Occupational exposure of cashiers to Bisphenol A via thermal paper: urinary biomonitoring study

Abstract

PurposeAs an essential component of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, Bisphenol A (BPA) is found in numerous industrial and consumer products. BPA may cause adverse health effects because of its endocrine activity. General population exposure to this compound mainly through diet is well documented. Thermal paper was also identified as a source of BPA through dermal intake. In this study, we investigated whether frequent contact with thermal paper is associated with an increase in urinary BPA excretion.MethodsWe evaluated the exposure to BPA in cashiers and in non-occupationally exposed workers from several workplaces. Urinary BPA was quantified in free (unconjugated) and total (unconjugated plus conjugated) forms in 24-h and spot urine samples using LC–MS/MS. BPA concentration in thermal paper was also measured from each workplace. In addition, participants provided information on job, food and drink, tobacco consumption and hands wash during the sampling period through a questionnaire.ResultsUrine samples were collected from 90 cashiers and 44 controls. Free and total BPA were detected in all samples. The median urinary total BPA concentration was 3.54 µg/L (2.89 µg/g creatinine) for controls and 8.92 µg/L (6.76 µg/g creatinine) for cashiers. For the free BPA, the median urinary concentration was 0.20 µg/L (0.21 µg/g creatinine) for controls and 0.28 µg/L (0.22 µg/g creatinine) for cashiers. Any correlation was found between the urinary concentration levels and the number of thermal receipts handled. Hand washes frequency, age, job length of service and tobacco consumption had also no effect on the BPA excretions.ConclusionA significant increase in urinary total BPA concentration was observed for cashiers handling daily thermal paper receipts. However, no significant increase was observed in urinary free BPA concentration. These findings are particularly interesting for risk assessment since all available data on occupational exposure to BPA through thermal paper were obtained from models or from simulated experiments.

Urinary Bisphenol A (BPA) Concentrations among Workers in Industries that Manufacture and Use BPA in the USA

“…Cashiers handling BPA-coated thermal paper receipts in the USA had pre-shift total BPA CR concentrations 14 times lower than in our study and end-shift concentrations 42 times (Day 1) and 64 times (Day 2) lower than we found (Thayer et al , 2016), while cashiers in France (Ndaw et al , 2016) had overall total BPA CR concentrations more than 10 times lower than in our study. Two small studies of Chinese workers making and packaging BPA-based epoxy resins (Ren et al , 2012; Wang et al , 2012) generally reported total BPA CR concentrations several times lower than we found.…”

“…Occupational exposure to BPA has been studied largely among manufacturing workers in Asia (Hanaoka et al , 2002; Xiao et al , 2005; Cha et al , 2008; He et al , 2009; Ren et al , 2012; Wang et al , 2012; Zhuang et al , 2015) and in cashiers (Ndaw et al , 2016; Thayer et al , 2016). Because of the scientific debate around BPA and the lack of published data on BPA exposure among US manufacturing workers, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted a study in 2013–2014 to quantify urinary BPA in US workers engaged in making BPA or products made with BPA.…”

Urinary bisphenol A in children, mothers and fathers from Slovenia: Overall results and determinants of exposure

“…The migration of BPA from the food container to the food itself means that dietary ingestion is a major source of exposure in all age groups of the general population (Pirard and Charlier, 2014). Among non-dietary sources, skin contact with thermal paper used in receipts might be a significant source of exposure for cashiers (Geens et al, 2012;Ndaw et al, 2016) and composite dental fillings for the general population, while indoor air and dust are also potential exposure sources for the non-occupational population (Geens et al, 2012).…”

Bisphenol A and Metabolic Diseases: Challenges for Occupational Medicine

“…The characterization of the exposure is central, because, for example, in the case of obesity, eating habits involving a wide consumption of canned foods or packaged foods with a high caloric content can be regarded as food more easily “contaminated” by BPA, becoming an important confounding factor in the study [ 59 ]. Sometimes, there are methodological limitations in the studies published that make the conclusions of lesser impact; for example, an influencing factor can be the choice of the biological indicator to characterize the magnitude of exposure to BPA: in some cases urinary BPA (combined or total) is proposed as a simple concentration, on a spot urine sample, without proceeding with a standardization for the grams of urinary creatinine, and this choice implies a very limited interpretation of the datum [ 59 ].…”