There have recently been many concerns regarding the toxicological properties of Bisphenol A (BPA), which for many years has been used as a key component in thermal paper. As a result of these concerns, a number of retail companies are now looking for BPA- and phenol-free thermal receipt papers.“For quite some time there was no satisfactory alternative to BPA for manufacturers of thermal receipt papers,” states Frank Hoefer, Vice President Marketing Wet End Chemicals, Europe, within BASF’s Paper Chemicals division.“This trend had been identified by Ciba (now part of BASF), where the research work on alternative color developer chemistries began and led to the first dedicated production capacities being installed in Ankleshwar, India,” Frank Hoefer explains.BASF has a range of products that are used in the manufacture of thermal paper. At a time when alternatives to BPA are being requested by end users of thermal paper, BASF now offers Pergafast 201, a proprietary color developer that is non-phenolic and an alternative to BPA.Bill Palmer, Regional Head of Wet End Chemicals Asia Pacific , within Paper Chemicals division, says: ”It was the combined effort of the European and the Asian business units to make additional quantities of this interesting product available and secure supply for a large market introduction. Now the first real commercial alternative to BPA can be launched.”High image stability of the new product class enables a wide range of applications such as tickets, tags, labels and bank statements where such properties are essential, BASF writes in a press release.