Receipts

These days I try not to handle receipts from restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores etc anymore. These modern receipts are printed on thermal paper not regular paper. So they don’t use ink but use heat sensitive coatings to reveal text. These coatings often include bisphenol A (BPA) or bisphenol S (BPS), known endocrine disruptors.

Because these chemicals aren’t locked inside any plastic, they’re free and can easily transfer to any surface. Touching a receipt means picking up trace amounts of bisphenol. The worst thing is that if you frequently use hand sanitizers, it makes it worse as your skin becomes more absorbent.

For most people, the risk is low, but for cashiers, baristas and anyone handling hundreds of receipts a day, it adds up. Autoimmune disease is actually increasing double digit percentages annually globally and it’s directly linked to this.

You can read more here:

High levels of toxic chemicals found in paper receipts used by US retailers (Guardian)
80% of receipts at major store chains contain “toxic” chemicals, report says (CBS)