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Office Printers May Pose Health Risks
drewmoney writes "The BBC reports on new findings which may have implications for the way offices are laid out. According to an Australian study, around a third of modern printer models release 'potentially dangerous levels of toner into the air' as they are completing a job. 'Almost one-third were found to emit ultra-tiny particles of toner-like material, so small that they can infiltrate the lungs and cause a range of health problems from respiratory irritation to more chronic illnesses. Conducted in an open-plan office, the test revealed that particle levels increased five-fold during working hours, a rise blamed on printer use. '"
We worked out an agreement with all the smokers on the floor. We've installed our printer outside the front entrance about 20 feet away from the door. That's where all of the smokers go to take a break... they're saving money on cigarettes, and the office air is clean. Of course, it's a bit of a hassle waiting for the smokers to bring in our printouts.
They release both paper dust and toner dust. I've known people who've gotten several sinus infections over their tenure near large print/shred stations (several B/W and color printers, fax, fine grain shredders.)
Get a portable HEPA filter and droop it in the vicinity of your printers and your problems (if you have any) will get measurably better.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Managers across the country have been heard mumbling things like "Forget the employees, how can we recover all of this lost toner to extend toner cartridge life and reduce print costs?" and "So that's why our toner life was never as long as the brochure".
Particulate pollution is common. If you live in a big city, you know what I'm talking about, just by seeing the crap that accumulates on your clothes after walking around for a few hours.
This study says nothing that isn't trivially obvious. Does airborne toner represent a particular health threat above and beyond the whole "breathing particles into your lungs" thing, or is this just another "ZOMG! Stuff in the air!" study with no actual facts to back it up. Doubly annoying for them to compare it to smoking, because the least problem with smoking is the particulates.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Time to get the bats out again.
You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever.
...only laser printers shed toner powder into the air.
Do I have to worry about the toner particles when I open up my e-mails? Or is it only a problem if I open the attachment?
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Err.. I have killed a tree or two printing out RFC's because it was just more comfortable to read them in a different position. Bad hacker! Bad!
A couple of 30-somethings embark on the ultimate roadtrip
At least here in the US part of the issue is the users as well. I cannot count the number of times a printer was down and I had users grumbling that they had to walk 20 yards as opposed to 5 to get thier printouts. It is not as simple as employee morale being inversely related to distance from printers, but the way they complain you would think it is.
Probably says something about why we have an obesity epidemic to boot.
You say you want a revolution....
So should we all move towards solid ink. Less consumables, no getting dirty refilling toner cartridges. No toner cartridges to throw away, although there is one major consumable every 7-10K pages. I guess if a toner is refilled at least three times it is about the same.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
No, we hate people who participate in it because of their unbelievably rude practice of subjecting everybody else to their filthy reeking emissions. Stale smoke smells like fucking shit.
Since so few smokers through the years have taken it upon themselves to do the civilized thing and ensure that nobody around them has to experience their vile backwashed fumes, the victims are banding together to help the smokers learn what should have been common courtesy.
Well, this explains why i always like that "fresh printer smell" after printing out a document at work. I always thought it was just the sense of accomplishment, but apparently it's just yet another thing bad for me. Figures...first the McDonalds...now the printers.
Why do I still print?
Because when I have 3 or more documents I'm reading to review etc, it's more convenient to be able to
a) flick between the pages of different documents
b) underline/highlight/ make notes in the margins
c) carry them with me/ dump them on a couch/chair while reading.
d) I often need the computer screen to write a review document.
My PC screen's resolution isn't up to the job of having multiple documents open side-by-side (and the laptop's is even worse). Furthermore,the interface to Acrobat/Word/anything for that matter, is pathetically slow. A mouse and keyboard are no substitute for human hands on paper combined with a simple pen.
Maybe when we have desks that are touch sensitive LCDs with 10k*10k resolution, things may change.
"So why is this now suddenly such a big deal?"
Let's see... because, on 9/11 alone, more people died prematurely of cancer than of terrorism. Office pollution is the most dangerous thing around, but it is something that can be easily corrected (of course, if walking 5m to get a printout is a problem to you, odds are you already have a short life expectancy).
"Why don't we just throw up our hands and walk around with oxygen tanks and masks?"
Because, 1- in excess, O2 is toxic and 2- large scale bottled O2 production is rather expensive and polluting (the power requirement alone is huge).
*** HOW ABOUT? ***
No, we hate people who participate in it because of their unbelievably rude practice of subjecting everybody else to their filthy reeking emissions. Car exhaust smells like fucking shit.
Since so few drivers through the years have taken it upon themselves to do the civilized thing and ensure that nobody around them has to experience their vile backwashed fumes, the victims are banding together to help the drivers learn what should have been common courtesy.
*** OR ***
No, we hate people who participate in it because of their unbelievably rude practice of subjecting everybody else to their filthy reeking emissions. The average bean fart smells like fucking shit.
Since so few bean eaters through the years have taken it upon themselves to do the civilized thing and ensure that nobody around them has to experience their vile backwashed fumes, the victims are banding together to help the bean eaters learn what should have been common courtesy.
*** OR EVEN ***
No, we hate people who participate in it because of their unbelievably rude practice of subjecting everybody else to their filthy reeking emissions. Shit smells like fucking shit.
Since so few defecators through the years have taken it upon themselves to do the civilized thing and ensure that nobody around them has to experience their vile backwashed fumes, the victims are banding together to help the defedators learn what should have been common courtesy.
*** DISCLAIMER: I'm a reformed tobacco smoker. Used to smoke 2 packs a day for about 10 years. Quit cold turkey. It wasn't the idea of 5 fewer years in my life, but 5 years of slow gurgling death that convinced me.
I used to repair copiers and printers for a living. I would come home and have to blow my nose to get all the toner out. Never noticed any ill effects. I'm sure there are some people who might be allergic, but not many. Toner is mixture of polyester, carbon, and wax, none of which is known to be very harmful. Check the MSDS. http://www.lanier.com/page.php/toner%20msds. Perhaps the color toner is worse, they did not have that in my day.
Probably just another alarmist story from the UK...
I love this part;
"ultra-tiny particles of toner-like material"
I don't know which is more obnoxious - the non-measurement-measument (ultra-tiny is not a size) or the mis-statement of hazards. The material is either toner or it isn't. If the material is toner, say it is toner. If the material isn't toner, tell me waht it is. There is no "toner like material" in a toner-based printer other than the toner itself.
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
I used to work in the research labs of a major printer/copier manufacturer. We did extensive testing of chemical emissions for all laser/toner based products, from desk top models to huge production printers. Tests were done in a variety of formats, but in general the machine was placed in a well sealed room and allowed to operate for hours. Usually there would be a specified air change rate, say the volume of the room every six hours, but sometime the concentration was allowed to build in a room with no air change. Every few minutes throughout the test an air sample was collected from a special chamber on the test room wall. The air sample would be run through optical, chemical and mass spectrometry testing to determine the chemical composition - we looked specifically for about 20 different chemicals which were known to be emitted in quantity, were regulated, or were likely to be regulated because they posed a known health risk. All laser printers emit airborne chemicals - this is known and it is tested to make sure the chemical emission rates and the air concentrations in even the stuffiest of closets are well below any known safety limits. This isn't a new approach, either - I was once tasked with surveying the results of all air quality tests done on currently-in-use printers made by the company, and testing was performed up-to-standard for all machines developed since the mid-80s. Still, that said, you can always work to reduce the concentration of chemicals in the air by ensuring that you place you office copier in a well ventilated and open room. Air change rate and room size are the primary factors which determine the steady-state concentration of airborne chemicals.
No - but I do find it funny that no matter what story about air quality comes out, it invariably gets compared to the same thing - smoking.
In spite of this, we have industry belching out (in spite of progress) far more particulates and pollutants, and the average daily freeway load of cars pouring out far more in the way of toxic gases.
It's a proportional argument, IMHO.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Asbestos wasn't really that bad.. to have around. But to work with it was pretty dangerous. In fact, just about the worst thing you can do is remove it. Which is what made the whole rush to remove all the asbestos everything so absurd: It was a non-problem unless you went mucking around tearing things up. The sensible thing to do would be to require the special protection or teams to remove it before demolishing the building, and just stop installing it in new buildings.
So Asbestos isn't really a very good analogy at all: The thing that puts asbestos in the air is the deliberate and unusual act of removing it. The thing that puts toner in the air is the regular operation of a poorly designed printer.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Some printers and copiers use a consumable developer, as well as toner. It can be packaged seperately, or togetherly along with the toner in a disposable cartridge, as was the case with the fleet of Sharp printers we used to use at work.
I'd like to further submit that such developer product quite plainly consists of "ultra-tiny particles of toner-like material."
FWIW, HTH, HAND, etc.
Kid-proof tablet..