Study: Laser printers may pose health risks

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Quite surprising from HP

Given the fact that it is well known since long that the dust in toner is dangerous and must be cleaned carefully, because there were reports in the 70's due to health problems in people using the first copiers, it should be known that the toners used today (which are even more tiny and more volatile) are even more dangerous to manipulate.

However, a laser is constantly producing some dust that you can see when you need to clean it. I'm still surprised to see that no clear instruction is provided with printers exposing the risks when cleaning a printer, and how to do it safely.

it's time to remember that toners are made of some thin alloy of metal oxydes with some carbon component for the ink (needed so that the powder canbeexcited by electrostatic charges so that it can be driven precisely to the paper. So some powder is really "vaporized" into the air around the paper (normally once the powder is pressed on the paper and then melt on the paper using a oven, some of the oxyds will not melt, and only the organic ink (using dangerous chemicla components) and the metal oxydes will remain.

The laser printer (or copier) is normally recuperating the extra powder that was not melt on the paper. But the fact that the oven is really hot, means that some of the powder will not melt into the paper but will be maintained in air because of the evaporation of the melting ink, and of the water within the paper.

I caneasily remember the badodors in the old shops selling copies and where copiers are operated contantly for all day. This is suffocating (I don't understand how employees can support that). For me it's clear that copiers are also emitting dangerous products.

So when I see that comments that say that copiers are not dangerous face to printers, I'm laughing! This means that printers are even more dangerous, if they don't have an excellent standby system where the oven is left cold until use, and then can be heated fast for doing a job, and be freshened soon.

let's also remamber why the printed paper of old newspapers was forbidden on street markets for packing vegetables, fishes and meat: the ink on it was toxic. However, newspapers use classic ink on a press, and don't need the costly technologies developed for lasers, that incorporate metal oxydes and various chemical components to help stabilise the ink when it melts in the oven, or to make the particles chargeable.

With today's printers, with constantly growing resolutions, the ink particiles are even thinnner than before. This means theyare even more volatile and dangerous.

So what can you do?
Certainly not drop all your printers, but replacing all printers commonly found on each desktop in a large room with many desks, by a central printer in a ventilated place. This w

Posted by: PhilippeV   Posted on: 08/01/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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