Print fumes allergy

[healthymi]

I am allergic to newspaper and magazine print.  The fumes make me sneeze like crazy and  irritate  the upper part of my mouth like a burning feeling.  What can I take to soothe this irritation? Really would appreciate any advice.

[dkemmons]

My eczema stings and itches immediately when exposed to print fumes!

[GuitarRox]

what is a print fume? I do have eczema. I notice it stinging when things touch it but never something in the air??

[Mississippivet]

There are known allergies to polyacrylates contained in inks and paints.  The WSJ and a few other newspapers may have especially high concentrations. Also, inks are disolved in organic solvents that may be allergenic themselves. Baking the newsprint will evaporate volatile allergens, but may spread them throughout the house as airborne vapors.  Try riffing papers outdoors and leaving them in the sun for a day during the summer. Remove papers from any occupied room and only read one section at a time. Get a Kindle. If books don't bother you, either they have a different ink, or the two exposed pages that are open don't present a high enough surface area to release significant quantities of the allergen.

[alphaone]

Add me to the list of people sensitive to the fumes from newsprint. Other than switching to on line editions of my newspaper I read somewhere about someone putting their newpaper in the oven. I tried this, set my oven at 220 degrees, baked my spread out newpaper for half an hour, and when I took it out I fanned through the pages to release the heated fumes, keeping my face out of the way. It helped me with my problem considerably, but is not a complete solution. When I told my pulmonologist about this it broke him up. He had never heard of the problem or anyone  baking a newspaper.

[Berylho]

Thanks for your comments. I have looked up the mask site. At the moment I am coping by taking over the counter antihistomines. I shall check out the long term effects of this with my doctor.

[FurballsMom]

  It's nice to know that I'm not the only one experiencing this.  I was on a bus not too long ago when some people were talking about something like this.  They insulted me when I said something about being allergic to the stuff and kept going on about how the inks had been changed and are no longer so toxic.  I defended myself the best I could and told them that this wasn't so weird, and that I wasn't the only one who was allergic to this stuff and that many other printed materials cause the same problem, such as telephone books and certain magazines and even certain newly printed books.  
  Not only that, many magazines have those awful perfume samples in them that make a lot of people sick, including me.  The new laws about putting a cover over the samples does very little to solve this problem.  The smell still comes through.  And, what about all those magazines left in doctors offices where others have come along and decided to check out those perfume samples?  The stuff ends up permeating the air in the whole room.  I know I'm not the only one who has noticed this, or there wouldn't have been some kind of law made in the first place.  But, that law is hopelessly flawed, since it doesn't work.

[FurballsMom]

I am also very allergic to printed materials like newspapers.  There are two things you can try.  I use a filtration mask from icanbreathe.com.  It does help keep one from breathing things in.  However, if the newsprint is bothering your eyes, I'm not sure what you can do for your eyes.  
  There is one thing you can do if you really love to solve the crosswords or read the newspaper.  Many newspapers have online subscriptions these days.  You could print the crossword puzzles on your home printer, which doesn't have all those awful organic solvents or other chemicals that smell so bad and make people sick.

[Berylho]

I have had a persistent cough stemming from an irritable throat since July. The doctor has been unable to help me, and blames it on a virus.
There are days when it seems to get worse and my eyes stream and I feel generally unwell. I have noticed this happens at the times of my reading the weekend papers with their colour supplements. For several years I have noticed that I sneeze when reading fresh newsprint. The colour supplements come sealed in plastic and the fumy smell on opening them is very noticeable. I had a lovely time yesterday afternoon reading my quality paper and supplements but was soon feeling really poorly, coughing and eyes streaming.
     I intend not getting near any such print for a few days to see if this long-standing cough will go. However a life with no crossword or paper browsing is not to be looked forward to. Does anyone know where I could get a light mask that I could use to prevent the problem? Or is there another answer?

[better_now]

I have the same thing - it is not an allergy but an irritation - I don't read the newspaper or cheap magazines and I never get it