Laser Printers a Health Risk?

July 31, 2007 — Workers face a potential health threat from office laser printers that emit large amounts of tiny particles into the air, an Australian research team has found.

Potential effects range from respiratory irritation to effects on the cardiovascular system and cancer, says author Professor Lidia Morawska from the Queensland University of Technology.

The researchers do not know the chemical makeup of the particles and how they are released. But they recommend good office ventilation to minimise the chances of particles entering the airways.

Morawska and colleagues will publish their results online later this week in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The researchers classified 17 of the 62 printers as "high particle emitters."

And Morawska says one printer released particles, under experimental conditions, at a rate comparable to the particle emissions from cigarette smoking.

But 37 of the printers were non-emitters.

The study found printers emitted more particles when the toner cartridge was new and when printing images and graphics, as these require greater amounts of toner.

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Morawska, who is the director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, says when inhaled the ultrafine particles can travel to the deepest parts of the respiratory tract and then enter the bloodstream.

The potential health problems range from increased respiratory irritation to effects on the cardiovascular system and cancer, she says.

Morawska says the findings were made by chance while her team was investigating the efficiency of ventilation in protecting office workers from outdoor pollution.

The researchers tested a large open-plan office in the Brisbane central business district, surrounded by busy roads and about 400 feet from a freeway.

"We really didn't expect to find anything from indoor sources [but] we soon discovered that the indoor sources of pollution were far higher than the outdoor sources," she says.