A Toner Tale

A reminder to all those who own laser printers: Printer toner can still be messy. I remember years ago, carefully changing the toner cartridge at work for the HP LaserJet 5, and finding a fine dust of block toner on my hands -- which smeared when I wipe at it. (I was very careful not to rub my hands on my clothes before I washed.) Toner will not invariably get on your hands -- I only found the problem once, and suspect it was from a defective cartridge. Still, toner is made up of very, very fine particles, and it never hurts to be careful. Handle the cartridges gently, so dust won't fly; if you need to put them down, it doesn't hurt to have a piece of paper or newsprint handy so you won't get the dust on any surfaces; and it doesn't hurt to wash your hands afterwards.