Source · product
Printers and photocopiers
Also: printer, photocopier, laser printer, copier, 3D printer, office equipment
Office equipment that heats toner or filament and releases particles and volatile compounds while it runs. Emission is intermittent and close to the person operating the machine, which makes exposure depend on where the device stands rather than on room averages.
Where it comes from indoors
A laser printer fuses toner by heating it, and the heat volatilises material that condenses again in the air as ultrafine particles. The count rises within seconds of a print job starting and falls again when it ends, so the machine is a recurring intermittent source whose contribution is invisible in a daily average and obvious in a minute-by-minute record. Older devices also produced ozone at the corona wire; modern designs largely do not.
Material extrusion printing — the desktop three-dimensional printer — is the same physics with a different feedstock. The filament is melted, and what it releases depends on the polymer: styrene from one, lactide from another, with emission rising steeply with nozzle temperature.
The practical consequence in both cases is placement. A machine in an enclosed room with its own extract is a different exposure from the same machine beside a desk.
What the studies report
| Linked to | Effect | Population | Study design | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xylene | other 40.5 | — · test chamber | chamber measurements of volatile organic compounds emitted by office printers and copiers in Poland: seven devices tested, with aromatic and halogenated compounds and total volatile organic compounds determined per device and per printed page | F-1097 Measurements of chlorinated volatile organic compounds emitt… (2014) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | other 41.3 | — · test chamber | chamber measurements of volatile organic compounds emitted by office printers and copiers in Poland: seven devices tested, with aromatic and halogenated compounds and total volatile organic compounds determined per device and per printed page | F-1098 Measurements of chlorinated volatile organic compounds emitt… (2014) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | other 45.6 | — · test chamber | chamber measurements of volatile organic compounds emitted by office printers and copiers in Poland: seven devices tested, with aromatic and halogenated compounds and total volatile organic compounds determined per device and per printed page | F-1099 Measurements of chlorinated volatile organic compounds emitt… (2014) | machine |
| Toluene (C₇H₈) | other 37.7 | — · test chamber | chamber measurements of volatile organic compounds emitted by office printers and copiers in Poland: seven devices tested, with aromatic and halogenated compounds and total volatile organic compounds determined per device and per printed page | F-1100 Measurements of chlorinated volatile organic compounds emitt… (2014) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | mean 6.48 | — · test chamber | chamber measurements of volatile organic compounds emitted by office printers and copiers in Poland: seven devices tested, with aromatic and halogenated compounds and total volatile organic compounds determined per device and per printed page | F-1101 Measurements of chlorinated volatile organic compounds emitt… (2014) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | mean 0.59 | — · test chamber | chamber measurements of volatile organic compounds emitted by office printers and copiers in Poland: seven devices tested, with aromatic and halogenated compounds and total volatile organic compounds determined per device and per printed page | F-1102 Measurements of chlorinated volatile organic compounds emitt… (2014) | machine |
| Total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) | other 591 | — · test chamber | chamber measurements of volatile organic compounds emitted by office printers and copiers in Poland: seven devices tested, with aromatic and halogenated compounds and total volatile organic compounds determined per device and per printed page | F-1103 Measurements of chlorinated volatile organic compounds emitt… (2014) | machine |
| Total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) | other 1235 | — · test chamber | chamber measurements of volatile organic compounds emitted by office printers and copiers in Poland: seven devices tested, with aromatic and halogenated compounds and total volatile organic compounds determined per device and per printed page | F-1104 Measurements of chlorinated volatile organic compounds emitt… (2014) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | other 8.45 | — · test chamber | chamber measurements of volatile organic compounds emitted by office printers and copiers in Poland: seven devices tested, with aromatic and halogenated compounds and total volatile organic compounds determined per device and per printed page | F-1114 Measurements of chlorinated volatile organic compounds emitt… (2014) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | other 8.43 | — · test chamber | chamber measurements of volatile organic compounds emitted by office printers and copiers in Poland: seven devices tested, with aromatic and halogenated compounds and total volatile organic compounds determined per device and per printed page | F-1115 Measurements of chlorinated volatile organic compounds emitt… (2014) | machine |
| Respiratory symptoms | self-reported symptoms; the study also finds excessive sputum production more common at p = 0.004 | photocopier operators · copy centre | cross-sectional study of photocopier operators in copy centres against a control group: respiratory symptoms, general health problems and lung function compared between the groups | F-1497 Chronic exposure to emissions from photocopiers in copy shop… (2013) | machine |
| Lung function | prevalence 30 | photocopier operators · copy centre | cross-sectional study of photocopier operators in copy centres against a control group: respiratory symptoms, general health problems and lung function compared between the groups | F-1498 Chronic exposure to emissions from photocopiers in copy shop… (2013) | machine |
Each row is one Finding — a sentence as printed in one study, recorded with its page in the Coridum Knowledge Base. Follow the Finding number for the exact wording and the citation. Checked says who verified the row: machine means every automatic check passed and the surrounding text was read; person means someone read the sentence in the document. Rows are re-checked by a person over time. The studies are curated in the Coridum Knowledge Base; the reading of them together is a Claim, shown separately.
Cite this page
Coridum Research. Printers and photocopiers. Coridum Knowledge G-0123, 16 September 2026. https://coridum.com/k/G-0123/