Laser Printer Toxicity??

I can't find any information on pet birds and laser printers. My bird (Green Cheek Conure) lives in the same room as my computer. We just bought a used, professional sized laser printer at a garage sale. This is a scanner, fax, copier, printer. It is a tabletop version of the large ones you see in businesses--but it's almost as powerful and quite large and heavy. We turned it on today and the smell coming from it was alarming. My bird was out of the room at the time thank goodness.

My husband says that is the smell of a large laser printer--the fuser unit heats up, etc. I've read that these do put out some volatile chemical particles into the air-- (VOC's?) but about as much a toaster. My office is a very enclosed space--not much ventilation and I don't trust using this with near my bird--much less myself.

Does anyone know anything about this? Are these safe to run around birds? Is the smell just dust burning from not being used for a few months? Is burning dust smell toxic to my bird? Or heated toner? The experts say these are "relatively safe" for humans--but you should open a window if the smell gets to you. But no one mentions pet birds! I have no Teflon in my house, no cleaning chemicals, no paraffin candles, etc and I made my husband return the batter backup he bought for my computer because it smelled and emits toxic chemicals. I do not want to do anything stupid to endanger my baby! But I do need a printer. LOL

Thanks for your replies!

It would be unusual for a operational Laser Printer to show-up in a Garage Sale since most run so well in the background that they either outlive their supply of toners and support products.

If by chance you got one that for whatever reason was no longer being used, young enough have toners and support products, but poorly stored could be seen as a good deal. Such a unit should be opened up and deep cleaned. Yes, dust and other stuff could easily build-up with variation in temperature, humidity and in an area that has high levels of dust, etc... So open it up and see what is in there.

I have had a Home Office and have worked from one the vast majority of my business life. A laser printer as been a standard feature since day one. During those many years I have never had a unit that released VOC to any level. Changing the toner always require the cleaning of the unit, commonly not preformed by most owners! Also, the quick removal, packaging, and return of the old toner unit.

Heavy smell at start-up should have you questioning whether it was ever properly cleaned, let along stored properly.

I've never smelled a laser printer. The toner is tiny particles of plastic, which are attracted to the paper by a static electricity charge created by a corona wire, and then a heated fuses melts the particles onto the paper. If yours is smelly, it could be the fuser is too hot, or there is dust on something, or a motor is burning out probably. Circuits and resisters can also burn up and fail. If you UNPLUG it first, then open it up, see if there is a lingering smell on anything. Look at circuit boards for a bad capacitor (will look like a puffed up cylinder usually silvery) look at all the little components to see if anything looks "bad", look for dust etc. If you see a long thin bare wire running across the width don't touch it, the oil from your hands can make it die. What's the smell like? Like an electrical burning smell, like a smoldery burning dust smell, like oil, ?

All laser printers emit (some) ozone. I'd guess that the older it is, the more it produces...

I wouldn't place the cage next to a laser printer.

This migt be interesting to read.

Studies find laser printers emit lung-damaging particles on the order of cigarette smoking

In the nineties I used to have a laser printer in my bedroom, during my (ICT) studies. And yes, my bird (Paco the mountain parakeet) was also in my bedroom for years...

No harm was done to the bird - as far as I know - but if I had known at that time, I wouldn't have put them both in the same room.

Thank you all for your replies! I think this unit had dust from misuse when we turned it on yesterday. By the way, it WAS an unusual item. We found it at this annual Church Rummage (HUGE rummage taking up the whole Catholic Elementary School) and this printer belonged to a guy who had just retired and closed his office down. He had been using this thing until recently. It's a $700 unit that we got for $50 and we CAN still get toner for it and drivers and everything. My husband was kind of amazed too. LOL

Anyway, me and my bird are usually out of the office for 2-3 hours for lunch and other stuff--she hangs out with me wherever I am in the house, so I turned this thing on and it's been on for about 3 hours now and I just came in the room and there is no smell now. I think it burned off whatever dust or whatever was in it. It sat in our house for a month before we hooked it up. And I will just leave it off when I'm not using it. I don't even print every day and when I do it's only a few pages. If our new business takes off I might be doing more, but then I'll just take her out of the room. I think it will be ok, given everything you've all told me and what I've read.

Alex--thanks for the link. I had actually read a similar article and that's what got me a little freaked out.

Thanks again!