Re: clean with magazine sheets but not newspaper?

I don't have any trouble with the Daily Mail, the ink does not stain my fingers and I have used it for wrapping apples when putting them in storage.

Alan

Well, I am glad that that it has some uses.

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Even were the printing processes identical for newspapers and the magazines, you would still find a marked difference in the extent their pages soil your fingers during handling. Most newspapers still use an oil-based ink, the oil being a slow-drying hydrocarbon solvent, and it takes days to evaporate. For the articles in newspapers to be current, they are usually printed on the morning that you read them, meaning their ink has not had a chance to dry. The supplements, on the other hand, are printed days ahead and the solvent in their ink has had plenty of time to dry (almost).

Historically, inks have contained traces of toxic substances, especially the coloured inks, and I expect that in some countries that is still the case. But here in Australia, I have not heard anyone caution against the use of newpapers or magazines for gardens and composting. Presumably, the industry here is regulated to use only non-toxic inks. (The same does not apply to dyes in inks and cosmetics imported from China.)

The search for a more environmentally-friendly printers ink has been a topic of much discussion over the years in our local daily, where invariably the response has been that available water-based inks still have one or more shortcomings in comparison with the traditional oil-based product. Only recently was it announced that an acceptable substitute has been developed.

I don't know whether it's the ink, or the fibrous paper itself, which gives newspaper its recognised capacity to shine window panes and mirrors. Guess I could discover for myself by tearing off a handful of unprinted sheet borders and trying to polish a mirror with them. :-)

I can't address that as I don't know. Maybe someone else can or already has?

Because our fingers (i.e., our skin) secrete both natural oils and also water (perspiration), we tend to get stained by dyes which are soluble in oil (i.e. the stuff from 'permanent' markers) and also by dyes which are soluble in water. The best (or worst) of both worlds, as it were.