humankind when it comes into conflict with the ultimate goal of accumulating as much wealth for yourself as humanly possible. It will always corrupt.
Nothing's been done about it since then.
Research has gone into safer replacements. Many companies have been switching to BPA-free formulas, most notably CVS (notorious for sheer area of thermal paper receipts) that went BPA/BPS free in 2019. Some governments have banned BPA thermal paper, and others, including the EU, have set limits. BPA has been getting phased out because of these studies.
Nothing will be done about it now.
Well no, this organization is lining up to try to replicate the success with getting BPA out of thermal paper by trying to get BPS replaced, too.
Here's a study of Switzerland. Between 2014 and 2019, the incidence of BPA thermal paper went from 81% down to around 50%, and then after the ban it went to around 10%. BPS has seen some backsliding, and has increased from 3.1% to 19.1%. Still, that's a significant reduction in the past decade of papers that use either BPA or BPS.
People are doing the work. There's no reason to sit around and do nothing and complain that others are doing nothing, too.
Thanks for fact-checking me, it's good to know that there are pockets of the world that are trying to do the right thing. And sorry for my pessimism, I live in America.
Banned in Germany since 2020; 2025 banned across Europe. So not a capitalism problem per se, more like an government problem
Looked it up, could only find bans of BPA, which has since been replaced with BPS. Can you confirm BPS is actually banned?
https://www.packaginglaw.com/news/eu-bans-bpa-and-other-bisphenols-food-contact-materials
But you right, I mixed up BPA/BPS buz in the link its mentioned that EU also banned BPS
„The revised regulation adopted in December applies the restrictions to BPS and other hazardous bisphenols and bisphenol derivatives […]“
The governments you're referring to are socially funded institutions that exist to protect the populace against the exploitations of capitalism. Sadly, they are the exception to many other governments which have let the corruption that capitalism breeds take hold.
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"Oh, you don't need to get a receipt if you give us your email address instead..."
I just don't imagine a scenario where I'd need to prove I bought a donut.
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Retail workers getting fucked again
Food service workers as well.
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
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.
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.
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So THAT’S why I’m fat and have a small dick!
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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.
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Oh that's cool, not like my job requires me to constantly handle reciepts or anything smh
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Was I not supposed to roll joints with this stuff when I was 18?
Holy fuck that would be so toxic
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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
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.
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.
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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.
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