Justin Crockett at Cracked.com pointed out in his article “5 Ways Your Nerd Gadgets Are Killing You” that printer toner fumes may be as bad as cigarette smoke. This is a pretty scary thing for me since we run a digital printing company that relies on a toner-based production machine.

His article:

The next time you’re standing in front of the office laser printer, waiting for spreadsheets, or schematics, or your LARPing league handbook copies to finish copying, keep in mind that as that son of a bitch chugs away, it’s shooting out a toner-filled gas that could have severe respiratory consequences. And it could be as bad as cigarette smoking.

A study conducted with 62 of the most popular printers discovered that up to 30 percent of them emitted dangerously high levels of ultrafine toner particles. The particles being as small as they are, they have no trouble being inhaled into the smallest passages of the lungs. And this kind of office pollution is widespread: One area of research was an office in Brisbane, Australia. It was found that the fine particle count inside the workplace was three times higher than outside, right near a damned highway.

The type of particulates and nature of risk fluctuated with each type of printer, and scientists aren’t completely sure why. Scientists believe it’s a mix of the age of the printer and how the lasers work with the toner cartridge, and also some science and stuff. Whatever it is, it’s proven that laser printers contribute to a five-fold increase in particulates during workday hours. While the home office isn’t as busy as a functioning workplace office, it could be worse still, due to a more closed environment and poor ventilation. It’s just you and your printer, sitting there, sharing its powder farts.