Nearly All Dollar Bills are Tainted with BPA: Report

A new study was released giving new meaning to the phrase "toxic assets." "On The Money: BPA on Dollar Bills and Receipts" 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 against.

"Our findings demonstrate that BPA cannot be avoided, even by the most conscious consumer," said Erika Schreder, Staff Scientist at the Washington Toxics Coalition and lead author of the report. "This unregulated use of large amounts of BPA is having unintended consequences, including exposure to people when we touch receipts."

"BPA on receipts, dollar bills, and in many other products, is a direct result of the absurdly lax controls on chemicals in the United States," said Andy Igrejas, Director of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition. "The 112th Congress should make reform of the failed 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act a top legislative priority to protect American families for generations to come." Source

Report PDF