NCCO International During the last few years BPA has been a pretty hot topic. The chemical is found in can liners for food, WAS found in baby bottles until it was banned last year and exists in some receipt paper—though you’ll never find it in receipts made with NCCO BPA-Free thermal paper.
The topic has been exhaustively covered by the Food and Drug Administration, pseudo (at best) scientific groups, and even Dr. Oz. Receipt paper produced with BPA was even banned in Suffolk County, NY.
Even with all the negative publicity, the FDA reinforced its position in March, 2013 that “BPA is safe at the very low levels that occur in some foods.”
Even though NCCO produces only BPA-Free thermal receipt paper, we also make sure to monitor the current environment surrounding BPA in receipt paper—and I’ve learned to not be surprised by anything.
Recently I came across a Huffington Post article/video from a few months ago where the expert source—Dr. Frederick Vom Saal is quoted as saying:
“All kinds of thermal paper is coated with this chemical, and people go into a fast food restaurant, touch this paper, and touch their food and they expose themselves to huge quantities of this chemical.”
Quotes like this one are always the things that get me. First of all “huge quantities” is hardly a scientific statement. Secondly, studies have shown that people would have to EAT large quantities of receipts in order to reach a level of BPA that is recognized as harmful by the FDA.
Ensuring that products are safe for consumers is obviously a great thing, as is limiting exposure to unhealthy chemicals. The BPA issue has become so convoluted and the truth about the reality of the threat—or non-threat—of BPA in receipts has gotten lost in the shuffle, or shuffled out entirely.
I’m not sure how big of an issue BPA in receipt paper actually is, hopefully the truth is fledged out sometime. Until then I urge everyone to not worry too much about taking your receipt—as long as you don’t eat it.
Perhaps I need to worry less about BPA as well… I guess I’ll just go “Like” the BPA-Free Receipts Facebook page.