This week’s questions and answers concern last week’s action alert: toxic BPA in cash register receipts, the most common pathway into our bodies.

Charles writes:

“Why the fuss about BPA in cash register receipts? We don’t eat the receipts, we throw them away.”

Karen writes:

“I don’t spend much time fondling my cash register receipts, so I’m just not gonna worry about this one until someone demonstrates that the amount of BPA absorbed through the skin of an average consumer is significant.”

The science so far suggests that that the amount absorbed through the skin is indeed significant—that it is in fact, as noted above, the primary pathway that BPA gets into our bodies. The form of BPA used in coating receipts is an unstable form compared to that used in plastic bottles and liners. Because it absorbs directly through the skin, it bypasses the liver and goes directly into the bloodstream. Remember that your skin is your body’s largest organ and readily absorbs hormones into the bloodstream (the principle upon which the birth control patch and nicotine patches operate). Even a small amount of BPA is dangerous.

Findings published by the Environmental Working Group confirm that contaminated receipts were between 0.8% to nearly 3% pure BPA by weight, some of which was easily wiped off with a damp cloth.

Another study, published in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemstry, indicated that BPA from receipts can enter the skin to such a depth that it cannot be washed off.

Of course, the general public is not as much at risk as people who work the cash registers: grocery store clerks, gas station attendants, restaurant and fast food servers, retail store clerks—mostly lower-wage workers who can ill afford to get sick or worse, pass the chromosome-damaging effects on to children.

Ironically, even the ultrasound print outs that mothers get of their babies generally contain BPA. So when mothers admire the ultrasound images, they may be sending BPA to the unborn child.

A panel convened by the National Institutes of Health determined that there is clear evidence for concern about BPA’s effects on fetal and infant brain development and behavior. In addition, there are concerns that BPA could interfere with the sexual development of children.

There are alternatives to BPA in thermal cash register paper. We just need to use them.