Everyone knows that shopping can be dangerous to your bank balance. But did you know it could also be dangerous to your health?
A little history. Last year, researchers in Switzerland decided to find out what happens when the flu virus is put on banknotes. So they got some nasal secretions from children, mixed it with some flu virus and placed it on some Swiss franc notes. Sounds pretty gross. But the results, as far as I’m concerned, are even more gross. Turns out that on some of the banknotes, the flu cells lasted up to 17 days. Sure, it was a controlled study, but when I think about the hygiene habits of the general population, it almost makes me want to avoid money altogether.
Then earlier this year, researchers at the University of Massachusetts tested banknotes from 30 cities around the world and found an increase in the number of banknotes with traces of cocaine on them. Cocaine! Makes sense when you consider that banknotes are used as a tool for users to get the cocaine from whatever surface it’s into the nose. Which means that not only could that note you are holding have traces of cocaine on it, but it could also have traces of someone’s nasal secretions.
For future reference, by the way, the cities with the highest cocaine levels on banknotes were Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Boston and Detroit. Salt Lake City had the least.
However, it’s not just the money that’s the problem for shoppers.
Now researchers are saying that shopping receipts could also pose a health risk.
Not from viruses. Not from cocaine. But from bisphenol-A (BPA), the hormone-altering chemical found in primarily in plastic bottles.
Research done at the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry has determined that many of these crisp, clean shopping receipts are coated with a powdery layer of bisphenol-A (BPA). Furthermore, lead researcher John Warner believes we are getting much more exposure to BPA through shopping receipts than through bottles or cans.
Receipts that use BPA technology (applying a powdery layer of BPA to one side of thermal imaging paper so that when heat or pressure is applied, printing will appear) will, on average, have 60 to 100 milligrams of free BPA on them. And unlike the BPA in plastics that’s bound into a polymer, the BPA on receipts are loose molecules which potentially makes it easier to transfer BPA from receipt to fingers to, say, food, and thus be ingested.
Warner acknowledges that more research to quantify the prevalence of BPA-laced receipts is needed. But his initial findings indicate that someone really should.
Meanwhile, concerned shoppers, especially pregnant ones, need to be aware of this BPA risk.
So what’s a keen shopper to do?
You could stop shopping but that wouldn’t help you, or come to think about, the economy.
A better answer is to use a bank card for transactions and say no to receipts, especially at times where having a receipt is not necessary.
Although alternatively, we could all wear gloves?
Image: ebedner