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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday March 01 2020, @07:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the who-could-have-guessed? dept.

Printer toner linked to genetic changes, health risks in new study:

Getting printer toner on your hands is annoying. Getting it in your lungs may be dangerous.

According to a new study by West Virginia University researcher Nancy Lan Guo, the microscopic toner nanoparticles that waft from laser printers may change our genetic and metabolic profiles in ways that make disease more likely. Her findings appear in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

"The changes are very significant from day one," said Guo, a professor in the School of Public Health and member of the Cancer Institute.

[...] "In particular, there is one group I really think should know about this: pregnant women. Because once a lot of these genes are changed, they get passed on through the generations. It's not just you."

On the same days that the researchers assessed the rats' genes, they also measured every metabolite available in their blood.

[...] The metabolic levels that the researchers detected reinforced their other findings. The same health risks that the genetic profiles pointed to were implicated by the metabolic profiles as well.

Building on these results, Guo and her colleagues have since investigated the genomic changes that Singaporean printing company workers have experienced. In many respects, the workers' genomes changed the same ways the rats' genomes did. The results from these workers are included in a manuscript ready for submission to a journal.

"And they're very young," Guo said. "A lot of the workers ranged from 20 to their early 30s, and you're already starting to see all of these changes.

"We have to work, right? Who doesn't have a printer nowadays, either at home or at the office? But now, if I have a lot to print, I don't use the printer in my office. I print it in the hallway."

Nancy Lan Guo, et. al. Integrated Transcriptomics, Metabolomics, and Lipidomics Profiling in Rat Lung, Blood, and Serum for Assessment of Laser Printer-Emitted Nanoparticle Inhalation Exposure-Induced Disease Risks. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2019; 20 (24): 6348 DOI: 10.3390/ijms20246348


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  • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday March 01 2020, @10:22PM (8 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday March 01 2020, @10:22PM (#965098) Journal
    Nah, just be part of some class action against your employer and printer manufacturers. It's the American Way.
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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2020, @10:34PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2020, @10:34PM (#965103)

    You would know, since you're such a litigious bitch yourself.

  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday March 01 2020, @11:05PM (6 children)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Sunday March 01 2020, @11:05PM (#965114)

    I think they should change the toner to a safer, more environmentally-friendly formulation [caranddriver.com].

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2020, @11:28PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2020, @11:28PM (#965127)

      Interesting article. I wonder if they can add an environmentaly friendly substance that deters rodents from chewing on stuff?

      IIRC, they add something to book glue to prevent bookworms from finding their way into books.

      • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday March 02 2020, @02:39AM (1 child)

        by krishnoid (1156) on Monday March 02 2020, @02:39AM (#965226)

        Not helpful, I know, but the first thing that comes to mind is snakes.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2020, @05:05AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2020, @05:05AM (#965317)

          Reminds me of a childhood song ... there was an old lady that swallowed a fly. I don't know why she swallowed a fly. She then swallows a spider to catch the fly etc.... until she dies from swallowing a horse.

          IOW, if you put a snake under your car to catch the mouse you will eventually end up with horses under your hood. I guess that's where they got the term horsepower?

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Monday March 02 2020, @05:48AM

        by sjames (2882) on Monday March 02 2020, @05:48AM (#965346) Journal

        I used to have a problem with squirrels chewing the wires on the outdoor Christmas lights. One year I wiped the wires with Frank's Red Hot and no more problems.

    • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday March 02 2020, @12:18AM

      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Monday March 02 2020, @12:18AM (#965142) Journal
      I believe part of the problem is ozone released by the printer. That would probably have a synergistic effect.
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    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 02 2020, @03:54PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 02 2020, @03:54PM (#965523) Journal

      I think they should change the toner to a safer, more environmentally-friendly formulation

      Good idea. But only half of a complete solution.

      The remaining supplies of the existing toner can be used as a new flavor of vaping for teenagers.

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