Grim Reaper Lurking in Your Laser Printer

So the guys in Office Space were right about “killing” that printer.  A preemptive strike if you will.

Yahoo! Tech reported:
In July 2007, an Australian research team quietly released a study that alleged that laser printers could release a fine, toxic dust — “on the scale of inhaled cigarette smoke” — whenever they were in use.

Nearly two years later, the same researchers are back… with a vengeance. Their goal: To determine why some printers produced so many particles and some produced considerably fewer. Rather than test a few dozen printers, this time the research focused on two printers (both from HP): One known to produce a very small amount of particulate matter, and one which had been shown to produce about 1000 times as much.

To get to the point, here’s what the study found: The temperature that the toner, lubricating oil, and certain internal printer components reach (and how fast they reach it) is what is largely responsible for causing the rise of particulate emissions. Once certain thresholds were crossed (which vary depending on the component), particulate emissions went through the roof. The study also found that toner itself isn’t the real issue, but rather a complex secondary reaction that occurs in the air and involves organic compounds that originate on paper as well as toner, also involving airborne ozone, to produce the resulting emissions.