On The Money: BPA on Dollar Bills and Receipts
A new study was released giving new meaning to the phrase "toxic assets." On The Money: BPA on Dollar Bills and Receipts set out to investigate the extent to which thermal receipt paper containing bisphenol A (BPA) has permeated the market, and whether this hormone-disrupting chemical is escaping onto the money that lies close to these receipts in people's wallets.
Researchers found that half of the thermal paper receipts tested had large quantities of unbound BPA; 95% of the dollar bills tested positive for lower amounts. Unlike BPA in baby bottles and other products, BPA on thermal paper isn't chemically bound in any way: it's a powdery film on the surface of receipts. Data from this report indicate that this highly toxic chemical does not, in fact, stay on the paper, but rather easily transfers to our skin and likely to other items that it rubs against.
"Toxic chemicals like BPA that are linked to breast cancer and other chronic diseases do not belong in everyday items like receipts," said Erin Boles, Associate Executive Director for the MA Breast Cancer Coalition. "Research shows that BPA can even interfere with the effectiveness of chemotherapy. This is a clear example of how our current laws are failing us and need to be updated to reflect modern science."
Present in 93% of all Americans, scientists studying BPA have hypothesized the major route of human exposure is through food, as BPA is used as a liner in nearly all canned food and beverages. This study indicates that skin absorption from thermal paper receipts with unbound BPA may lead to exposure at levels equivalent to exposure from food sources.
"If we are to protect children from health damage associated with BPA, we have to break the cycle of contact that starts with their moms," said Martha Dansdill, HealthLink spokesperson. "It makes no sense to expose all of us to a toxic chemical like this when there are BPA-free receipt options."
“Shoppers, let alone workers at cash registers, have no way of knowing whether the receipts we touch are BPA-laden or not,” said Cindy Luppi, Clean Water Action Regional Co-Director, who submitted a dollar bill for laboratory testing as part of the report. “It is mind boggling that we don’t have better protections that prevent our exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals like BPA, particularly as we see health damage linked to BPA on the rise.”
Click to download the full On the Money : BPA on Dollar Bills and Receipts PDF report.
Click to download the Executive Summary of On the Money : BPA on Dollar Bills and Receipts PDF report.
Click to read the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow Press Release.
Click to read the Tip Sheet on how to avoid BPA contamination from Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.
Material for this article was contributed by Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
