An printer, such as a state of the art a high performance, electro-photographic printer. The printer includes at least one smart material sensor enclosed in the printer enclosure that monitors for the presence of a contaminant (e.g., toner or developer) above a selected threshold. Each smart material sensor is coupled to a control unit by a sensor driver coupling. When a smart material sensor finds that a contaminant is present the control unit may indicate the finding on a printer display and/or change operating mode.