Feasibility study for the development of a toner-Reference Material

This paper reports a feasibility study for the development of a toner-Reference Material (RM). A test batch has been prepared from a unique lot of a commercial laser printer toner and has been submitted to morphological and chemical characterization. In addition the protocols to perform the bioassay tests have been developed. Morphological characterization has been performed by SEM analysis and chemical characterization by INAA, GC and ICP-AES. The genotoxic effect was evaluated by using the Ames test and the toner powder effects on cellular viability has been evaluated by measuring the metabolic conversion of a tetrazolium salt (WST-1) into formazan by mitochondrial dehydrogenases. Preliminary results show the possibility to prepare a toner-RM to be certified for chemical composition, also providing reference and information values for the genotoxicity and cell viability effects. Also the preparation of toner-RM in pellet form to be employed as Single Use-RM turned out to be really feasible.