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Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)
- elischleifer 4y agoProbably anything intentionally melting chemicals should come with built-in fume capture.
- seltzered_ 4y agoNot just melting chemicals but also forms of laser cutting materials too. E.g. reminded of the death of this couple from carbon monoxide (possibly but not concluded to be by a laser cutter setup) - https://www.berkeleyside.org/2017/04/20/still-mystery-inspection-finds-no-answers-deaths-berkeley-couple https://www.berkeleyside.org/2017/04/20/still-mystery-inspec... , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13507734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13507734
- yreg 4y agoLASER cutting is also melting (and evaporating) chemicals.
- bgirard 4y agoIsn't cooking also cutting, melting, and evaporating chemicals? These definitions are overly broad. Isn't this how California ended up with Prop 65?
- eli 4y agoLaser cutting brownies is probably fine. That said, there's plenty of evidence that fumes from cooking can negatively affect indoor air quality. You should always open a window when you cook.
- Throwaway045814 4y agoYou mean the recently highlighted issue of gas stoves, or do you mean something that affects electrical stoves as well?
- Ekaros 4y agoPurely an anecdote, but when I cook something with my induction range or even air fryer or oven my air purifier goes from 1 to 9 or even 12 (1-12 scale). And it is somewhat outside the kitchen. So yeah, there is probably lot going on. From simple water vapor to those by products that come with browning.
- yreg 4y agoDepends on the sensor in your purifier, right? If it just optically counts particles in the air it should trigger by harmless water vapor.
- LarryMullins 4y agoIn kitchens where lots of frying is done, the whole place eventually gets coated in a thin layer of oil, even the parts no person could normally reach. Aerosolized or vaporized cooking oil, condensing on everything. I doubt working in a kitchen like that is good for your lungs in the long term.
- prova_modena 4y agoI just changed a filter in my air purifier after having it next to the kitchen for about 6 months. The prefilter was covered in a layer of cooking oil mixed with dust. The built in air quality monitor always shows poor air quality wheen cooking. Its no joke, especially in places that have poorly constructed/cheap stove ventilation.
- Mountain_Skies 4y agoThat's yet another reason why I hate the trend of the last thirty years or so to open kitchens, but I'm in the minority so I have to look for older houses that haven't had a clumsy renovation to an open floorplan if I want an enclosed kitchen.
- hedgehog 4y agoFumes from many cooking processes are also pretty bad for respiratory health.
- aidenn0 4y agoAnd I have an exhaust hood over my cooking range, so I think it's fine?
- LarryMullins 4y agoI used to regularly visit a hacker space that was constantly on the verge of getting evicted because their laser cutter fumes (vented out of the building, through numerous filters) were pissing off the whole neighborhood. Laser cutting is no joke. Eventually they changed their policy to only laser cut wood. Wood smoke is still carcinogenic, but I guess the smell of wood smoke is more familiar to people so it gets fewer complaints.
- devmor 4y agoMelting, laser cutting, heating, stressing, grinding, any time you are releasing any kind of particulate into the air, you should be taking precautions not to let it end up in anyone's lungs. Even the stuff that doesn't cause cancer can still cause you physical harm. It takes very little effort to just be safe.
- sacrosancty 4y ago[dead]
- jaclaz 4y ago[2019] The actual article should be this one: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b04168 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b04168
- seltzered_ 4y agoNotably the title in there says " Consumer-Level 3D Printer "
- zhala 4y agoI've seen these studies before and done some testing of my own and found this to be true to some degree. I've used PMSA003I and BME688 sensors to check for particulate and VOC's. I didn't notice any significant increase in PM1 or PM2.5 (which is probably to be expected since the particles emitted are probably <1um and lower than I can detect). I did see some increase in VOC's but nothing alarmingly high from baseline. Roughly equivalent to lighting a candle.
- hooverd 4y agoWhat were you printing? From my understanding the issue with PLA "fumes" is actually ultrafine particulate matter and not VOCs.
- slimsag 4y agoIt's important to note that particulate matter and VOCs are not equal in danger and bodily effect. For some reason people act like they are all the same. It's like saying you got liquid in your eyes: the type of liquid matters an awful lot. In a lot of cases, the VOCs emitted when you melt plastics have "unknown" long term effects because nobody has been exposed to it in great levels for extended periods. We know some are potentially carcinogenic, but that's about it. This isn't true of candles, though. We have a pretty good idea of what candles can do to you. Another more concerning part of 3D printing though is UFPs, which generally can't be filtered out easily by consumer grade air filters, and due to their tiny size can enter deeper nodules in the lungs. Reminds me of asbestos. I'm no expert in any of this, but you should be worried about 3D printing fumes. The 3D printing community is going to become a long term study of the effects of microplastics imho.
- esskay 4y agoThere does seem to have been a slight shift in mentality over the last couple of years in the 3d printing community, with groups of users obsessing over statistics from air quality and particle sensors. One thing that is a bit concerning is people building their own air filters and releasing them to the public as a 'solution' to 3d printer filtration, with the creator having no real experience or knowledge in the area other than looking at their cheap air quality sensor and seeing a difference.
- dutchbrit 4y agoIsn't this just common sense?
- olao99 4y ago"common sense" things need to be empirically tested and validated
- Filligree 4y agoIt's "common sense" if you're familiar enough with chemistry and biology to realize that melting plastic means some small fraction of it will 'burn' and end up in the air. On the other hand, many entry-level 3D printers are marketed at... children, effectively. They can make for amazing christmas presents, but there's no guarantee that either parents nor child has any idea how things work at that level. There's been a concerted effort to make such knowledge unnecessary. All of that being said, PLA fumes are about as safe as it gets. To the best of my understanding it's about on the level of cooking food. For hours, granted, and usually without a fume hood -- but I don't think it's likely to cause health issues. ... And so long as you stick to PLA or PETG, that's probably fine. Oh, and so long as your printer was built with a quality, all metal heat break, so you never get teflon fumes from scorched PTFE lining. And so long as there's never a thermal runaway that causes fire, and/or it was built with good thermal runaway protection. These printers are still essentially industrial machinery, no matter how user friendly, and a lack of understanding their failure modes can be really bad.
- hot_gril 4y ago> It's "common sense" if you're familiar enough with chemistry and biology to realize that melting plastic means some small fraction of it will 'burn' and end up in the air. Last time I was near one, I could clearly smell the unpleasant burning plastic.
- esskay 4y agoI know that smell, and rather annoyingly newer PLA's have somehow eliminated it. Which personally I dont see as a good thing. You used to know when someone was printing with PLA as it emitted a smell that was a mixture of a sweet popcorn and burning toast. These days they have little to no odour but I suspect its still putting out the exact same (if not worse) fumes.
- aosmith 4y agoThe chemicals used for resin printers make this look benign.
- RugnirViking 4y agoUse a straight up gas mask, lab goggles, and nitrile gloves with mine at a minimum. It's nasty stuff
- Symbiote 4y agoWhen deciding whether to buy a resin printer, I found posts from teenagers, students etc who'd set up resin printers in bedrooms etc. "Oh, the fumes are no problem, I buy low-odour resin." Great, we'll see what happens when they spill some on the carpet. I'm sticking with FDM, and I take some measures to increase ventilation when I'm using that.
- jrockway 4y agoResin printing is neat, but it's strictly in the "do you have a garage?" category for me. I do not have a garage, so I do not have a resin printer.
- dylan604 4y agomeh, just crack a window. if it's good enough to fool mom&dad that you're smoking in the room, it's gotta be good enough for expelling noxious gases like this too, right? /s or the people that spray fragrance to cover up smells as if that's actually removing the issue rather than just covering it up. lighting a match wouldn't be a strong suggestion either ;-)
- jrockway 4y agoI love those spray air fresheners. Aren't they just an agent that numbs your smell receptors so they stop working and therefore the smell goes away? If so, I KNOW a software engineer was behind that product.
- hooverd 4y agoThe article is talking about FDM with PLA and ABS, but what a "commercial 3D printer" is basically meaningless. A ShapeWay's fancy MJF machines? A FormLab 2? Your Ender 3?
- esskay 4y agoI'm not sure it matters too much from the context of the article. I took it to mean commercial = any purchased printers (vs a self build). The end results in terms of VOC's and other nastiness is going to be the same regardless as whilst 'high end' printers might be capable of higher temperatures you still print the same materials at the same temperatures regardless of printer.
- Brian_K_White 4y agoI think commercial in this case just means a product that a consumer can buy as an end user product, vs self made. The point of the distinction being that most such products, like your phone or electric toothbrush, have a lot of safety regulations almost like the food supply, where the entire store, every store, is a safe space where if you can even buy it, then it's safe for you to use at least as directed. I was going to say "you can't drink antifreeze" as part of the "as directed" part, but they're even removing the classic ethylene glycol from that now. So they are attempting to suggest that consumer 3d printers are posing a safety danger on the general population by being equally available and equally marketed as any other consumer appliance like coffee makers. It's probably not completely wrong to say that people should not be led to believe that an fdm printer is as harmless as a coffee maker. They should still be acvailable, just treated more as tools with a few different safety and toxicity considerations. Like how anyone can still buy a gas weed trimmer (until they ban them) but it's clear that it is not to be used indoors because it generates toxic exhaust, nor used by small kids or unsupervised because of the business end, the gas, etc.
- hooverd 4y ago3D printer manufacturers could be more forthcoming about the risks associated with 3D printing. At least with FFF the mitigation is relatively easy.
- tarotuser 4y agoThis is NOT new news. Same discussion, from 2015 - https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/toxic-abs-pla-fumes-3dsafety-org-inquires-vocs-60796/ https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/toxic-abs-pla-fumes-3dsa... And in 3d printing groups, it was common to hear people say "ABS smells like cancer". Sure, anecdotes aren't evidence proper, but the science certainly bears this claim. Edit: And to add my own anecdote, I have a large format high temp printer. It is capable of printing stuff like ultem (375c tip, 220c bed). It is enclosed with a activated carbon filter/fan for airflow. But one time when printing polycarbonate, I took a .5w green laser to the print area. When it was shining near the print interface, I could see ALL SORTS of stuff being flung at high speed away from the nozzle. Lets just say I was glad I have that machine fully enclosed.
- Ekaros 4y agoAll components of ABS are classified probably carcinogenic. Likely safe after being formed, but during process I think there is probably some risks...
- olao99 4y agoquote from the article: "The toxicity tests showed that PLA particles were more toxic than the ABS particles on a per-particle comparison, but because the printers emitted so much more of the ABS" so, not just ABS
- tarotuser 4y agoMy own anecdote was about polycarbonate printing. But I would be very scientifically comfortable that ANY plastic brought at or above its glass transition state is going to outgas toxic materials. And that includes PLA, ABS, HIPS, polycarbonate, PETG, PET, ASA, and more. And printing is usually quite a bit above tg. Higher temp = more nastiness. That's why my 3d printers are in my workshop, separated from our house. And they are also enclosed printers, so I'm less worried of particulate exposure. But again, anybody starting off early in 3d printing knew this was a definite threat and a concern.
- marcosdumay 4y ago
- 71a54xd 4y agoI keep my 3d printer in a second bathroom with a strong exhaust fan. When I use it I just close the door and let it do it's thing.
- sfusato 4y ago[dead]
- olao99 4y agoolder article, same source: https://rh.gatech.edu/news/627220/particles-emitted-consumer-3d-printers-could-hurt-indoor-air-quality https://rh.gatech.edu/news/627220/particles-emitted-consumer...
- EamonnMR 4y agoI thought that this was common knowledge. I've been running my printer in well ventilated spaces only for years.
- bobbywilson0 4y agoI recently purchased a 3d printer, and I looked for articles talking about the risks associated with PLA fumes. This article[1] seems to be popularly cited, which includes the statement "PLA doesn’t look like a problem." I think this is what in my experience has been largely the sentiment when I have asked around, and read forum posts about the topic. At my local library there is a makerlab space, they are free to use and they basically run them non-stop uncovered in the room. One of the other points I found interesting was that someone mentioned that a lot of the printers are manufactured in China where there isn't as much regulation around required safety warnings. However, NIOSH does have a short page[2] on 3d printer safety. In my mind as a new hobbyist it seems like the combination of two issues. 1. The way 3d printers are currently designed and marketed is primarily an open-air style that can be used just out of the box. Enclosures are usually at least as much as a consumer level printer, and you need to have a way to vent it to the outside. 2. The thinking from the community is largely "PLA doesn't look like a problem" and only use an enclosure for ABS and more toxic materials. I understand the comments around hobbyists shouldn't be the ones designing filtration systems, but it does seem reasonable to [1] - https://hackaday.com/2016/02/01/3d-printing-fumes-new-science/ https://hackaday.com/2016/02/01/3d-printing-fumes-new-scienc... [2] - https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/newsroom/feature/2022print3D.html https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/newsroom/feature/2022print3D.html
- Mountain_Skies 4y agoIIRC, enclosures aren't common on consumer models because there's a patent on that design. Not sure if the patent has expired or not but with the trend already in motion, consumers are accustomed to open air printers. Printing the parts for an enclosure is also a good way to break in a new printer.
- hooverd 4y agoThe Stratasys patent expired a couple years ago, thankfully.
- auguzanellato 4y agoEnclosures aren't common on cheap bed slinger (the ones where the bed moves in the Y axis) because they would need to be much bigger than the print area. CoreXY machines are more likely to be sold with an enclosure.
- 0xbadc0de5 4y agoTraces!? Which one? Mine emits copious amounts. It is melting plastic after all - this should be common sense. Which is also why I only use it in a well ventilated area.
- ama5322 4y agoOn the same vein, see the _dust_ that can be produced with filled materials: https://www.thregr.org/~wavexx/rnd/20230113-carbon_fibers_3dp/ https://www.thregr.org/~wavexx/rnd/20230113-carbon_fibers_3d... (posted on HN 10 days ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34367420 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34367420 without comments)
- LarryMullins 4y agoThe smell of these things just screams cancer-death. When your senses are throwing up such powerful red flags, it pays to heed those warnings.
- Symbiote 4y agoPLA printing smells slightly of burnt sugar/grain, and is the usual material for hobby use, schools etc. ABS printing smells of burning plastic / a tyre fire (styrene), and shouldn't be done without plenty of ventilation etc.
- SV_BubbleTime 4y agoSLA owners, away and looking foward meme. Yea, no this is surprise. Ventilate it.
- fnordpiglet 4y agoActual study: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b04168 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b04168 It basically says PLA emits lactic acid and ABS a bunch of nastiness. There wasn’t much to indicate PLA emissions were particularly dangerous. That said, I’d not suggest locking yourself in a closet with your 3D printer. But given abs is full of nastiness and everything I’ve ever read about printing with it says it’s toxic and to ventilate, this article from 3 years ago doesn’t seem that interesting.
- ajsnigrutin 4y agoIn 3d printing circles and even 3d printer instruction manuals this has been written for years now... PLA is worse material (especially in regards for UV), but can be done inside, while ABS needs a heated surface and emits poisonous gasses so it should be done in separate ventilated areas (same for resin printers).
- GuB-42 4y agoDon't dismiss PLA. It is a great material, it is strong, cheap and easy to print. Its greatest weakness as far as I'm concerned is heat resistance. But there is a trick! You can anneal PLA in an oven, which will give it heat resistant properties similar to ABS, maybe a little better. It can be done with regular PLA, but the print will deform. If you don't need a very precise part, it can be sufficient, you can also compensate for the deformation by tweaking the model. Or you can use a specialized (and more expensive) filament like Volcano PLA that deforms very little during annealing. Sometimes, ABS is called for, but it is not "better" than PLA. Especially after you consider the extra hassle printing it. For UV resistance, AFAIK, neither ABS nor PLA are good. You probably should use ASA instead, which is like ABS but better in almost every way, UV resistance in particular. Unfortunately, it also releases nasty stuff, though it smells less. Or you can use PETG. Not as good as ASA, but easier to print and supposedly less toxic.
- misterprime 4y ago"releases nasty stuff, though it smells less" Good info, and thanks for the heads up. With natural gas a smell-able component is added to help alert people to danger. Maybe the fact that it smells less is a problem.
- Jemm 4y agoTeflon often used in hot ends is not good when heated above a certain temperature. If you have a bird or very small mammal pet, be cautious.
- auguzanellato 4y agoThat can easily be solved by replacing the heatbreak with an all metal one (<10$) or for an even better bimetal (usually copper+titanium) one (~20$ or so iirc).
- hsglch 4y agoI wrote a review article summarising studies about emissions during 3D printing: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2022.119501 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2022.119501 (Should be open-access soon) Basically you can say: - Small particles and gaseous (Volatile organic compound - VOCs) are emitted during 3D printing - these emissions can be harmful if inhaled - higher temperature results in higher emission - ABS probably more harmful than PLA --> recommendation: - print in separated, ventilated room
- louislang 4y agoWhat impact does an enclosure with a filter have on the emission of particles and VOCs?
- rmnwski 4y agoEmissions will go down, no? Also depends on the filter somewhat, I guess. But from how I understand it, the emissions aren't that high to begin with. Of course breathing in metal nano-particles from filaments with additives doesn't sound that healthy...
- hsglch 4y agoThis study tested different control methods, including an enclosure. The enclosure with a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter had the highest removal effectiveness (99.95%) of nanoparticles. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.7b01454 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.7b01454
- exabrial 4y agoSo don't operate your 3d printer in an enclosed space? Sounds reasonable. You already have to do that with bleach, paint, window cleaner, stove cleaner, superglue, your car, your stove, your oven, your chainsaw, your weed wacker, your turkey fryer, when making beer from wort, and when making salsa from carolina reapers. Not that difficult to understand: open a window.
- fIREpOK 4y agoAny kind of dust isn't is definitely not good to breath in... i.e.: wood dust... don't think opening a window will help much though
- nikolay 4y agoWhere's the news? This is why I've never purchased one at home - I spend a lot of money keeping my home air as less toxic as possible and putting something that melts resins where I live?! Never!
- iancmceachern 4y agoAnytime you heat up plastic (melt it), or create a polymer from 2 parts (epoxy) there will be bad things released. This us fundamental to polymers. Check out all the urethane issues that early Disney imaganeers faced
- asddubs 4y agodo you have more info? I googled but didn't find anything relevant
- imdsm 4y ago[flagged]
- jakear 4y agoCan we please refrain from citing sources mechanically unable to determine the orifice from which they are speaking? ChatGPT will happily spout the most inaccurate crap possible, but it is difficult for anyone but an industry expert to analyze it case-by-case. It's the antithesis of the HN standard of quality. Anything following: "I have no clue what I'm taking about, but the following sounds reasonable:" isn't worth the weight of the photons used to transmit it to my device.
- iancmceachern 4y agoWhat kind of info are you looking for? Glad to try to help
- asddubs 4y agoOh, I suppose it wasn't clear, I was referring to this part: >Check out all the urethane issues that early Disney imaganeers faced I googled but found nothing about it. Well, it seems like google just ignored the keyword "urethane" in my search, to be specific
- iancmceachern 4y ago
- treeman79 4y agoOne of the worst migraines I ever had was triggered from being in room of 3d printers when one burnt something. Went from totally fine to I couldn’t even stand up in about 30 seconds. Was hyper sensitive to smells at that point on in life. Perfume being the next worst. Though not nearly that bad.
- alonmower 4y agoI bought a combo laser cutter/3D printer a while back and ended up putting an enclosure around it and a dedicated dryer vent in my garage wall with a blower fan attached to it so the whole thing is at negative pressure. Few hundred dollars an a couple of hours of my life but I feel a lot more confident using it now. I mostly did this because of the laser cutter (plywood can let out some horrible smells when cut), but it's nice to be able to do it for the 3D printer too. I know PLA is considered 'safe' but I figure better safe than sorry for these kinds of things. Hard to unwind damage that may take a long time to manifest. The printer also has a CNC but I very quickly learned that I should _not_ run the blower fan when that's running. That was no fun to clean up.
- amelius 4y ago> I know PLA is considered 'safe' But the article says: > The toxicity tests showed that PLA particles were more toxic than the ABS particles on a per-particle comparison, but because the printers emitted so much more of the ABS - it’s the ABS emissions that end up being more of the concern which is not very reassuring either way.
- danielheath 4y ago> The printer also has a CNC but I very quickly learned that I should _not_ run the blower fan when that's running. That was no fun to clean up. As someone considering a dust extraction hood for a hobby CNC - what happened?
- alonmower 4y agoThe fan is in the enclosure and wasn't strong enough to collect everything but it blew it around and coated everything in the enclosure. It also sprayed it around a decent amount of it outside on the side of our house (vs just venting the gases when using the laser or 3d printer). I've seen some people set up vacuums that attach to the head so that dust is actually collected (and you get a filter in the vacuum to collect the dust). That seems like a better approach. I don't use the CNC very often so I haven't bothered. For now I just keep the fan off and occasionally stop the job to vacuum up the dust that's been produced with my shop vac.
- arthurofcharn 4y agoI would like to get a 3d printer someday, but I can't imagine bringing running it inside my home. My 3d printer will be in the garage, with the garage door open during printing.
- martin_a 4y agoHeadline: > Commercial 3D printers emit [...] Next paragraph: > [...] emitted from consumer-grade 3D printers Now what? Commercial or Consumer devices? Sorry, can't take this really serious if there's a mistake like this directly in headline/teaser text.
- PetitPrince 4y agoMaybe it's "commercial" as in "sold as a complete product" as opposed to a DIY printer using the RepRap firmware or similar ?
- Groxx 4y agoI have yet to see one that doesn't have clear claims otherwise, so this doesn't seem too surprising. Check your MSDS. Even the community-perceived-as-safe PLA is pretty clear about recommending "local exhaust ventilation", which is quite a step up from "opened a window".
- bsder 4y agoLet me ask a dumb question: is this stuff more or less toxic than breathing sawdust or working on a car? I wouldn't do any of this stuff inside the living areas of my house, but I do lots of stuff that is probably at least as toxic as this in my garage. My go-to example is using gasoline to clean my hands of grease after working on the car. This was a bog-standard thing when I was growing up.
- genderwhy 4y agoPeople are saying 'ventilate'. Makes sense. I've got a resin printer in a large room with a crossbreeze, but I'd like to put in some more forced ventilation. Is there a quick thing I can buy that's got a small hood, inline fan, and waste vent? Or do I need to cobble something together myself out of flexible tubing? Is a portable hepa filter sufficient? I don't even know what to look for.
- Psychlist 4y agoI'd start with a cheap kitchen rangehood, ideally with carbon filters (in Australia that's under $AU200) and either vent it outside to poison your neighbours or bang an air purifier on it. Sheets of perspex or light plywood as walls and you're good to go. I'm way more up on the filtration side because I live in the land of bushfire smoke and 3D printers appear to be particulate problems too so I would try particulate filtering first because it's easy. The box filters used in aircons and central heating work fine for this, but you probably need another fan to suck on them, not just the rangehood blowing.
- defrost 4y ago> either vent it outside to poison your neighbours or bang an air purifier on it. Jeez, mate, there are better ways .. put in some lavender (or other scented prolifically growing dense foliage plant), divert some grey water (kitchen sink, bath, etc) to drain through that .. and vent through the bush. It's like a self cleaning sweet scented air filter that traps particles and only gets better with time. (And you can tell everyone it's advanced biotech).
- Whitespace 4y agoFor my resin printer setup I bought a mylar-covered grow tent from Vivosun which has all the hookups necessary for an inline fan & carbon filter. I zip it up 95% of the way so it's negative pressure and pulling the fumes through the filter. I can't smell anything after the filter—not even the 99% pure IPA which smells much worse than Siraya Tech Fast resin—so I don't bother venting outside when it's cold out; it vents into the unfinished basement side room. I wear a respirator, thick rubber gloves, treat every surface as "hot," and UV cure all my paper towels and anything that resin touched. My Ultimaker sits on the desk in my office and I mostly print on it at night. It doesn't get much use.
- genpfault 4y ago(2019)?
- esskay 4y agoTo clarify I was aware it was an older study, but there's been a pretty significant surge in 3d printing interest in the last couple of months with the Bambu Lab P1P and X1 starting a trend of new consumer grade 3d printers capable of printing more materials than ever. There's been a concerning trend of people running these in bedrooms and offices with no filtration, and others thinking they can cobble together their own filter using a bag of carbon, generic hepa filter and a PC cooling fan. I figure the more information on the volitility of the materials that can be spread the more people it will get through to that you really should not be running a 3d printer in your home at all unless its in a sealed, outdoor vented enclosure. Most people running these things dont even have a basic room air purifier.
- nirav72 4y agoI've been meaning to create an enclosure that many people do using the ikea lack tables. But haven't been able to find any plexiglass at local hardware store.
- RobotToaster 4y ago>All of these tests, which were done at high doses
- nomel 4y agoIf your purouse the 3d printing forums, you'l find many that want to swap their mainboards to one that supports micro steps, so the printing doesn't keep them awake at night.
- freetime2 4y agoAre people still printing with ABS? I was under the impression that everybody uses PLA most of the time, and has moved on to PETG for applications requiring higher durability [1]. I suppose ABS still has a couple of desireable properties, such as being able to smooth the surface with acetone vapor, but seems pretty niche at this point. That being said - it's still important to have adequate ventilation when running a 3d printer no matter which type of filament you are using. [1] https://all3dp.com/2/petg-vs-abs-3d-printing-filaments-compared/ https://all3dp.com/2/petg-vs-abs-3d-printing-filaments-compa...
- berjin 4y agoMy first thought: no shit. Plastics are the the asbestos or lead of our time. Not only are microplastics are huge burden on the environment but plastics and related chemicals are a health burden as well dropping sperm counts and causing mutations in babies. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/books/review/shanna-swan-count-down.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/books/review/shanna-swan-...
- Julesman 4y agoSo does life. heh. Vent your spaces. Vent all your spaces all the time. Jeez. :)
- IYasha 4y agoWho would be heating plastic and not expecting toxic fumes? )