TheGreenOffice.com today introduced (SEE THIS)™, a new line of laser printer cartridges made with soy-based toner powder. (SEE THIS)™ represents the first soy-based printing alternative for the workplace. These eco-friendly toner cartridges are comparable to their brand name counterparts in price, print quality, and page yield. Whereas soy-based inks have been available and widely used in commercial printing such as newspapers since the 1970s, soy-based toners for office laser printers and fax machines have not been available until now.

"We are proud to be the first national, online distributor of (SEE THIS)™ toner," says Alex Szabo, CEO of TheGreenOffice.com. "This is the kind of product our industry needs - one that makes greener workplace printing easy, without sacrificing performance or increasing costs. Our goal is for soy-based toners to replace conventional petroleum-based toners as the dominant method of printing in the workplace."

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YOU NO LONGER need to go to work wearing a gas mask as research released this week shows that laser printer toner is not harmful.

Back in 2007 study from Queensland University of Technology in Australia suggested that breathing toner particles from printers could be as harmful to the lungs as cigarette smoke.

However, those researchers alongside some from Fraunhofer Wilhelm Klauditz Institute in Germany have now decided that there is no evidence to support this outrageous claim.

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Printer.com is combining its vast knowledge of printers, cartridges, search engines and e-commerce to introduce the premier printer cost comparison Web site. Launched today, the independent shopping resource features its own database of more than 4,400 printers and 1,600 cartridges. Connecting to more than a dozen leading online retailers, Printer.com aims to provide consumers and businesses with a simple interface to accurately find and compare the total costs associated with owning and operating competing printers.

Printer.com provides fast and easy cost comparisons not only for printers, but also the cartridges that accompany them. This is particularly compelling because it's often easy to neglect the cost of ink cartridges when evaluating different printer options. Utilizing factors such as average pages printed per week, color and size, Printer.com provides different printer options, estimated costs of printer cartridges and links to authorized online merchants. Retailers then compete on price and service to provide consumers with the best deal for the user's needs.

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According to a research report, the fine particulates released by laser printers do not come from the toner. Investigations carried out by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut in collaboration with the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, show the repeatedly detected ultra fine particles consist of volatile organic compounds. Tunga Salthammer, who heads the responsible department at the WKI, noted that "A significant property of these ultra fine particles is their volatility, which suggests that we are not talking about toner particles,".

The suspicion that the fine particles, which were first detected in 2006, are something other than toner particles has been around for a while. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment announced last year that the particles measured in the course of its toner study are "with a probability bordering on certainty" not toner particles. This suspicion was further underlined by tests using modified printers lacking toner and paper, which demonstrated the same effects. This hinted at the conclusion, now reached by the Fraunhofer researchers, that the emissions originate from the printer unit itself.

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Shares of HP (Hewlett-Packard) fell more than 7 percent on Tuesday on concerns about weak sales of printer ink and personal computers, fed in part by pessimistic quarterly earnings from one of the company's distributors. HP, a Dow Jones industrial average .DJI component, was down far more than the index which dropped 0.4 percent. In its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings release on Monday, HP reported a 9 percent increase for printer supplies year-over-year, and an 8 percent drop in printer hardware shipments. HP said its market share would be sustained because slower printer sales have affected the entire industry, and that sales of ink and printer supplies would remain brisk.

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Xerox will scan and image millions of documents for IBM and its customers under a worldwide agreement that was announced.

According to a release, Xerox will serve as the preferred global imaging partner for IBM Managed Business Process Services (MBPS), a unit of IBM Global Technology Services, the company said.

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An international printer cartridge refilling franchise is asking customers to join them in calling on the Canadian government to help in the diversion of an estimated 300 million cartridges from landfills annually around the world.

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Xerox on Wednesday said it plans to begin U.S. production next year of a new printing toner that requires less heat to seal to a page, which means the company can offer business and consumer printers that use less energy.

Called Ultra Low-Melt EA Toner, the product can cut overall power consumption of digital printing devices by as much as 30%. That's because 50% to 80% of a printer's total power use goes to generating the necessary heat to fuse the toner to the page.

The new low-melt toner can be fused to the page at temperatures as much as 45 degrees Fahrenheit less than toner currently being used in Xerox products, while producing the same image quality, according to Xerox.

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If you recently received a Canon printer rebate check and live in the United States, you may want to hold on to it for a few days.

According to DPReview.com, Canon has announced that the company that handles Canon’s printer rebate programs –Continental Promotion Group - has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Canon has asked that U.S. consumers with a printer rebate check dated before Nov. 14th to hold off on cashing it, in fear that it may bounce. The company would also like consumers planning on sending in rebate forms to wait for further information on the status of the rebate program.

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Japan's Canon Inc said on Tuesday it will delay the construction of a $1 billion toner cartridge components plant in Japan by six months as the global downturn hits sales and usage of office equipment.

Canon, which competes with Xerox Corp , Ricoh Co Ltd and Konica Minolta Holdings Inc in copiers and printers, now plans to start building the plant in western Japan in June 2009 with production due from March 2010.

A Canon spokesman said, however, its plan to spend 60 billion yen ($621 million) or more to build a toner cartridge plant in the U.S. state of Virginia and start output there in December 2009 remains on track.

Consumable items such as toners and related services are an important source of profit for office equipment makers as they generally fetch high margins and provide a constant revenue stream.

Canon, the world's largest digital camera maker ahead of Sony Corp, last month cut its annual outlook, predicting its first profit decline in nine years as the economic slowdown drives up the yen and hurts copier and camera sales.

Shares in Canon were down 2.9 percent at 2,850 yen in afternoon trade, underperforming the Nikkei average .N225, which was down 2.1 percent.

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