Comment on You didn't bought it you rented it!
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 1 year agoUnused inkjet printers dry up. Turning it on regularly can help clean the heads and waste a little bit of ink to keep everything working, but whatever brand of inkjet cartridges you buy, you’ll run into this problem. There are ways to clean cartridges, but if you don’t print enough going laser printer is the only solution.
Make sure you actually listen to the manual and put those in a well-ventilated room, though. Those things spew so much heavy metals and other toxic compounds that I’m surprised there hasn’t been a massive health and safety law about just laser printers.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Good points on the ink jet. I’m not sure laser printers are really toxic. Yes 30-40 years ago there were problems with ozone for heavy printing environments, or if you sat right next to the printer. But AFAIK the ozone levels have been reduced, and for small printers it’s not a problem. While ozone is toxic, it is also naturally occurring, and we can tolerate low levels of it.
Regarding chemicals in the toner, it was a problem way way back, because in high volume environments that shit sometimes would be all over the place. Because containers weren’t tight enough. I don’t recall seeing toner in or around laser printers for home office for the past 2 decades. I’m guessing production environments have improved similarly too, but I haven’t been much in contact with those lately.
There are clear work environment regulations in most (western) countries, that date back to the early 80’s and even earlier. As a minimum those regulations must be met. So yes there are actually health and safety laws around laser printers. And AFAIK they are completely safe unless you are doing something illegal or incredibly stupid.
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 1 year ago
I think studies like this one or this one prove that there’s still a risk even with modern printers, especially when you deal with printers over a long time (i.e. if you have an office job). Of course the setup in these studies isn’t very realistic (many days of non-stop printing) but of you work near one of those devices for a couple of years, the effects accumulate because of the tiny sizes of these particles.
Offices are often fine because of regulations, but many home offices or home users don’t know or care about the risks despite all the warning labels and actual health issues these things can cause.