Number

198-EN

Section

General Section

Use

Abstract

Petroleum-based printing toners consume a lot of non-renewable resources and have negative environment, climate and health impacts. Soybean derived powder is used as an alternative to produce laser printer toners, at affordable price and with good printing quality.

Substituted substances

Alternative Substances

Reliability of information

Evidence of implementation: there is evidence that the solution was implemented and in use at time of publication

Reason substitution

CMR
PBT
ED
skin/respiratory sensitizing
other toxic effects
ecotoxicity

Hazard Assessment

Substances to be substituted: Styrene is probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A), according to the IARC Monographs. It fulfils the criteria to be listed in the Substance Database according to SUBSPORTplus Screening Criteria (SDSC). Butadiene may cause cancer cat. 1A, according to Annex VI of Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 (CLP Regulation). Alternative substance: The soybean is not included in the EU harmonised classification and is generally considered safe.

Description of Substitution

Laser printer cartridges that work with petroleum based toners can use a vegetal derived alternative, Soy Print™, manufactured from soy bean oil. The product is produced and supplied by Print Recovery Concepts in a network of agreed distributors that was initiated in USA but has already expanded to Europe. Soy Print laser cartridges have prices comparable to brand name, oil-based versions currently available. The quality of printing is also comparable to that of petroleum-based toners. The use of the alternative has the potential to lead to an important saving of crude oil (U.S. business, institution and governmental bodies consume of toners is the equivalent of 50,000 tons crude oil per year).

Case/substitution evaluation

Soybean oil is less toxic than the raw materials used in petroleum derived toners.Petroleum based toners are mainly made of polymers, like styrene acrylic copolymers or styrene butadiene copolymers. The copolymers are regarded as safe but the materials they are made of are hazardous: styrene is IARC carcinogen 2A, and endocrine disruptor, butadiene is carcinogen 1A and mutagen 1B according to CLP Regulation. The remanent monomer content in the polymer is low, therefore considered unlikely to generate high level of exposures. Temperatures (well over 100⁰C) employed for laser printing generate hazardous emissions like phenols and cresols, phthalates, phosphorous esters and siloxanes.The airborne toner particles generated when printing have a very small diameter (even at o scale) which makes them hazardous for health, especially in the case of occupational exposure. Such fine particle emissions may occur also from soy based printers so protective measure should be taken. There is a general exposure limit value at 1.25 µg/m³ for alveolar dusts (as defined by German TRGS 900). However, the risk posed by toner dust emissions from printers in the workplace is considered to be low. It is also estimated that the general dust limit value can be easily complied with during recycling and servicing, among other things (more details hier: https://www.baua.de/EN/Topics/Work-design/Hazardous-substances/Working-with-hazardous-substances/Information-on-substances/Toner-dust.html).

State of implementation

Full capacity

Availability ofAlternative

Alternative is available on the market.

Type of information supplier

Producer / distributor

Contact

http://www.greenplanetcompany.net/soyprint.html

Further information

Soy bean oil MSDS from Sigma Aldrich: click here

Translation of 'Health hazards caused by emissions of laser printers and copiers?': Ewers, U.; Nowak, D.: Gesundheitsschäden und Erkrankungen durch Emissionen aus Laserdruckern und Kopiergeräten? Gefahrstoffe ? Reinhalt. Luft 66 (2006) no.5, pp. 203-210: click here

Publication source

Type of publication and availability

http://www.greenplanetcompany.net/soyprint.html

Date, reviewed

November 26, 2021