Receipts to Become Safer Thanks to the Center for Environmental Health’s Settlements with 163 of the Largest Companies in the United States
CEH’s settlements will protect consumers and workers from hormone disruption, recycling systems from contamination, and spur the creation of a new phenol-additive free receipt paper
Contact: Joanna Lee, joanna@ceh.org
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — This week, the nonprofit watchdog the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) announced legally binding settlements with 163 of the largest retailers, manufacturers, and distributors of receipt paper in the United States for exposing consumers and workers to Bisphenol S (BPS). These 163 companies make up 7% of the United States’ retail market and signal an unprecedented shift towards health and environmental safety in every industry that hands out paper receipts to customers. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman commended the group on “the complexity of the scientific and legal issues involved, and the excellent results obtained.”
Nearly two thirds of the receipt paper CEH tested in 2025 from hundreds of retailers contained BPS in excess of the legal limits set by California’s Proposition 65. BPS is a hormone-disrupting chemical that mimics estrogen and can affect the normal functioning of the body, impacting metabolism, growth, development, and reproduction. The new settlements require the same retailers who distributed these thermal receipts to offer only receipts that are BPS-free or completely free of replacement phenols moving forward, effectively ending an era of substituting one harmful bisphenol in receipts for another.
CEH’s litigation also legally committed Domtar — the sole producer of thermal paper to the United States — to exclusively offer phenol additive-free receipt paper in California. This is a significant win given Domtar’s dominance in the receipt paper market, as it provides retailers with a supplier offering an option that does not contain BPS or any of the other regrettable substitutes that would cause comparable harms to public health and the environment.
“People are being exposed to harmful chemicals and environmental hazards without their knowledge, consent, or protection — and those harms fall disproportionately on vulnerable people like workers,” said Kizzy Charles-Guzman, Chief Executive Officer at CEH. “These companies have the opportunity and responsibility to lead by improving their product specifications so that the receipt paper they purchase is safer for everyone.”
Eliminating receipts with BPS will benefit more than just consumers. Retail workers who handle dozens of receipts as a regular part of their jobs every day are at an even higher risk of being exposed to unsafe levels of BPS than the general population.
BPS-laden receipts also contaminate recycling streams. According to Shakoora Azimi-Gaylon, Senior Director of the Toxic Exposures and Pollution Prevention Program at CEH, “Historically, receipts have been made from thermal paper which shouldn’t be recycled because they contain bisphenols, like BPA and BPS, that can contaminate the recycling stream and pose health and environmental risks.” By moving away from these chemicals altogether, CEH’s agreements help to protect not only shoppers and workers who handle receipts every day, but also the recycling system more broadly.
These groundbreaking settlements commit 163 of the largest retailers and suppliers in the United States to only use receipt paper that is BPS-free or completely phenol additive-free. Committing to only use phenol additive-free receipt paper helps to prevent a cycle of “regrettable substitution,” in which one chemical is replaced by another with similar toxicity, to ensure these 163 companies switch to a receipt that is genuinely safer for consumers, workers, and the environment.
Center for Environmental Health’s History Getting Toxic Phenols Out of Receipts
A decade ago, receipts commonly contained Bisphenol A (BPA), a well-known hormone-disrupting chemical used in thermal paper. After California identified BPA as a chemical known to cause reproductive harm in 2015, CEH used legal action and court-enforceable settlements with major retailers and receipt paper suppliers to help eliminate BPA from receipt paper, demonstrating that safer business practices were achievable at a wide scale. This work helped reshape the marketplace and reduce consumer and worker exposure to BPA.
But as BPA was phased out, another chemical emerged. Many manufacturers replaced BPA with its sister chemical, Bisphenol S (BPS), a chemically similar compound that research has shown can pose many of the same health concerns. Like BPA, BPS mimics estrogen and can disrupt the normal functioning of the body, including metabolism, growth and development, and reproduction. Studies have also shown that BPS can be absorbed through the skin, even after handling a receipt for only a short period of time.
California officially added BPS to the list of chemicals known to cause reproductive toxicity under Prop 65 at the end of 2023. Businesses were given a one-year grace period to either remove the chemical from their products or provide consumers with a warning about the exposure. Because CEH discovered hundreds of retail stores were still providing BPS-laden receipts in 2025, the nonprofit watchdog built on its earlier victories eliminating BPA from receipts and demanded that companies resolve this issue and move industries toward safer receipt paper.
By August 2026, CEH had signed settlements with 163 retailers and suppliers committing to use receipt paper that is BPS-free or completely phenol additive-free. The latter agreement helps to prevent a cycle of “regrettable substitution,” in which one chemical is replaced by another with similar toxicity. The settlements commit the companies to only use receipts that contain no BPS or other replacement chemicals known to present comparable hazards, including Bisphenol A, Bisphenol S, 2,4-Bisphenol S, Bisphenol S-MAE, Bisphenol S-MPE, Bisphenol AF, Bisphenol AP, Bisphenol B, Bisphenol C, Bisphenol E, Bisphenol F, Bisphenol P, Bisphenol Z, BisOPP-A, MBHA, PHBB, TGSA, D8, D-90, DD-70, BTUM, Pergafast 201, or any other intentionally added phenol. The settlements commit the companies to only use receipts that contain no BPS or other replacement chemicals known to present comparable hazards.