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This is really cool. I used to enjoy toying with thermal printers until I found out the paper is coated with a very fine dust of BPA. Still they sell thermal printer cameras on Amazon marketed for children

Look for kitchen printers. They're dot-matrix / ink ribbon receipt printers for use in restaurant kitchens, where the plate warmers and other sources of heat will turn thermal paper completely black. So, instead, they use rolls of ordinary bond paper.

The fact that they make a loud noise every time an order comes through is useful for a restaurant kitchen, too.

The Epson TM-U220 is one model to consider.


Indeed. But there are some good BPA-free alternatives on the market

Is there any way to verify that without getting a Lab to do an analysis? I'm not sure if I can trust stuff labelled BPA-Free from Amazon for example.

Even if they are, that doesn't mean they're safer

https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/are-bpa-substitutes-any-s...


That study looked at 6 similar plasticizers.

The alternative chemicals for thermal paper are totally different. That's not to say that they are guaranteed safe, but that study is inapplicable.

E.g. one type of paper claims to use Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C). No idea what else is in it of course, but it's not a BGA-analogue plasticizer.


> E.g. one type of paper claims to use Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C). No idea what else is in it of course, but it's not a BGA-analogue plasticizer.

How would you know it doesn't, if you don't know what's in it?

Regardless, my point is that many BPA-analogue containing products advertise their BPA-free status.


My comment was that BPA is not used in thermal paper as a plasticizer, which that linked study was examining.

Yes, it's a used as a developer, but as is common in many cases when replacing chemicals with other chemicals -- similar chemicals have similar properties. And in fact, some BPA-free thermal paper use BPS for example.

Buy from a reputable seller for anything important, instead of amazon.

Or, there are apparently at-home testing chemicals that look simple to use. I haven't done it myself though.


The question is who is reputable. Even when buying from a well known store, I don’t know how they audit their suppliers, because the paper is bound to be made by some company I’ve never heard of.

Yeah I would assume that given how easy it is to start a new Amazon seller account and how impossible it is for some random seller in China to face legal repercussions from the US, the likelihood of finding an “_____-free” item to actually be made of whatever the cheapest and most readily available formulation is. (Including the _____), is pretty high.

Yeah, I've had a couple of odd looks from other people in the supermarket when my daughter's piped up about not being allowed to touch the shopping receipts, haha.

I do get the impression companies are beginning to move back to traditional printed receipts, at least a bit, here in the UK.


I can vouch for the Yoto. We make our own cards and update them with new books and music whenever we want. You can add a custom icon that displays for each track.


Liquid Tylenol is not effective after expiration from my experience. It did not reduce pain or fever. New bottle worked as expected.


I have an astigmatism and I prefer light mode because of it. Dark mode causes the letters to jump more and the optometrist agreed light mode is better for people with astigmatism and its a common issue.


Actual diagnosis? Did you answer “very often” to “How often do you have difficulty keeping your attention when you are doing boring or repetitive work?”

Maybe we shouldn’t be going around convincing ourselves we have a disorder we may or may not have. Blaming ADHD and hindering ourselves more.

That being said, if medication helps you thats a good thing.


Yes, actual diagnosis. As an adult, after it already destroyed my marriage and career.


Join the club. I’m more interested that you look at your ADHD diagnosis and say “that’s the thing that destroyed my marriage and career. If I didn’t have this brain disorder that would have never happened.”

I have a feeling it’s more like “if I was always on adderall this would not have happened”. Which is not the same thing of course.


A huge roadblock for effectively planning things is pretty bad for relationships and careers.


More like my marriage and career were in shambles so I sought help. Now things are better. The medication works (and I present the paradoxical reaction), so why question it?

Yeah if I’d been medicated from a young age I wouldn’t have had so many issues. That’s the point of medicating, no?


My point was the “diagnosis” is hardly a diagnosis at all, and it’s not surprising that amphetamines help you perform (that’s what they do). You have no reason to claim that you have ADHD and someone else doesn't.

Edit: @m463 I strongly disagree that the cdc statement below reflects the reality. If you don’t believe me, please go take the test just as an experiment. I couldn’t reply, I think I’m banned from posting. I may have spoken too harshly but I stand by what I said.


The cdc seems to say the dignosis is more rigorous than some sort of internet self-assessment:

Diagnosing ADHD usually includes a checklist for rating ADHD symptoms and looking at the person's history of behavior and experiences. The provider will determine if ADHD symptoms were present before age 12 years and may ask for permission to gather information from friends and family. A medical and psychological exam may be needed to rule out other health problems that can cause symptoms like ADHD or that are often present with ADHD, such as anxiety, depression, sleep problems, alcohol or substance misuse, or learning disabilities.

https://www.cdc.gov/adhd/articles/adhd-across-the-lifetime.h...


Well except for the diagnosis. So much the same way a cancer patient doesn't have a reason to claim they have cancer and someone else doesn't?


> Well except for the diagnosis. So much the same way a cancer patient doesn't have a reason to claim they have cancer and someone else doesn't?

Are cancer patients diagnosed via multiple choice questionnaires?? Please tell me more about the rigorous testing process for ADHD diagnosis.

ADHD diagnosis is nothing like a cancer diagnosis. I can’t tell if you’re trolling.

Edit: My bad this is pretty low level bait looking back


You've been breaking the site guidelines badly and repeatedly in this thread. Could you please stop? We have to ban accounts that keep posting this way. This is not a site for flamewars.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.


Shockingly, the processes for diagnosing different types of health problems are... different.


Please don't respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. That only makes things worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


> Shockingly, the processes for diagnosing different types of health problems are... different.

I think you forgot to tell me more about the rigorous ADHD testing process. What were your tests like? Did it take 10 mins on an iPad in office? Or did you just do it online?


I'm not entirely sure why I would spend time defending the established diagnostic criteria for ADHD from you. Are you someone who establishes those criteria?


You should know very well that an ADHD diagnosis is a lot more than just that question. In my case four people close to me were given questionnaires, I was lucky enough to still have all my school reports, which were no grades but a page of solid text back in 1989 to solidify my suspicion. There's also an IQ test and a very annoying attention test on the computer. Matter of fact, one of those who filled out the questionnaire (and is not related to me) was like "If you have ADHD I'm even more likely to have it".


Diagnosed when you were two? That doesn’t sound right. I’m assuming this was during the ritalin craze. I’m extremely curious what that test looked like, do you know?

Was it like this?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iqItINoE5xc


Deleted this is highly annoying


Edited: Im gonna need more chipotle-away for a bowl this big


[flagged]


> Deleted this is highly annoying

Wow! Don't do this!

Especially because you did this in multiple, separate conversations.


Quality of L-theanine seems to vary wildly across brands. I’ve had one that does nothing, one that gives me consistent headaches, and one that gives me consistent diarrhea.


This is also my experience. I would get pretty bad next day headaches especially when taken at night.


How about brush your teeth with fluoride and spit it out instead?


Fluoride in the water impacts the development of teeth. Portland, where I live, is the last major city to not have fluoride in the water.

So kids have to take tablets if they want the impact. But this is far less effective.

Ask a dentist here. Locals have more tooth decay.


Since we're doing anecdotes, my kids grew up on well water and have never had cavities or tooth problems. They (most of the time) brush their teeth daily, eat sugary crap, and get fluoride treatments applied yearly from the dentist (they "paint" a gel on the kids teeth, I believe this is standard in the US for all children regardless of water fluoridation).


I’ll note that this anecdote can cut both ways: well water is just as likely to have more fluoride than fluoridated municipal water, since fluoride is naturally occurring, soluble, and commonly found in rock formations that also hold water.


What are the measured natural flouride levels of the well water you referenced and how did they compare to the municipal water supply?

What about genetic predisposition to cavities?


> Portland, where I live, is the last major city to not have fluoride in the water.

Kind of depends how you track things I'd think. New Jersey, the state with the highest population density in the US, largely doesn't put fluoride in the water outside of a few municipalities.

There's no fluoride in the water in almost the entirety of Hudson, Essex, and Bergen counties, which are located near NYC and include the cities of Newark and Jersey City. Combined population of those three counties is over 2.5 million people.


Tablets that the kids ingest?? After so much evidence of the neurotoxic effects of ingested fluoride, it's worse than criminal if these dentists are giving fluoride for kids to eat.


Other American cities without fluoride in their water include Tucson, Wichita, Fresno, Albuquerque and San Jose. I wonder how their teeth are doing.


Check again.


San Jose’s added it. Albuquerque added it. Fresno removed it after having it. Tucson and Wichita does not - but Tucson’s level is about 50% of the recommended level.

By comparison Portland’s is 3%. Probably why dentists see high level of tooth decay here.


Looks like San Jose got it in the late 2010s (2017/2019 timeframe). There are lots of people on HN from that area - hopefully someone can comment on the general state of children / people's teeth prior to then.


Dietary fluoride has a minimal impact, you need fluoride on the surface of the tooth. A fluoride rinse is much more effective that tablets or in the water.


Not for tooth development - ie permanent teeth in children.


It could be due to Trump's desire to replace the heads of many agencies like the EPA, etc, probably leading to deregulation. Elon's wet dream.


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