By Patricia Houser
For Nature’s Sake
Patricia Houser
The sales receipts that we accumulate while shopping for groceries, prescriptions, gas, clothing and more can pose a significant enough health risk that some informed consumers avoid touching them altogether. Most receipts today are printed on thermal paper, coated with chemicals that turn into print when heated. The problem is that those chemicals are often toxic, easily shed and absorb into skin.
The issue isn’t new. Connecticut became the first state, in 2011, to ban the use of an endocrine disruptor called bisphenol A as a coating in store receipts, which made residents safer (thanks to those state lawmakers) and contributed to a movement among retailers around the country to replace BPA. Unfortunately, the go-to replacement for bisphenol A in thermal receipts over the past 15 years has been its chemical cousin, bisphenol S, which, we now know, presents risks similar to BPA.
Why take the extra step to outright avoid touching receipts today? At least three points from research on the topic seem worth considering:
Toxicity: Bisphenol S, an endocrine disruptor like all bisphenols, has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, reproductive harms and more. The Environmental Protection Agency has classified bisphenol S as a potentially high hazard for toxicity in human development, and in 2023 California added it to their list of chemicals known to cause reproductive issues.
Prevalence: According to a 2023 study by the nonprofit Ecology Center, more than three quarters of cash register receipts from a broad sample of stores across the US contain bisphenol S. In that study, scientists tested 374 store receipts, collected from 144 major chain stores in 22 states and the District of Columbia, and found that 20 percent of the receipts had non-bisphenol (safe) developer chemicals, less than 1 percent were coated with BPA (the notoriously toxic one), and 79 percent were coated with BPS (which experts call an “unfortunate substitute” for BPA). The Washington State Department of Ecology estimates that 86 percent of thermal receipts in the US contain bisphenols of one kind or another.
Exposure level: It may seem a small thing, but experiments have shown that handling a single store receipt can be a far greater source of human exposure to bisphenol A, for instance, than eating food from several cans with BPA lining.
John Warner, the founder of the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, said “There’s more BPA in a single thermal paper receipt than the total amount that would leach out from a polycarbonate water bottle used for many years.”
It should be noted, according to some research, that bisphenol S does not permeate the skin quite as easily as BPA (which is now illegal in Connecticut receipts); however, scientists have also observed that bisphenol S also doesn’t degrade as easily in the human body, which concerns health experts. A website for Green America notes that up to 81 percent of Americans have bisphenol S in their urine and, that organization asserts, 90 percent of that is from exposure to thermal receipts.
For those times at the cash register when it’s difficult not to take a receipt from a source that has not been verified as safe, government and nonprofit groups have suggestions for minimizing exposure. The Ecology Center advises people not to handle receipts when hands are wet or after using sanitizer sprays because that makes the chemicals absorb more easily. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency suggests folding the printed side in (the non-printed side has a lower dose of chemicals) and washing hands as soon as possible afterwards. Keep receipts for meals away from food and drink, say experts, and if you must handle receipts for your job consider wearing nitrile gloves. Importantly, say all sources, one should never hand receipts to babies or toddlers.
In a recent interview for Business Insider, NYU researcher and pediatrics professor Dr. Leo Trasande noted that he avoids contact with paper receipts when he can by opting for digital or text receipts. Green America’s “Skip the Slip” campaign advocates digitizing all store receipts among other remedies. The website for that campaign is worth visiting for its comprehensive overview of harms, to human and environmental health, from bisphenol-soaked thermal receipts.
In an admirable gesture by an institution, the Yale Library Sustainability Advisory Group announced in 2018 a switch to a non-toxic (vitamin C-based) fully recyclable formula for their thermal receipts. Meanwhile, in commerce, a growing number of retailers have switched to safe alternatives and away from toxic bisphenols, including, among national chains represented locally, CVS, H&M, Target, Starbucks, Trader Joes and Whole Foods. Stores, like our local Petco, are also eco-friendly when they offer the option of a digital receipt.
Among state governments, Washington state is leading the way toward eliminating toxic receipts. They currently subsidize organizations wishing to replace unsafe thermal printing technology and are on track to implement a statewide ban on bisphenols in receipts, effective by 2026.
Until comparable protections reach our area, we can each be forgiven perhaps if occasionally we leave a receipt, literally, hanging.
Patricia Houser, PhD, AICP is a freelance writer and researcher focused on environment and sustainability.