Posted By Patrick Teyhan Esteemed Colleagues I have been party to an E-Mail from a colleague informing others that to get Toner out of your clothes you should was it out with Cold Water! Whilst I applaude my colleagues efforts to keep his colleagues clothes bright and clean but I believe he has missed the point completely. Being an old hand at this I recall (seems like a lifetime ago now) that Photocopying Toner being linked as a possible carcinogen and that exposure to / contact with toner is a potential risk to health and associated activites should be Risk Assessed and prohibited. Could anyone point me in the right direction as to where I might find information / Link to raise my colleagues awareness to the potential health hazards from the exposure of Photcopying Toner. N.B he works in a different office location, I know that we no longer have the top up toner Photocopying machines in our location as I negotiated for their replacement with the more energy efficient Toner cartridge type machines. Many thanks in anticipation Regards

Posted By Ron Reid I don't know about the other ingredients mentioned but carbon black is certainly identified as a level 2B carcinogen. The correct procedure here would surely be a COSHH assessment (or replace the photocopier)

Posted By Karen Todd Patrick, Refer to LAC 90/2. You can see it at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/90-2.htm Here is an extract: Toner 13 Toners are fine powders which have a faint plastic odour. Depending on the the size of the copier, they are typically composed of iron oxide or manetite, organic charging agent, acrylic or polyester resin, carbon black and/or inorganic pigments, amorphous silica, and salicyclic acid chromium (III) chelate. There are 8-hour TWA OESs for dust of 10 mg/m3 (total inhalable) and 5 mg/m3 (respirable), for iron oxide of 10 mg/m3 (total inhalable) and 5 mg/m3 (respirable), and for amorphous silica of 6 mg/m3 (total) and 3 mg/m3 (respirable). 14 Exposure to total inhalable dust during the use of photocopiers has been measured in the range 0.05-0.23 mg/m3, well below the OES for total inhalable dust. The toner component was found to be less than 20% of the total inhalable dust, and therefore exposure to the individual components was well below the respecive OESs. 15 During normal use, toner dusts are not considered to present a significant hazard to health. Regards, Karen

Posted By John-Mark In my experience, and I have a considerable amount of experience with photocopiers, toner usually brushes off clothing easily. If the toner is not of the powder variety, then perhaps it's time for a new copier! John-Mark