My family and friends know that I write for an allergy relief company, so I'm often asked for advice about which products to buy or about allergies in general. This week, my mother asked me why her eyes were itching. She doesn't typically have allergies, but she noticed that after doing professional organizing for a certain client of hers, she often comes home with smarting eyes.

At first I thought it was just a reaction to dust, but this time she had an additional piece of information. My mother had noticed that her eyes seemed really bothered after filing paper that had either been photocopied or was NCR paper. This is carbonless carbon paper; NCR stands for "no carbon required."

I was fascinated. I knew that printer cartridges could contaminate indoor air. As described in our learning center article, How small is a micron and why does it matter?, particles from laser printers and copiers are actually among the most dangerous indoor air pollutants:

The size of a given particle helps to determine the degree of potential threat to human health. Particles ranging from .3 to .9 micron present the greatest health concern.

These irritating mid-range particles include … particles from laser printers and copiers. Particles in this size range (.3 to .9 micron) are small enough to get past the tiny hairs that line our breathing passages and too large to be easily exhaled.

Because mid-range particles are more likely to become lodged in lung tissue, they are suspect in a wide range of health problems related to indoor air pollution--from headaches and dizziness to cardiovascular disease and cancer.

So these particles might be part of the source of irritation. Personal air purifiers are excellent for situations such as this. A mask might also help, but it would be a lot less comfortable. And if itching eyes were the result of one person's relatively minor exposure to photocopy particles, imagine how compounded the effect is for those who work in offices packed with cubicles, multiple printers, photocopiers, co-workers with perfume, off-gassing carpet, etc.

Another thought I had, in relation to the carbonless copy paper my mom was handling, is that the connection between BPA and allergies, as discussed in BPA, Allergies, and Asthma might be at play here. Here's why: As The Soft Landing blog points out in Can BPA Be Absorbed Through the Skin?, "BPA on a receipt is 250 to 1,000 times greater than the amount of BPA typically found in a can of food or a can of baby formula." Most receipts use the same paper that's found in carbonless copy paper, so the same should apply to NCR paper.

ScienceNews.com's article Concerned About BPA: Check Your Receipts corroborates the point. Organic chemist John C. Warner says, "The average cash register receipt that's out there and uses the BPA technology will have 60 to 100 milligrams of free BPA.” ScienceNews.com clarifies, "By free, he explains, it’s not bound into a polymer, like the BPA in polycarbonates. It’s just the individual molecules loose and ready for uptake." Uptake, as in absorption through the skin. I wonder if BPA in this case can also be airborne.

What to do about this exposure, especially since it's difficult to avoid receipts? The Soft Landing offers the following tips:

• Minimize receipt collection by declining receipts at gas pumps, ATMs and other machines when possible.


• Store receipts separately in an envelope in a wallet or purse.


• Never give a child a receipt to hold or play with.


• After handling a receipt, wash hands before preparing and eating food (a universally recommended practice even for those who have not handled receipts).


• Do not use alcohol-based hand cleaners after handling receipts. A recent study showed that these products can increase the skin’s BPA absorption (Biedermann 2010).


• Take advantage of store services that email or archive paperless purchase records.


• Do not recycle receipts and other thermal paper. BPA residues from receipts will contaminate recycled paper.


• If you are unsure, check whether paper is thermally treated by rubbing it with a coin. Thermal paper discolors with the friction; conventional paper does not.

Since BPA is absorbed through the skin, it might also be a good idea for cashiers and others who handle a lot of receipts – or other carbonless paper – to wear gloves while they work. The Environmental Protection Agency is concerned enough about this matter of BPA exposure through receipts that it put out an article on the topic, BPA Alternatives in Thermal Paper Partnership.

We hope as awareness of these toxins and how we are exposed to them grows that more and more sources of allergy triggers will be addressed. As always, we will stay abreast of news in the topic and pass it along to you.