Supermarket Bills May Affect Your Nervous System: Here’s How

Supermarket Bill Side Effects: The next time you pick up an ATM or grocery bill, you may also be accidentally consuming chemicals that could be harmful to your health. This might sound quite surprising, but here’s what a study conducted in Bangalore revealed.

According to a new student-led study conducted in Bengaluru, thermal paper receipts, which millions of people use daily, contain hazardous substances that might interfere with hormones and perhaps cause cancer and heart problems.

Supermarket Bill Side Effects: Complete Study

Three high school students, R Usha (Grade 10, Sai Krushna Vidya Mandir School, Hosadoddi Village), Aniketh V Bhat (Grade 10, Rashtrotthana Vidya Kendra, Banashankari), and R Nalini (Grade 9, Sai Krushna Vidya Mandir School), conducted the study as part of the Anveshana Student Research Program at the Prayoga Institute of Education Research.

Under the direction of Principal Investigator Dr. Athavan Anand and Co-PI Asha CH, the investigation found that common receipt paper included dangerous substances like bisphenol S (BPS) and diphenyl sulfone (DPS).

The glossy substance used in ATMs, bus stops, toll booths, and retail receipts is called thermal paper. Heat from the printer causes a dye to react with substances like BPS, a replacement for the now-prohibited Bisphenol A (BPA), to print text.

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Global research has revealed that BPS may produce similar endocrine disruption, interfering with hormonal balance and harming the heart and nervous system, although it was first promoted as a safer option.

How are Supermarket Bills harmful?
These substances are not permanently bonded to the paper. For people who deal with receipts daily, such as cashiers, transport employees, and toll booth workers, this is a worrying reality because they can easily transfer to the skin upon touch, remain for hours, and possibly enter the bloodstream.

Safer Alternatives for Supermarket or ATM Bill Inks?
According to the sources, research to study safer alternatives for these inks is going to be conducted. It is said that they are planning to use alternatives such as vitamin-C-based ink technology, which has already been adopted by one of the renowned universities in the U.S.