Most receipts from a cash register, a card terminal or an ATM are printed on thermal paper. There's no ink: the paper has a coating that darkens where the printer heats it, and that coating needs a chemical called a developer. For years the usual developer was bisphenol A (BPA). Its most common replacement is bisphenol S (BPS). This page sets out what health and chemical regulators in Canada, the US and the EU say about both, and nothing beyond what they say.
Do receipts have BPA?
Many do, and many others use BPS instead. Health Canada says BPA is used in thermal paper coatings for receipts, prescription labels and airline tickets, and that BPS is also used as an ink developer in thermal papers used for receipts. You can't tell which one a receipt contains by looking at it.
The mix depends on where you are. In the European Union, BPA has been restricted in thermal paper since January 2020. The EU's chemicals agency, ECHA, found that manufacturers mostly replaced it with BPS: in 2019, 187 kilotonnes of BPS-based thermal paper were sold in the EU, and ECHA forecast that 61% of all thermal paper there would be BPS-based by 2022.
Is touching receipts bad for you?
Health Canada says people are exposed to BPA mainly through food, and that skin contact from handling thermal printing paper is considered an important secondary route of exposure. In other words, regulators treat receipts as a real but secondary source, behind food packaging.
On the effects, Health Canada lists potential risks from BPA exposure that include effects on the liver and kidneys, and on reproduction, development, neurodevelopment and behaviour. It also says dietary exposure from food packaging is not expected to pose health risks to the general population. In the EU, BPA is classified as toxic to reproduction and is identified as an endocrine disruptor for human health; it is also classified as a skin sensitiser.
None of these agencies says that touching a single receipt is dangerous. What they describe is a source of exposure worth reducing, which is why the EU restricted it in thermal paper.
What about BPS?
Swapping BPA for BPS hasn't settled the question. ECHA says BPS is suspected of damaging human reproductive and hormonal systems, and its risk assessment committee supported classifying BPS as toxic to reproduction. ECHA's own risk management director said replacing a hazardous substance with one that is also suspected to be hazardous is not what regulators want to see.
Health Canada says bisphenol analogues such as BPS may have similar health effects to BPA, and that there is less information on their health impacts. In 2021 the Government of Canada issued a notice to collect information on how these chemicals are used, to decide on possible risk assessment and management.
How much BPA and BPS Canadians carry
Health Canada measures bisphenols in urine through the Canadian Health Measures Survey. BPA levels fell by 43% between the 2007 to 2009 and 2018 to 2019 surveys, from a geometric mean of 1.2 to 0.68 micrograms per litre. BPS levels, at 0.37 micrograms per litre in 2018 to 2019, were relatively unchanged over time.
The rules in Canada, the US and the EU
- Canada: BPA is listed as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, and baby bottles containing BPA can't be made, advertised, sold or imported. Health Canada's BPA pages describe no rule specific to receipt paper, and say the Government continues to monitor and assess BPA.
- United States: the FDA regulates BPA in food packaging and says it is safe at the current levels occurring in foods. It no longer allows BPA-based materials in baby bottles, sippy cups or infant formula packaging, a change it says was made because industry had stopped using them, not for safety reasons. The FDA's BPA page does not address receipts.
- European Union: BPA is restricted in thermal paper since January 2020, limited in food contact materials to 0.05 mg/kg leaching into food, and banned in infant feeding bottles since 2011.
Simple ways to handle fewer receipts
- Say yes when a store offers an emailed or digital receipt, and no to the paper copy you don't need.
- Don't carry a stack of old receipts in your wallet or bag. Photograph the ones you need to keep.
- If you handle receipts all day at work, ask your employer about the paper your register uses.
A receipt that never touches your hands
The surest way to avoid thermal paper is not to get it. With digital receipts, stores connected to Smartbills send the itemized receipt to your account when you pay, with no paper printed. Receipts that arrive by email are filed by email receipt capture. When a paper slip is unavoidable, photograph it in the Smartbills app and keep the image, which also stops the record fading. For tax purposes, a clear and complete image is generally accepted in place of the paper; see how long to keep receipts.