Laser printer particle researcher fires back at HP

After Australian researchers delivered a damning report claiming that HP's printers were at the top of the heap for expelling dangerous, potentially cancer-causing, ultra-fine particles, the company responded with a lengthy press release which essentially "debunked" the study's findings -- and now the researchers have fired back to the Australian press. The printer-maker claimed that the study of ultra-fine particles was a "new" science, to which Lidia Morawska, head of the project, says simply isn't true. According to her, the European Commission has added a particle number limit to its emissions standards for light vehicles, which Morawska claims is a normally "lengthy" process. Additionally, she says that there is "considerable toxicological evidence of potential detrimental effects of ultra-fine particles on human health," based on the current World Health Organization's Air Quality Guidelines. The scientist further refutes HP's claims that the particles "cannot be accurately characterised by analytical technology," by stating that the study found plenty of printer models which carried no dangerous emissions at all, suggesting clear differences in the variety of particle output. Obviously this debate is just getting started, though we'll be avoiding superfluous laser printing while the jury is out... just to be safe.

[mattclarkie @ Aug 6th 2007 9:13AM]

I was told that in the UK there are guidelines on the numbers of particles that laser printers release and that Laser printers have to be in a ventilated area because of the fine dust that is statically charged.

However unless you sniff the thing 24/7 you will not be exposed to dangerous levels.

[Christopher @ Aug 6th 2007 11:28AM]

"However unless you sniff the thing 24/7 you will not be exposed to dangerous levels." - You mean like the workers at the library? Or the secretary sitting next to the printer all day long?

[Tris @ Aug 6th 2007 9:18AM]

We are all gonna die.. again.

[Bernhard @ Aug 6th 2007 9:22AM]

Maybe the guys at HP are so depressed right now that they are already starting to fill their Shishas with the stuff...

[Matt @ Aug 6th 2007 9:29AM]

I wonder how long will it take before one laser printer manufacturer will use this nonsense against another one (HP says...Studies show that our printers do not emit toner micro particles but the inexpensive printers from Brother and Lexmark do...then watch the geese..errr...customers flock to buy HP units :-)

Matt
www.symbiosis60.com

[Natedog @ Aug 6th 2007 9:40AM]

HP suck. We bought an HP desktop back in 2000, it sucked and tech support for it sucked. My friend has an older laptop (P4 generation). It has so many problems it's not funny. My family bought a Compaq laptop a year or so ago, took it back the same day and bought a Toshiba. It would be just like them to lie through their teeth. I have made sure that nobody I know ever buys any of their computers again. Though I'm not sure about the quality of their other electronics, I don't like the business as a whole.

[John B @ Aug 6th 2007 11:29AM]

HP in the pre-Carly days was unbeatable with respect to printers. The products were rock-solid and took a freaking beating without skipping a beat. They were the Sun Microsystems of the printing world. I still use an HP DeskJet 970cxi, a LaserJet 5, and a LaserJet 4 at home, all of which get have thousands upon thousands of pages printed on them over the past many years, and they still are chugging along.

Their post-Carly days were abysmal. She f**king destroyed HP. I vowed never to buy another HP PC in my life because of problems that I had with their extended warranty coverage and the inept customer "support". If any of these printers die, I'll be looking to buy used hardware of the same model.

[aStopperBy @ Aug 12th 2007 10:38PM]

Hmmm...you're not doing a very good job, seeing as HP is now the #1 PC manufacturer again.
Also, I must add I got a new HP laptop last year and it is holding up very good!

[Rynth @ Aug 6th 2007 9:45AM]

I, for one, am tired of being told that printers are trying to kill me.

Seriously though, am I going to die or not?

[John B @ Aug 6th 2007 11:04AM]

Hell, I'm fed up with being told that EVERYTHING'S trying to kill me! Alcohol, drugs, oat bran, pets, e-coli, dust, CRT radiation, dihydrogen monoxide, flatulence, bird poop, the magnetic reversal of the poles, plastic bottles, plugged Internet tubes, clogged rain gutters, and the Ice Capades.

WTF is wrong with people that they feel this need to try to send everyone into a freaking panic over EVERYTHING?! Just let us live our lives, for crying out loud.

No matter how much these idiots try to clean up our environment -- with respect to immediate surroundings like at home or at the office, not necessarily the ecosystem, so you environmentalists can just calm down -- we're still just as dead by getting smacked by a runaway steam roller, a falling meteorite, or some b!tch who isn't watching where she's going by putting on makeup at 70 MPH down the highway.

I'm sick of being told that I have to worry about everything. From now on I'm just going to worry about the Chicken Littles (or boys who are crying "wolf!") who tell me that I have to worry about the newest health problem du jour.

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 6th 2007 9:56AM]

Awww, superfluous printing is the MOST fun! :(

[mr friggles @ Aug 6th 2007 10:52AM]

Yeah really funny.

No. Laser printers will not kill you. Maybe you'll end up having to cut out one lung or spend your life after retirement next to an oxygen tank, but it won't "kill" you... as far as we know. Its not like inhaled particles from something could contribute to cancer, is it? And when these dangers do become official you can look back at these comments and try to laugh as you hawk up blood. :)

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 6th 2007 11:14AM]

Because there isn't anything else more accessible that could do that, right?

P.S. The sky is not falling.

[mr friggles @ Aug 6th 2007 1:36PM]

Who said the sky is falling? Your life centers around your printer?? For most of us, if laser printer particles might be a danger, we will simply want the manufacturer to address it in the product & verify its safety. We won't put a gun to our head and pull the trigger. We also wouldn't put our hands over our ears and scream really loud. That would be dumb..among other things.

[Jagannath A @ Aug 6th 2007 10:55AM]

a message window suddenly popped in one of the PCs in the PR department of HP

http://img256.imageshack.us/my.php?image=heheor2.jpg

[Jared @ Aug 6th 2007 2:13PM]

Maybe the ultra Fine particles is that funky smell you smell when u stick ur face up in the printer to watch it print... Yes i know i'm childish, but i love watching the printer head go back and forth and shoot out colored globs of ink :)

[McCrum @ Aug 6th 2007 3:39PM]

hahaha.. and here I thought I was the only one

[printr @ Aug 6th 2007 4:57PM]

"Laser printer particle"
A laser printer doesn't shoot blobs of color and try sticking your head in one.

[Matt @ Aug 6th 2007 4:57PM]

To Mr friggles: I don't really get your comment. Laser printers have been in use for the decades and somehow you don't see office employees dying one after another. What's next...we'll be told that inkjets spray microparticles into our eyes causing blindness??? How about cell phones linked to brain cancer... wouldn't most of the Earth's population be dead by now if those things were true??? What I don't get is why so called researchers waste millions on unjustified "research" claiming so much "life threatening" items surround us in our daily lives.... Printers - they're everywhere, Cell Phones..brain cancer??? Aren't we surrounded by radio waves from TV, WiFi, Microwaves, remote controls, cordless phones, outer space etc...in that case I guess we will have to lock ourselves up under ground and never come out..but then again daily use products emit radiation too (food, water) so I guess we're heading towards the death. So i suggest you stop eating, drinking, using cordless or cell phones, get away from the electricity (magnetic waves), all plants, printers and what else can come to mind since it seems that everything on earth is killing us.

[Tris @ Aug 6th 2007 8:53PM]

w00t4u!

[HektikLyfe @ Aug 6th 2007 8:00PM]

When a companies products are compared in their level of damage to that of the tobacco companies, how did you expect said companies to respond? Exactly like the tobacco companies.

DENY DENY DENY. Soon we'll find internal memos covering up the evidence found internally across the interweb and HP printers being pushed by some "Hip" mascot character.