Many people think the most dangerous thing that can happen from a sales receipt is a paper cut, but the receipts can actually be far more hazardous than that, and even deadly.
The issue stems from the type of paper the receipts are printed on. It is called thermal paper and uses heat to print the characters. It’s an easy way for registers to create the receipts, but when you touch them, a cancer-causing chemical can be absorbed into your skin. Those toxic chemicals, called bisphenols or BPA, get into the bloodstream and interfere with the body’s hormones, causing issues with fertility, reproduction and development, as well as potentially leading to cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
One doctor took to Instagram to help spread awareness about the dangers of the receipts, claiming a study shows 80% of receipts have the harmful BPAs.
It seems like just another video on social media that is scaring people about a fake issue, but famed fact-checking website Snopes actually agrees with the doctor and warns of the dangers of receipts.
So what can you do? Well the easiest solution is to just get a digital receipt – have it emailed to you. However, if you find yourself needing to touch a paper receipt, try avoid making contact with the side that the receipt is printed on. The back of the receipt usually doesn’t have the toxic coating on it, nor do the edges. Thankfully, some retailers, like Trader Joe’s and Best Buy, have switched to phenol-free receipt paper.
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