I have developed severe bronchial hyperreactivity and multiple chemical sensitivity. It was only caused by the vapours released by a photocopier and a laser printer. These machines can be a risk when they smell strongly and are used intensively in an unventilated place where someone is staying all the time because they can release dozens of different chemicals among them ozone and volatile compounds know for their deletereous effects on the airways. It is not so much a question of different commercial brands, it has more to do with the type of machine, paper and toner used and this may vary a lot.

These chemical cocktails can produce complex toxicological syndromes that physicians are usually misdiagnosing (as allergy to pollens, viruses, asthma due to urban smog, atypical genetical sjogren sydrome, psychosomatic anxiety or others due to the fact that the medical establishment is not familiar with respiratory toxicology and do not usually enquiry about possible irritants for the airways that the patient might be breathing.

In my case the damage to my health is making my life a misery but in some others the lesions may be very nasty as what is being told in this website.

Anyone knowing of similar cases please report them here or elsewere and spread the news. It is important to make people aware of a potentially serious risk, easily avoidable but neglected everywhere for reasons which should be analyzed in depth.

One ’cause’ I read about was ‘carbon black’ used to make inks (including HP’s inkjet ink). I had worked in a test lab for HP inkjet printers which had ventilation problems they monitored (no openable windows either). There were hundreds of printers running in that room all the time.

I initially developed a lung condition (later having an asthma attack), skin irritation and glossitis. Now bladder cancer. I just wonder if there is a class action lawsuit against HP by people exposed to as much ‘carbon black’ as I was?

Before this study emerged, I had searched the web for reports of health problems with inkjet printers, but I didn’t find any warnings or anything else.