It is common practice to accept a receipt from a cashier when we purchase an item, but most consumers don’t realize they are also bringing something else home with them when they take the little slip of paper: hormone-disrupting chemicals.

A January study by the Ecology Center, tested 167 paper receipts from 148 businesses, including retailers, restaurants, banks, and libraries, across the country to see if they contained bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS). It found BPS in 75 percent of the receipts, BPA in 18 percent, and smaller percentages were undetectable, coating-free, or using the alternative Pergafast 201.

BPA and BPS are known endocrine disruptors that are not chemically bound to the receipt and are absorbed into the bloodstream via the skin. There is especially concern for employees who can handle up to 30 receipts an hour. BPA has been replaced in the marketplace by BPS in many instances but continued research has found similarly concerning routes of human exposure and toxicity.

In response to survey results detecting BPS in Trader Joe’s receipts, the retailer announced they are pursuing receipt paper that is free of phenol chemicals.

The Ecology Center is calling on other businesses to switch to other less toxic alternatives and also give the option of skipping paper receipts.

[Source: Chemical Watch]