Background:
Printing/bookbinding activities are a complex and well established industry. Through the years more complex processes and techniques have resulted in greater specialisation within larger individual companies, although smaller companies tend to generalise, often serving local industry and commerce. There is no national or regional pattern of sites but there tends to be a concentration of companies in large industrial areas.
Potential Processes and Operations:
The principal manufacturing processes involved in printing and bookbinding are:
- original design work
- plate making (including cylinders for gravure and stencils for screen printing)
- typesetting
- proofing
- printing
- finishing
Over the years, platemaking, typesetting and proofing have largely become amalgamated with increasing use of computer technology, as more work is done prior to delivery to the printer.
The inks which are used in printing are a complex mixture of organic dyes, inorganic or organometallic pigments and organic resins as binders and solvents which can be both organic or water based.
A wide variety of solvents is used by the industry for the printing processes and for the cleaning and degreasing of machinery.
Potential Contaminants of Concern:
| Contaminant type | Main group of contaminants | Location | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw material storage | Process areas | Drainage conduits | Waste storage/disposal | ||
| Organic | Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | • | • | • | • |
| Halogenated hydrocarbons | • | • | • | • | |
| Non-halogenated hydrocarbons | • | • | • | • | |
| Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs | |||||
| Dioxins and furans | |||||
| Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) | |||||
| Pesticides and herbicides | |||||
| Organometallic compounds | |||||
| Explosives | |||||
| Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) | • | • | • | • | |
| Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) | • | • | • | • | |
| Inorganic | Metals | • | • | • | • |
| Non-metals and common inorganic substances | • | • | • | • | |
| Asbestos |
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| Cyanides |
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| Radionuclides | |||||
- Best available techniques reference document (BREF) - Manufacture of Organic Fine Chemicals (2006)
- Best available techniques reference document (BREF) - Production of Speciality Inorganic Chemicals (2007)
- British Printing Industries Federation
- Defra Process Guidance Note 6/16(11) - Statutory guidance for printworks (2014)
- Environment Agency Chief Scientist’s Group report: Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): sources, pathways and environmental data (2021)
- Gaines, L.G.T., Historical and current usage of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): A literature review (doi.org/10.1002/ajim.23362) (2022)
- Health and Safety Executive (HSE) COSHH - Printing Industry
