Are there toxic chemicals in your grocery store receipt?

Thermal paper receipts contain bisphenols such as BPA or BPS, endocrine-disrupting chemicals also used in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, and a 2025 advocacy-group study claimed that holding a receipt for 10 seconds could expose someone to unsafe levels. A medical toxicologist writing here explains that bisphenols can be absorbed through skin, especially with greasy or freshly moisturized hands, and that BPA exposure at high doses has been linked to heart disease, diabetes and effects on fetal development.

But a 2023 estimate found the daily dose from handling thermal receipts runs somewhere between 5,000 and 50 million times lower than European safety standards, less than a drop in an 8-ounce glass of water for the average person. Workers who handle many receipts daily, such as retail and food service employees, get roughly 100 times that dose, though still well under regulatory thresholds. Europe has banned BPA outright; the U.S. bans it only in baby bottles, and many manufacturers have simply swapped it for BPS, which shares similar toxic properties.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.