Receipt Deceit?

So, today a friend asked if I'd heard that BPA is now found on cash register receipts? If you're reading this blog, I'm going to assume you know what BPA is and not go into a lot of detail on that. But, in a nutshell, for those new to this "paranoid" stuff, BPA (bisphenol-A) is a chemical found in many plastics that has been linked to cancer and endocrine disruption. It's found in everything from the linings of canned food, to baby toys and teethers and even in drinking water. Most of the earth's population has some level of BPA in their bloodstream and the question now is, how much is too much? The EPA is currently examining that and BPA was removed from baby bottles last year in the US. But my thoughts are that if an item is of questionable safety and there is a known safe alternative (glass or BPA-free plastic), why not use that whenever possible?

I'd not heard about this receipt link, so I decided to check it out and guess what....it's true! That being said, the research I found to support this link was all traced back to one scientist in particular and the journalist in me is a little skeptical about attributing something so newsworthy to only one source. Apparently, this "news" came out last year but received very little play. I'm also a tiny bit bothered by the fact that this information has yet to be published formally. It would seem to me that if the data is true, a credible scientist would be chomping at the bit to get this out to the masses. So, for now, I will take it with a grain of salt because receipts are not exactly something one can avoid in this day and age.

But for a moment, let's just assume this is something we ought to be mildly concerned about. (or at the very least - aware of.)

Again, if you breath and function in society today, it's virtually impossible to avoid amassing a collection of  paper receipts, even among the greenest of people who try to avoid excessive paper consumption. This new BPA danger was first raised by an organic chemist named John C. Warner, who found that copyless carbon paper used by most credit card machines and thermal imaging paper used in most cash registers, utilize a thin layer of BPA in order to create images. The papers don't look any different from those that don't contain the chemical and apparently, tests show that the vast majority of receipts tested positive for BPA.

The most frightening aspect of this to me (again, if the study is to be believed), is that the BPA contained in these receipts is of a free-form that directly contaminates anything it touches, rather than leaching due to heat or prolonged contact, as in the controversy over baby bottles. That means that every time my kids go riffling through my wallet and find receipts, they walk away with BPA on their hands, which is then transferred to everything they touch. Warner argues that since BPA mimics estrogen and estrogen can easily be absorbed into the skin (think of those birth control patches), wouldn't it stand to reason that BPA on receipts can similarly sink into our skin on a daily basis from these ever present papers?

I already try to avoid receipts whenever possible, not because of BPA, but because it's less for me to recycle. I no longer request receipts when I take money out at an ATM or fill up my car at the gas station. I found that those just ended up junking up my purse or diaper bag and in the end, weren't really necessary. But, I do tend to hang onto store receipts indefinitely since you never know when you may need to return an item.

So, what to do?

For now, I file this away in my "potential stuff to worry about but that I can't really do much about" file and go on with life. But perhaps I'll think twice before I let my kids play with something as harmless as a little piece of paper.