ATTN TV Reporters: B-Roll Available Upon Request A new study was
released today giving new meaning to the phrase "toxic assets."
"On the Money: BPA on Dollar Bills and Receipts", researched by
the nonprofit groups Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families and the
Washington Toxics Coalition, set out to investigate the extent
to which thermal receipt paper containing bisphenol A (BPA) has
permeated the market, and whether this hormone-disrupting
chemical is escaping onto the money that lies close to these
receipts in people’s wallets. Researchers found that half of the
thermal paper receipts tested had large quantities of unbound
BPA; 95% of the dollar bills tested positive for lower amounts.
Unlike BPA in baby bottles and other products, BPA on thermal
paper isn’t chemically bound in any way: it’s a powdery film on
the surface of receipts. Data from this report indicate that
this highly toxic chemical does not, in fact, stay on the paper,
but rather easily transfers to our skin and likely to other
items that it rubs