By Janet Raloff
Cash register and other receipts may expose consumers to substantial amounts of bisphenol A, a hormone-mimicking chemical that has been linked with a host of potential health risks, according to a trio of recent studies. Each study offers preliminary evidence that a large number of retail outlets print sales receipts on certain types of heat-sensitive, or thermal, paper that use BPA as a color developer.
Two of the new studies also showed that the BPA coating easily rubs off onto fingers. And one found evidence that BPA from receipts may penetrate skin.
The pollutant, which mimics the biological activity of estrogen, has been tied to health risks from behavioral problems in children to obesity and heart ailments. In animals, exposures in the womb put moms and their offspring at risk for later metabolic diseases.