*NEWS*OEM PRINTERS CAN DAMAGE THE LUNGS

[Anonymous]

Office printers can damage the lungs, says research
July 
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.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.The study shows average
particle concentration inside the test office was five times higher
during working hours than non-working hours.And at its highest levels,
indoor particle concentration was about three times higher than it was
outside.Morawska said in offices with poor ventilation higher
concentrations of particles can “prevail for the whole day.”She says
the health risks will be “quite high” for workers that “sit in an
office like this for days and months.”Her research team is calling on
governments to consider regulating emission levels from laser
printers.But Morawska says more research is needed into the chemical
makeup of the emissions and how the particles are released to back any
such move.Her paper includes a list of the brands and models studied
and their rating by amount of particles emitted.A total of 12 models of
Hewlett Packard printers and one Toshiba printer are listed as high
emitters of tiny particles.

[Author]

July 31, 2007 at 1:22 PM