Bpa in receipts which stores

Some of Canada's biggest retailers started testing alternatives to receipt paper that's coated in potentially dangerous chemicals, as pressure mounts for them to phase it out by the end of this year. Bisphenol A BPA is an industrial chemical that is used in making polycarbonate, a type of plastic, and epoxy resins. The Canadian government declared BPA a toxic chemical in October , finding it "constitutes or may constitute a danger to human health and the environment" based on criteria set out in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

The government made it illegal to manufacture, import, advertise or sell baby bottles with the chemical that same year. They say these coatings pose a risk to retail workers and consumers.

Not in every receipt. But in plenty. Until at least , neither the public nor the general science community had been aware of receipt papers as a potentially important source of exposure to BPA. A nanogram is a billionth of a gram. The individual molecules are loose and ready for uptake.

Once on the fingers, BPA can be transferred to foods. A number of hormones — including estrogen — can be delivered through the skin by controlled-release patches. So, some scientists began to worry about whether BPA, too, might enter the skin.

In , toxicologists showed it did. Two teams published data showing BPA could pass into the body through skin. Three years later, a team of university and government scientists showed that handling receipt paper could bring BPA into the body. Paper companies started getting concerned. Several public-interest groups have been petitioning for companies to label any receipt papers that contain BPA or one of its chemical cousins. That way, pregnant women would know to wash their hands after picking up a BPA-laced receipt.

They would also know to keep it out of the hands of babies that might put fingers that handled such receipts into their mouths. By Janet Raloff November 22, at am. Jul 24, , pm EDT. Jul 10, , am EDT. Jul 9, , am EDT. Jul 7, , pm EDT. Jul 6, , pm EDT. Edit Story. Jan 21, , pm EST. Bruce Y. I am a writer, journalist, professor, systems modeler, computational and digital health expert, avocado-eater, and entrepreneur, not always in that order.

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