Loading ...The Great Printer Emissions Scare of ‘07
by Bradley Hughes, Senior Analyst, IDC Canada -
About 10 years ago I worked with somebody who constantly complained about the quality of the air and smell around his desk which happenned to sit next to a printer. Management thought he was a whiner and eventually they found a trumped up way to get relieve him of his duties. Turns out he may have been right.
Last month a bomb got dropped in the laps of laser printer vendors (particularly HP) when the Queensland University of Technology in Australia published a study on airborne ultrafine particles being emitted by laser printers. Although the story is a bit old people continue to ask me about it so here is a quick primer on the situation culled from the research report itself as well as some fine reporting from ZDnet.
Number of printers tested: 62
Number of printers that emitted NO particles: 37
Number of printers considered HIGH particle emitters: 17
Were any trends detected?
No. HP may have been responsible for 16 of the 17 printers considered high emitters but they were also responsible for 29 of the 37 non-emitters. As well the HP LaserJet 5 was both a high emitter and a non-emitter.
What do the particles consist of?
We don’t know. No testing was done of the ultrafine particles themselves.
Is laser toner carcinogenic?
We don’t know — testing in lab rats did not find any abnormalities.
Is this just a problem for HP?
No. Unfortunately though 51 of of the 62 printers tested were HP devices. Thus far no one has pointed out that Canon manufactures the print engines in HP’s laser devices. If memory serves correctly it was Sony who ended up bearing the brunt for the Great Exploding Laptop Scare of ‘06 not Dell. Only one Canon printer was tested (it was a low emitter) as well no models from Samsung, Lexmark, Brother or Xerox were tested.
What does this all mean?
That the research thus far is inconclusive but definitely warrants more. From the actual study’s discussion section:
The high standard deviation of the average emission rates estimated in this study also indicates that the particle emission process and the behavior of individual printers are complex and that they are still far from being completely understood. Many factors, such as printer model, printer age, cartridge model, and cartridge age may affect the particle emission process and all of these factors require further study.
What’s the cynical blogger take on it?
Prepare for a lot of marketing material laying claim to “zero emission” printers.
