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The Center for Environmental Health has been investigating companies for exposing customers to Bisphenol S (BPS) in hard copy thermal paper receipts — a close cousin of BPA that was added to the list of chemicals subject to California’s Proposition 65 warning requirements because it can cause hormone disruption and reproductive issues. We recently have expanded our investigation efforts to also include adhesive labels.

At the Dunkin’ (formerly known as Dunkin’ Donuts) location that CEH visited, the adhesive labels attached to their coffee cups had the highest levels of BPS out of any of the adhesive labels we tested!

While customers are often given the chance to opt out of receiving hard copy receipts, this is not the case for adhesive labels that are attached to food packaging directly, like Dunkin’s coffee cups. And since Dunkin’ specializes in foods you eat with your hands, customers are likely to touch the receipt label stuck on their coffee cup, and then immediately take a bite of their donut without washing their hands.

Unfortunately, this is a bigger issue than the BPS we found at this Dunkin’ location. The Dunkin’ brand is owned by Inspire Brands, one of the largest restaurant companies in the United States. Inspire owns other brands such as Baskin Robbins, Sonic, Arby’s, and Jimmy John’s. CEH visited a location of each of these brands and found receipts with BPS levels that far exceed the safety limit set for BPS exposure. But Inspire Brands can right this wrong by mandating that all the franchises under the company use phenol-free receipt paper that’s safe to touch.

Urge Inspire Brands to require all its franchises use phenol-free receipt paper.