By Isagenix Nutritional Sciences
Before the next time you ask a cashier for a receipt, think twice! It might be tainted with bisphenol A, aka BPA.
A recent study in Environmental Health Perspectives showed that cashiers had highest BPA exposure because of its use in thermal paper for register receipts in a monomer form that is readily absorbed through skin.
BPA is also used as a polymer complex in hard, clear polycarbonate plastic water bottles and as epoxy resins lining aluminum cans.
The study raises concerns about widespread exposure to BPA from a variety of sources, especially for women who are pregnant.
Although the actual BPA amounts in receipts is so little it may not pose enough risk to worry about, it does raise concerns for people—those behind a register, for example—who are in contact with the thermal paper regularly.
The news comes no later than a month after Health Canada officially declared BPA a toxic substance that mimics estrogen, potentially increasing risks of breast cancer and prostate cancer.