Whilst the term printer dust could be taken to mean dust that has settled on a printer, it is more likely to refer to dust that is generated by the printer during its operation, or whilst changing and refilling printer cartridges. That is, printer dust refers to any dust arising from say a laser printer, copier or fax machine that uses a toner composed of printing dust. Generally speaking printer dust has always been thought of as being un-harmful, apart from occasionally causing coughing, sneezing and watery eyes. However, maintaining a good clean air quality in your working environment is, of course, to be recommended - so you should aim to minimize any printer dust in the atmosphere of your working environment.
Printer dust can find its way into the air in an office or working environment by two ways. Everyone in an office will become aware if any printer dust is spilled or leaks when a toner cartridge is being changed or refilled, as a small cloud of printer dust will be seen to rise and quite a mess can be created that needs cleaning up with a damp cloth. Using a damp cloth to wipe away any printer dust spillage is always the best thing to do, as brushing it will invariably cause even more of the printer dust to become airborne. When large impact printers, like dot matrix and golf-ball printers, were commonplace in offices they would often be shrouded in a printer hood to reduce the levels of noise in the office. Whilst it should not be necessary to enclose a printer that uses a toner dust cartridge under a dust extractor hood - you can buy printer dust filters that can reduce the amount of airborne printer dust in your office. Small amounts of printer dust can escape from toner cartridges for laser printers, copiers and fax machines during their normal operation and most of this printer dust leaves the machine via its air vent. Over the internet you can find specialist companies that can supply printer dust filters that easily fit over the air vent of the laser printer. Using printer dust filters from micronAir Office or Dexwet can make a considerable difference to the air quality in your office. As their name implies, micronAir Office products are recommended for filtering micro particles whilst Dexwet products, using ‘wet’ dust filtering technology, can work with particles as small as a nanometer.