It’s surely one of the most excruciating day-to-day injuries – often drawing blood as well as tears.
But a new study from researchers in Denmark may help you avoid the dreaded paper cut – a painful experience for office workers and book readers alike.
Thanks to their lab experiments, the scientists have ranked 12 different paper types based on how likely they are to slice your skin.
Two in particular present the biggest risk – and are three times more likely to cut compared to the lower risk types.
So, do you have any in your home or office?
Thanks to their lab experiments, the scientists have ranked 12 different paper types based on how likely they are to slice your skin – so do you them in your home or office?
The researchers tested several different paper types, including office paper, card, magazines and tissue paper
According to the scientists – who are based at Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in Copenhagen – the two to be most wary of are dot matrix paper and newspaper.
If you’ve not heard of the former, dot matrix paper is used in specific types of computer printers for creating business reports, receipts, train tickets and more.
‘Paper has been central to human culture for more than a millennium,’ said lead author Kaare Hartvig and his colleagues at DTU.
‘Its use is, however, associated with a common injury – the paper cut.
‘[We found] paper with a specific thickness is most hazardous.’
The researchers had noticed that most studies about paper cuts had focused on the risk of infection after the slicing event.
However, the ‘physical mechanism’ that allows certain types of paper to pierce the skin better than others has been ‘poorly understood’.
‘A particular mystery surrounds the link between paper thickness and occurrence of cuts, often described as unpredictable and erratic,’ they said.
For the study, they trialled several different paper types against a slab of ballistics gelatin – a material designed to mimic human skin.
The paper types included tissue paper, book paper, shiny metallic paper, post-it notes, cards and printed photos.
Also tested was the paper from two scientific journals akin to magazine paper (‘Science’ and ‘Nature’) as well as three brands of office printer paper.
Dot matrix paper (pictured) is used in specific types of computer printers for creating business reports, receipts, train tickets and more
The experts also considered each paper’s angle in relation to the skin as it came in for the slice.
Overall, excessively thin paper – such as tissue paper – tended to buckle against the skin, preventing any kind of injury, the researchers found.
Meanwhile, paper that was too thick distributed pressure across a large area upon contact and so was generally unable to cut.
Paper neither too thick nor thin, with a thickness of 65 micrometres or 65 millionths of a metre, was the most lethal – namely newspaper and dot matrix paper.
The two had a ‘cutting probability’ of 21 per cent – about three times more than photo paper (7 per cent), Xerox office paper (6 per cent) and tissue paper (4 per cent).
‘While tissues, books, and photos are generally safe, we cannot rule out certain risks of using office paper or magazine,’ the team conclude.
And overall, cuts were deeper when they came in at an angle rather than face-on.
To demonstrate their findings, the team developed the ‘Papermachete’, a scalpel with a dot matrix paper blade that can ‘easily’ slice vegetables and meat.
But the tool is not suitable for ‘wood carving and spreading butter’, the researchers added.
The researchers also developed the ‘Papermachete’, a paper-based scalpel that can ‘easily’ cut into vegetables and meat
Close-up of the Papermachete sliding through cucumber. The tool is not suitable for ‘wood carving and spreading butter’, the researchers add
The team said their study – published in the journal Physical Review E – ‘lays the foundation for physics-informed design of paper-based blades’.
‘In the future, paper manufacturers, printers, and publishing companies may wish to consider this during the product design process,’ they wrote.
‘Despite its seemingly mundane nature, studying the physics of paper cuts has revealed a surprising potential use for paper in the digital age, not as a means of information dissemination and storage, but rather as a tool of destruction.’
