Monitoring Workplace Exposures
To protect employees from unsafe exposures to chemicals, noise and radiation, Xerox defines strict exposure limits for worldwide manufacturing, research and service operations. They reflect the most stringent regulatory requirements or industry standards. For some materials – including toners, solvents and certain metals – Xerox has established limits well below the strictest regulations and standards.
Of the chemical exposures monitored in 2007, 97% were within Xerox limits. Where exposures were above Xerox action limits – defined as 50% of the exposure limit – we immediately took steps to reduce unsafe overexposure through the use of personal protective equipment, engineering controls or compliance with safe job procedures.
Health Studies: Establishing the Safety of Toner
As one of the world’s largest manufacturers and distributors of toner – a fine powder composed of plastics, colorants and small quantities of functional additives, Xerox recognizes the need to help ensure its safe development, production and use by employees and customers. We carefully review the safety of all materials used to make our toners and have invested in studies to examine the potential for any long-term health effects from exposure to toner.
The first of these studies, a comprehensive laboratory analysis completed in 1989, indicated some health effects at very high levels of dust exposure – levels that workers would likely not be exposed to in Xerox plants. Nonetheless, Xerox has lowered toner dust levels in our factories and established strict controls on dust emissions from Xerox products.
Other studies focus on Xerox employees who manufacture toner and service our equipment. One study evaluated more than 32,000 employees who worked at Xerox between 1960 and 1982. To determine if there are work-related mortality patterns, the study used standardized techniques to compare employee causes of death to causes of death for the overall U.S. population. Another study is evaluating the potential respiratory and cardiovascular effects of toner on current Xerox manufacturing and service employees exposed to toner. To date, these studies have shown no evidence of chronic health effects due to toner exposure.
With the burgeoning growth of color printing and Xerox’s market leadership in color production printing, the company is now expanding its health assessment studies to employees exposed to color toners.