BAN ON BPA IN THERMOPLASTICS.

Commission REACH Regulation (EU) 2016/2235 of December 12, 2016, introduced the restriction of bisphenol A (BPA).

WHAT IS BISPHENOL A AND WHERE DOES IT OCCUR?

Among other things, BPA is an important basic building block for the production of polycarbonate and is used as a color developer in thermal papers (cash register slips, tickets, receipts or parking tickets).

In plastics such as polycarbonate, the BPA molecules are chemically bound. However, depending on the application, these substances can decompose and be released into small amounts of their building blocks. In this way, BPA also gets into food in very small amounts. In thermal papers, BPA is only used as an additive and is not chemically bound. In this case, the molecules are released more easily. However, the exposure to the consumer is much lower because the amounts are much smaller in these applications.

WHAT ARE THE HEALTH RISKS?

The BPA is an endocrine disruptor, which affects the hormonal system and thus can be harmful to the organism. Studies have proven that BPA in very high concentrations exerts harmful effects on the reproductive, nervous, immune and cardiovascular systems, as well as affecting the metabolism (obesity, diabetes) and can cause cancer.  

WHAT MEASURES ARE BEING TAKEN IN SWITZERLAND?

BPA does not pose a health risk according to current knowledge, as the dosage to which we are exposed is too low to be harmful.

Despite this reassuring finding, various measures have been taken by the authorities to further reduce BPA exposure. In the thermal paper sector, the use of bisphenol A will be banned in Switzerland from 01.01.2020 and bisphenol S (BPS) from 01.06.2020.

WHAT MEASURES HAS BSL-TICKETPRINT AG TAKEN?

BSL-Ticketprint AG uses thermal papers with topcoat as well as semi topcoat quality. For more than 15 years, BSL has been using bisphenol-free thermal paper with Topcoat quality for most of its Swiss customers. This high quality thermal paper has an additional topcoat on the thermal side and is most useful for parking ticket applications. Thanks to this coating, additional protection is provided against mechanical stress or environmental influences such as moisture or heat. Besides the high quality, this paper is bisphenol-free from the beginning.

In the area of thermal papers with semi topcoat quality, which is mainly used for export, thermal papers with BPA molecules were used. Since the restriction of REACH regulation, these papers have also been changed to BPA and BPS free. Since July 2019, BSL has been using bisphenol-free paper for all thermal products.

If you have any further questions about bisphenols in thermal papers, please contact: Antonio Prudente, CEO, antonio.prudente@bsl.ch, +41 41 248 41 64