Free Republic

Some home and office laser printers pose serious health risks and may spew out as much particulate matter as a cigarette smoker inhales, an Australian air quality researcher said Tuesday.

Upon realizing that I spent $70 for inks that dried up yet again in the home inkjet printer, I'm ready to make the switch to a color laser printer. And I'd like to solicit opinions from fellow Freepers as to what they've found to be the best out there for a reasonable amount of money. I'd like to keep it in the sub-thousand catagory, and even cheaper is better. But I don't want to cheap myself into the poor house. I'm looking for input on overall costs - expensive toners and drums that must be replaced constantly aren't a thrill...

WASHINGTON--Next time you make a printout from your color laser printer, shine an LED flashlight beam on it and examine it closely with a magnifying glass. You might be able to see the small, scattered yellow dots printer there that could be used to trace the document back to you. According to experts, several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce.