You could be breathing in anything from fine dust to ozone to solvents if you sit too close to a laser printer that's in regular use. "It’s not possible to prove with certainty whether the emissions could make people sick," says Stephan Weiler of the German Association for Labour and Environmental Medicine. However, since the possibility can't be ruled out, employees should take a few precautionary steps. For example, make sure a printer's exhaust is never pointed directly at a person's workspace. Also, be sure no one sits too close to the printer. "A secure distance of 1.5 to 2 metres would be good," advises Weiler. Ideally, the printer would be behind some kind of dividing wall or in a separate room. Employees should also ask their companies to only buy printers certified as producing fewer emissions.
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