Carl Klutzke ([info]sirvalence) wrote,
@ 2007-10-26 10:02:00
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Entry tags:questions

The Dangers of Toner
One of my first jobs was maintaining printers in a university print center. My boss there told me to be very careful about the toner, because it's highly toxic. He even told a story of someone who killed his neighbor's annoying dog by putting toner in its food. So how dangerous is toner, really?

Apparently toner varies considerably from manufacturer to manufacturer, or even between different machines. And the story I heard came from around 1987, so things may have changed since then. However, the main hazards Wikipedia mentions are related to staining (hint: always use cold water to clean toner, since hot water may cause it to melt and bond), and inhalation irritation similar to inert dust (hint: typical household vacuum cleaners aren't so great at cleaning toner spills, because the powder is so fine it can go right through the filter). If were as toxic as my old boss told me, I think the article would be explicit about it. (Wikipedia)

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[info]erichris
2007-10-26 03:12 pm UTC (link)
My uncle was in a writing class with a great English professor who claimed to have a severe allergy to toner. To the point where she insisted that she be given only handwritten, typed, or electronic forms of writing.

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[info]mcroft
2007-10-27 03:46 am UTC (link)
When I worked for a printer reseller (and other things) in Texas, we understood that toner dust was similar to coal dust in producing black lung disease. Not something you'd want, but not something you'd get from short-term exposure. As with you, my info is out of date...

About once a month someone would ship a printer back to us to repair and forget to remove the toner. The fine chaps at UPS would use that box for a quick rugby scrum, and we'd get a toner-explosion-inna-box.

So, the customer would be called. 1: you're going to need all new consumables. $300 2: We can either clean it or dispose of it for you. Cleaning is $700 (6 hours of a tech in a seperately ventilated room with a mask on. All for a $1249 printer. We hated cleaning 'em. Take apart every component and vacuum/was 'em all. We made the customers sign a release saying they would remove the consumables before shipping. It didn't really solve the problem, but it did keep them from arguing when they did this to themselves.

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