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Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

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41–50 of 167 posts

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#42

This is NOT new news. Same discussion, from 2015 - 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 b…

quote 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

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#44
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, but you still regularly see people showing off their latest 3d printer which is sitting in a kids bedroom running all day, or their office. Often when questioned, the existance of it being in a case or there being a cheap air purifier in the corner of the room is cited as the reason why its 'fine'.

I do feel like we dont really have sense of effects of particulate matter on the body. How does the risk of this compare to walking down a street with lots or running ICE cars? Or when you go into a basement and can smell the natural gas burning - is that a similar risk? If you told me being in the same room as a PLA printer was 10x worse I would believe it. If you told me being next to a car for 5 seconds was 10x wo…

In "ICE cars" the biggest sources of particulate matter are the tires and brakes¹, don't electric car have those too ?

1) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317425487/figure/fi...

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#45
post #21
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'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 som…

There 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 are…

I don't understand why anyone would DIY an air filter, when you can get e.g. a pair of 3M 6092x cartridges for $20.

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#46
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can smell the ABS fumes so they must be worse for you. The nose knows! /s

The human nose is an extremely sensitive chemical detector, and should not be dismissed. It's effective down to a fraction of parts per trillion for certain chemicals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odor_detection_threshold#Odor_...

But for others, like carbon monoxide, it is useless and leaves you to die.

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#47

This is NOT new news. Same discussion, from 2015 - 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 b…

Indeed. I am too lazy to look but I distinctly remember an article talking about the hazards of 3d printing fumes before even 2015. Possibly all the way to the early days of the original makerbot.

I have been in injection molding plants and the smell isn't pleasant. Melted/burning plastic odors fill the air along with hydraulic fluid and other oils and grease from the machinery.

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#48
post #38
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't cooking also cutting, melting, and evaporating chemicals? These definitions are overly broad. Isn't this how California ended up with Prop 65?

Laser 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.

You mean the recently highlighted issue of gas stoves, or do you mean something that affects electrical stoves as well?

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#50

Isn't this just common sense?

Honestly, not really. Even with a "super nerd" community like Voron, the popular opinion is to print ABS for functional parts but none of the standard designs include air filtering and the advice is to "just ventilate". I've noticed over the past months that questions about the "Nevermore" filter have increased but it's certainly not a widely shared best practice yet.
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