printers may cause as much damage as cigarettes?

[Ginn4Heisman]

Your Printer May Be Hazardous To Your Health : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

 

[NJ-Buckeye]

that settles that... :hatepc: who needed that damn printer anyway

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

You should not be allowed to print indoors any more. Not in bars, bowling alleys, stripclubs, restaurants... and certainly not in your office at work...

 

[sandgk]

I was going to jest that we sponsor a bill allowing printing only in single-family owned business, or private clubs where all agree to the deep and recognized risks.

Then the line from the report jumped out - 30% of the printers only are considered highly emitting sources of these particles.

Seems to me the solution is simple - make the rest like the best and all is over and done. If you look at the table the "cleanliness" of the models is not directly associated with their price or sophisitication - so either their is variance within a single model line, a factor the study does not address, or there is some systematic benefit to the design of the low-emitting printers.

HP's response to this was of course classic knee-jerk corporate spin control:

"HP does not agree with [the study's] conclusion or some of the bold claims the authors have made."
HP doesn't really claim that its printers don't release ultrafine particles (though it's important to note that the study showed that many HP printers didn't release any emissions at all), saying that they are "consistently below recognized occupational exposure limits."
Rather, HP is taking issue with the notion that these emissions are dangerous. Here's what HP says: "There are no indications that ultrafine particle (UFP) emissions from laser printing systems are associated with special health risks. Currently, the nature and chemical composition of such particles—whether from a laser printer or from a toaster—cannot be accurately characterized by analytical technology."

Hello, HP? You designed and specified the inks and cartridges that go into these and you know darned well exactly what the components are - because you patented many of them!

Hints for HP: What can Carbon Black, Modified Acrylic or Polyester Resin and specific surfactants produce?

Why, yes - black laser cartridge toner powder!

A whole host of other related formulas are given here: