Thursday, May 3, 2001 Don't mind the grapefruit Your color printer may smell like grapefruit, which is normal; if the odor irritates you, however, try a local ionizer to "scrub the air around the printer.

If you run a color photo printer for an extended period of time, you may notice that the printer exudes a slight "grapefruit" odor. This is perfectly normal, and is caused by one or more of the alcohol compounds used in water-based inks (i.e., with Hewlett-Packard's PhotoSmart print cartridges). According to HP, this odor is not harmful, and is well below the exposure limit established by the American Congress of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. However, if you find the odor irritating after repeated exposures, try a local ionizer to "scrub" the air around the printer.

Formerly part of Computer Currents, Stephen J. Bigelow's Computer Advisor column has been resurrected on computeruser.com as a daily tech tip column. Find Stephen at www.dlspubs.com.