By IANS
Melbourne : Scientists in Australia have said that some of the printers that are used in offices every day could be harmful to health because they emit pollutants.
The researchers tested the air quality near different printers in an office setting and also in an isolation chamber.
They tested the emissions from 62 laser printers and found that 27 percent of them emitted high levels of particulate pollution – pollution made up of small liquid or solid particles when in use, reported the online edition of the New Scientist.
Researchers said the worst emitting printer created particulate pollution roughly equivalent to that produced by an average cigarette smoker.
Scientists at the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia focused on particles less than a micrometer in diameter. These are not easily filtered out by the lungs and are suspected of causing long-term health problems.
The researchers had set out to see how varying levels of outdoor particulate pollution affected the environment inside an office building.
They expected pollution levels indoors to be much better. But they found that, during work hours, it was significantly worse – three times worse at it's highest.
Although the scientists have not yet conducted a thorough chemical analysis, it seems likely that the particles come from toner – the black dust-like material that laser printers use to produce images on paper.
However, not all printers were equally bad. In fact, 60 percent of them emitted no particles at all. Eight of the printers tested emitted only low or medium levels of particulates, but 13 were high emitters.
There was also no clear indication that any specific brand was worse than another.
Â