The Belgian scientist Tom Nelis has developed a way of producing till receipt tickets without having to use harmful chemicals. Wood pulp instead of bisphenols that can be harmful to health. Tom Nelis told the VRT that “Every time you touch receipts that contain bisphenol, some bisphenol A or S penetrates your skin”.
Did you know that in most cases the till receipts you receive at the supermarket and other shops aren’t printed using ink? Instead, thermic paper is used. This saves time for those working on the tills as they don’t have to change ink cartridges.
However, there is a big disadvantage in using thermic paper: “The chemicals that are contained in it can damage our health”, the bio-engineer Tom Nelis told VRT Radio 1’s ‘Nieuwe Feiten’. Together with colleagues at the Technical University of Lausanne, he has developed an alternative to the use of bisphenol for the thermic printing process that is used to print till receipts.
Hormone disruption
Thermal paper contains a chemical coating. “The two main chemicals used are colour developers, typically bisphenol A or bisphenol S, and dye”, Tom Nelis explains. “The printer contains a very precise heating element that heats up a very small area, briefly and intensely. This brings the two chemicals into contact with each other and causes a chemical reaction that generates the colour”.
"Receipts, airline tickets, food labels, barcodes, things that we come into contact with every day. Every time we touch a till receipt some bisphenol A penetrates our skin. Recent studies have shown that the use of hand disinfectants and hand cream can increase penetration levels.”. This can pose health risk. This is the reason why people working at tills in supermarkets often wear gloves to protect themselves.
In 2020 EU legislation was brought in that has served to curb the use of bisphenol A in thermic printing paper. Bisphenol S is used instead. However, this too can pose health risks.
“Bisphenol A, bisphenol S and other bisphenols are endocrine disruptors. In other words, they interfere with hormones. There are more and more studies on the harmful effects they cause.", Tom Nelis says.