Supermarket receipts may become "hidden killers"

¡õReporter Ge Rujiang and Zhang Ziyun reported from Hefei

A piece of news on the Internet about supermarket shopping receipts containing "bisphenol A" causing cancer has attracted the attention of many netizens: supermarket shopping receipts contain bisphenol A, which can penetrate into the human body through the skin, affect the human reproductive system and cause cancer.

Animal experiments show that bisphenol A may have an impact on reproductive development

It is understood that on November 25, 2010, the European Food Chain and Animal Health Committee passed the European Commission's decision, "From March 1, 2011, member states are prohibited from using plastics containing bisphenol A to produce baby bottles, and from June 1, 2011, the import of such plastic baby bottles is prohibited."

So, why can bisphenol A, which is prohibited in baby bottles, be added to shopping receipts?

Wen Jinsong, director of the Light Textile and Chemical Industry Department of Anhui Provincial Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, introduced that as the preferred medium for thermal paper, bisphenol A is allowed to be added and used. In 2010, the World Health Organization held a special meeting to evaluate bisphenol A, but no consensus was reached.

The reporter contacted Dong Jinshi, executive vice president of the International Food Packaging Association. He said that there are currently no cases of cancer caused by bisphenol A in the world. It is "exaggerated" to say that bisphenol A causes cancer, but it cannot be denied that bisphenol A is harmful to the human body. There are currently no rigid regulations on shopping receipts containing bisphenol A in the world. It only encourages the use of substitutes, but does not prohibit their use.

Chen Tianyun, a professor at the School of Chemical Engineering of Hefei University of Technology, told reporters that the bisphenol A found in shopping receipts acts as a developer.

Bisphenol A is stable at room temperature. When heated to about 90 degrees Celsius, it will release harmful substances, which will cause harm to the human body when reaching a certain large dose. Many experiments and surveys have shown that this substance is commonly found in modern human bodies, and "bisphenol A is harmful to the human body" has been found many times in animal experiments and clinical studies.

Chen Tianyun said: "As a chemical substance, bisphenol A is toxic. Animal experiments have found that bisphenol A may affect reproductive development. It will not be a big problem for ordinary people to come into contact with it, but infants and young children have poor resistance, so infants and young children must avoid excessive contact with bisphenol A, and normal people cannot be exposed to an environment containing a large amount of bisphenol A for a long time."

Current situation: Bisphenol A is widely used

It is understood that in daily life, in addition to supermarket shopping receipts, there are also lottery tickets, POS machine purchase receipts when swiping cards, ATM deposit and withdrawal receipts, etc., all of which are developed through a kind of "thermal paper". The unique thermal layer in this type of paper contains three components: colorless thermal dye, weak acid developer and filler. Bisphenol A is dispersed in the filler together with the developer and dye.

In an office supplies store on the North First Ring Road in Yaohai District, Hefei, the reporter saw various specifications of tube-shaped thermal paper. Xiao Xiao, a salesperson, told the reporter that "the sales of these thermal papers have been getting better and better in recent years, and the scope of application has become wider and wider. Commonly used thermal papers contain bisphenol A, and there are also environmentally friendly thermal papers that do not contain bisphenol A, but their prices are 10 times that of ordinary thermal papers, so the sales volume is very small."

In a large supermarket on a busy avenue in Hefei, a young mother had just come out of shopping with her daughter who was less than two years old. When the reporter asked her if she knew that the receipt contained bisphenol A, the mother said: "I was shocked when I saw the information on the Internet at first. I only knew that this bisphenol A in the milk bottle was not good for the development of children. I didn't expect that it was also in the receipt!"

Most consumers said that they could see the price and whether the items were wrong on the shopping receipt, so they usually looked at it instead of throwing it away directly. At the same time, many items purchased in supermarkets, if there are quality problems, need to be exchanged with shopping receipts. Therefore, shopping receipts are kept for at least one day and at most one week.

Experts' Voice: Take Precautions Before They Happen

Guo Yongmei of Fujian Product Quality Inspection Institute mentioned in a research article: Studies have shown that long-term exposure to bisphenol A can affect many sexual physiological problems in men. Male workers exposed to bisphenol A have a 4-fold risk of erectile dysfunction compared to the control group.

Since the harm of bisphenol A cannot be immediately apparent in a short period of time, it can only be determined after long-term, regular, and large-scale exposure. Therefore, Guo Yongmei suggested that further investment should be made in the research of bisphenol A, and an effective risk assessment mechanism should be established to determine whether to ban the use of bisphenol A or to set a limit standard.

Li Pengge, a professor of the Department of Chemistry at Taiyuan Normal University, also said in an interview: "The dose of a chemical substance determines whether it is harmful." Therefore, relevant government departments should formulate relevant standards to regulate the use of "bisphenol A".

Currently, the scope of the international ban on bisphenol A is gradually expanding. According to the report "2010: Seeking Safer Packaging" released by an American investment company, most companies selling packaged food, such as Heinz and American retailers, have begun to take action to use substances that can replace the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A since 2009.

Although the impact of bisphenol A has not yet been determined, Wang Kaiyu, a researcher at the Anhui Academy of Social Sciences, believes that people's life safety should be put first: "As long as it may cause harm to the human body, it should be banned. I think the large-scale use of bisphenol A should be banned first. It is much better to prevent it before it happens than to ban it after it is found out. At the same time, the replacement of substitutes should be completed as soon as possible."

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