For at least a decade now there have been cancer cases, and studies from around the world suggesting that printer ink, and other chemicals used for printers, cause cancer.
Recently the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, in Japan, announced they are now studying the high rate of cancer among people who work in printing operations.
This came after several researchers revealed that people in one factory were dying from an unusually high rate of bile duct cancer.
According to Shinji Kumagai, an associate professor at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, the cancer rate at this particular printer company is 600 times higher than the average Japanese man who dies from bile duct cancer.
University researchers began looking into the situation last year, when a former employee died of bile duct cancer. He claimed that many of his coworkers had the same cancer. He had quit the factory five years prior, saying “The work environment is bad, with organic solvents in the air.”
Four people recently died from the cancer in Osaka, in western Japan. Another person died in Miyagi Prefecture, in northern Japan. A former printing company worker in Tokyo has been diagnosed with bile duct cancer.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, says they are now investigating at least 500 printing companies throughout Japan.
In 2007 an Australian study showed that printer ink can get into the air when printing. Printer inks contain Carbon Black, which causes cancer. There was also concern with other toxic chemicals in the inks.
In 1996, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reported that many studies through out the 90s revealed “significant” increases in cancer rates among people involved with all kinds of printing, from newspapers to silk screen. The cancers studied were of the lung, oropharynx, bladder and kidney, and Leukemia.
However the IARC downplayed the dozens and dozens of studies by prefacing the case reports with “…studies did not provide clear patterns of results.”, “…poor specificity of exposure information.” and “…the findings are not strong or consistent enough to be evaluated.”
2018 Update, here’s a list of main stream articles and/or studies concerning cancer and inks:
UrduPoint News: Ink When Mixes With Oily Foods Can Cause Cancer
Cure Today: Think Before You Ink
U.S. National Library of Medicine (PebMed): Tattoo ink particles can spread into lymph nodes
ScienceAlert: Ancient Chinese Ink Could Hold a Surprising New Way to Kill Cancer
Science Daily: Ink from ancient Egyptian papyri contains copper
Karger: Carbon Black Nanoparticles and Other Problematic Constituents of Black Ink
Emerging Technologies: Nanoparticles in tattoo ink could cause cancer
OnLineLibrary: Risk of lung cancer following exposure to carbon black, titanium dioxide and talc: Results from two case–control studies in Montreal
Cancer related Blind Bat News: HOW WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR COFFEE? BLACK, WHITE OR ASIAN? OR, WOULD YOU LIKE SOME CANCER WITH YOUR TEA OR ENERGY DRINK?