According to the attached study, cash register receipts (aka thermal paper receipts) are some of the biggest exposures humans have to BPA chemicals, specifically in forms that are disruptive to health.
I'm horrified, because grandpa (who acts as our daycare) would let our daughter play with them starting from a young age, and I didn't realize it was harmful so I didn't say anything. I can only imagine how much exposure she's had. So much for the glass baby bottles/food storage/stainless steel cups/etc. that we've been diligently using to reduce BPA exposure.
(Obviously I'm still going to use those items, but wow, I wish I'd known about receipts).
@al8115 I appreciate the info, but at the same time I am beyond maxed out right now on things I can worry about in regard to chemical exposure. I live in a rural farming area, so I'm worried about agricultural chemicals in the drinking water and the soil; our home is pre-1978 so I'm always worried about lead paint lurking somewhere; trying to keep my six-year-old from eating snow (and the accompanying PFAs) is like a full-time job; the same child also has ADHD and acts borderline psychotic if she ingests red 40 so I'm always on the lookout for that; and we have about a million allergies, food and otherwise, along with sensory issues in our family and trying keep everyone fed is truly soul-crushing. I wish I had the mental bandwidth to worry about touching receipts, but I just can't.
Honestly, there is so much stuff in the environment right now trying to kill us and otherwise mess us up, I don't even know how someone could keep track of it all without a system of spreadsheets.
Edit: To be clear, I'm shitting on the state of the world here, not the OP.
@ramsby194 I getcha, no offense taken. It does seem like every other week it's something new. I probably wouldn't have reacted so strongly to this news initially if it weren't for the fact my daughter spent age 1-2 playing with receipts at least weekly thanks to her grandfather giving them to her at the store.
I think part of our job as parents is to assess our unique environment and do what we need to do to protect our kids in our unique area/lifestyle. For most people, if your kids aren't actively playing with receipts, the exposure is probably nothing to worry about. For me, I realized I needed to ask grandpa to not give them to the kids as toys that can be ripped up, crinkled, etc.
@ramsby194 Focus on progress. We have already found so many things and regulations change for the better. A generation ago, our kids (ie, us) would have grown up with heavy metals in their toys and leaded petrol being spewed out every day while they walked to school. A generation before that, people smoked around kids, indoors, every day. Go back a few more generations and there were dirty fires literally in our houses with everyone getting exposed to that. Things are getting better. I personally take the attitude not to worry about things unless they have a known effect (the Red 40 dye effect is real, it affects a subset of ADHD kiddos, she will likely grow out of this sensitivity. Yellow 6 is the other from the UK list which is still used in the US.) and I try to stick within safety regulations I know are there to protect me, e.g. avoid shoddy import toys from amazon etc.
Humans are very resilient, small exposures are less important and worrying about every little thing is harmful too. Protecting your mental health is important and valid.
There is a British history series on youtube called "Hidden Killers of the .... Home" which details hazards that were present and commonly used in different historical periods. Depending on which way you lean this might be less helpful (in that it makes you think "ack what will the 2075 version of this programme be??") OR if you have the same twisted kind of mind I have, I found it reassuring - because humans have lived and prevailed through all of these things and for the most part we have been absolutely fine (even if some people were unlucky). I think the internet gives us a very skewed and dramatic view of risk.
@cutin Sadly, this is not the whole picture. There is also a lot that has gotten worse. Application of flame retardants to everything under the sun boomed about a decade ago and is only now slowly being rolled back. PFAS and micro plastic exposures are on the steady increase on account of them being forever chems/slow to biodegrade. Farmers, in an effort to keep up financially turned to dousing crops in glyphosate in order to desiccate and harvest all at once. This became a thing only a decade ago. The FDA has declined to regulate lead levels in baby food, and Bayer has successfully lobbied to keep 'cancer causing' warnings off of Roundup. We are still mining lead, by the way, which means we are continuously increasing the concentration of lead in our environment. None of those pipes or removed lead paint are being reintroduced to the Earth's crust, where it's supposed to stay. Instances of autoimmune diseases, especially in young people are on the study rise, as are neurological disorders and bowel cancer. I know this sounds very doom and gloomy, for which I apologize, but it is actually the reality of the world we live in. Tg medical science is doing its best to keep up.
@ramsby194 I feel you. It's pretty bad, and really exhausting and disheartening as a mom. It's frustrating how many things were/are known to be toxic but evaded, and continue to evade regulation for so, so long. This is the magic of capitalism at work.
@al8115 A LOT of receipt paper is BPA free now. I work in restaurants and almost every one I’ve ever worked in the paper is labeled as BPA free and has been for several years now. Most places have likely made the switch by now.
@helium23 Looks like per that article, lots of non toxic options do exist so I really hope we see those in the future. Unfortunately, I don’t really have the option to not touch receipts so I will be following the suggestions in that article.
@al8115 Is this something people truly need to worry about? I’m not being sarcastic or snarky I’m just not really educated on this that well. It seems a little over the top to be worried about receipts but I truly have no idea what I’m talking about so if y’all need to educate me pls do
@danmat777 As an adult who doesn't deal with thermal paper at their job? No, probably not worth worrying about. But letting kids routinely play with receipts is definitely worth avoiding (especially if the kid is young enough that "play with" includes putting it in their mouth), and it's a workplace safety concern for cashiers.
@danmat777 It's an endocrine disrupting chemical: when it enters the blood stream it mimics or disrupts naturally occurring hormones. It's associated with increased risk of several mood and behavioral disorders, early puberty, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
(An association doesn't necessarily establish causation, but what we know about the chemistry of BPA makes it seem much more likely than not that it's at fault.)
@danieldf Thank you for educating me! I thought it was like, cancer causing or something. I know all of these things are obviously not good and if you can avoid things with BPA then awesome, am I horrible if I’m not overly concerned about that? Like I just don’t feel like handling some receipts is going to cause me to become diabetic, ya know? Cause there’s so many other things that are more well known for causing those things. I don’t think I’d feel “horrified” if I caught my daughters grandpa letting her play with a receipt.
@danmat777 I think with what we know about plastics, it’s about reducing your child’s exposure over a lifetime, not one exposure. For example, BPA used to be in baby bottles. Now it isn’t, for the most part. That’s a great thing because that would be a decent amount of exposure over time, especially since people warm bottles and sanitize them by heating.
@danieldf Who let's kids play with receipts anyway? Seems kind of weird. Even if BPA wasn't a a thing, they are usually boring white paper with black or blue text, dirty (handed to you by someone touching cash all day), can give you paper cuts, and aren't particularly fun..?
@valarielynn Me. My daughter loves to be the one who hands the receipt to the checker at Costco. My baby will attempt to eat any paper. Now knowing this, I can make sure to get rid of receipts immediately and avoid letting my kids handle them.
