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

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/10/commercial-3d-printers-emit-traces-of-toxic-fumes-study-finds/

by esskay • 3 years ago

136 157 3 years ago

eandt.theiet.org

elischleifer• 3 years ago

Probably anything intentionally melting chemicals should come with built-in fume capture.

seltzered_2• 3 years ago

Not 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-inspec... , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13507734

yreg2• 3 years ago

LASER cutting is also melting (and evaporating) chemicals.

devmor• 3 years ago

Melting, 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.

jaclaz• 3 years ago

[2019]

The actual article should be this one:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b04168

seltzered_2• 3 years ago

Notably the title in there says " Consumer-Level 3D Printer "

zhala• 3 years ago

I'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.

hooverd4• 3 years ago

What were you printing? From my understanding the issue with PLA "fumes" is actually ultrafine particulate matter and not VOCs.

slimsag• 3 years ago

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 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.

esskay9• 3 years ago

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 area other than looking at their cheap air quality sensor and seeing a difference.

nomel4• 3 years ago

This isn't true of candles, though. We have a pretty good idea of what candles can do to you.

For beeswax and simple paraffin. I'm not so sure this is what candles are made from these days. I've ordered some raw paraffin from Amazon, and it smelled like a chemical plant*. I've had a few candles from big box stores that smelled similar. I stopped using candles, because it appears their ingredients have strayed.

* Reviews can be found for "beeswax" saying the same.

calibas3• 3 years ago

That gives you an estimate of the quantity of VOCs, but tells you nothing of their toxicity. You can have a VOC that's extremely toxic at low concentrations, and a VOC sensor would read barely above baseline.

gruez• 3 years ago

I've used PMSA003I and BME688 sensors to check for particulate and VOC's.

Keep in mind that the VOC sensors you're talking about aren't designed to pick up all types of VOCs. They're designed to detect specific types of VOCs (eg. ethanol or acetone) associated with human occupation and/or urban pollution[1], because that's the use case that they're designed for. If you use them to measure something entirely different (eg. plastic fumes), it shouldn't be surprising at all that they don't pick up anything.

[1] https://www.bosch-sensortec.com/media/boschsensortec/downloa...

dutchbrit• 3 years ago

Isn't this just common sense?

Filligree3• 3 years 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.

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_gril2• 3 years 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.

calibas3• 3 years ago

The general consensus between actual users seemed to be that the fumes were obviously toxic and you should avoid breathing them in. However, there were always people who denied this, and I've never seen a manufacturer warn users about the fumes.

Filligree3• 3 years ago

At least PLA fumes are far less toxic than ABS. So there's that. Which is nice.

PTFE fumes though...

esskay9• 3 years ago

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'.

fasthands92• 3 years ago

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 worse I'd believe it. As far as I've read we dont have great metrics.

725686• 3 years ago

Common sense is the least common of the senses.

olao993• 3 years ago

"common sense" things need to be empirically tested and validated

NietTim• 3 years ago

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.

aosmith• 3 years ago

The chemicals used for resin printers make this look benign.

RugnirViking• 3 years ago

Use a straight up gas mask, lab goggles, and nitrile gloves with mine at a minimum. It's nasty stuff

Symbiote2• 3 years ago

When 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.

Fomite2• 3 years ago

I basically channeled my days working in pathogen labs - "hot" surfaces where resin ends up, respirator, goggles and gloves, etc.

hooverd4• 3 years ago

The 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?

esskay9• 3 years ago

I'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• 3 years ago

I 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.

hooverd4• 3 years ago

3D printer manufacturers could be more forthcoming about the risks associated with 3D printing. At least with FFF the mitigation is relatively easy.

tarotuser4• 3 years ago

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 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.

Ekaros2• 3 years ago

All components of ABS are classified probably carcinogenic. Likely safe after being formed, but during process I think there is probably some risks...

olao993• 3 years ago

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

tarotuser4• 3 years ago

My 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• 3 years ago

Anybody talking about the toxicity of lactic acid on the context of perfectly fine breathable air is bull of bullshit.

And yes, we have known since forever that it is highly toxic. It's also common on your organism, on much higher concentrations than you will get from your printer.

Anyway, the common advice applies. If you get a 3D printer, use it on ventilated spaces, and if you will print with anything that isn't PLA, make sure it is well ventilated and doesn't ventilate into anybody. What really surprised me was this:

these tests indicate that exposure to these filament particles could over time be as toxic as the air in an urban environment

I expected it to be much worse. Printing ABS does surely not smell like an urban environment. I guess a 3D printer generates much fewer silent poisons than a city.

MisterTea• 3 years ago

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.

Scene_Cast22• 3 years ago

Any tips or pointers on activated carbon air filters? How do you monitor the filter capacity and know when to change it? (Especially since based on my online reading, carbon filters, unlike PM filters, just start letting VOCs through as opposed to "clogging up")

tarotuser4• 3 years ago

If you can get them into a shed or an outbuilding, that's 99.9% of the problem solved.

You can also enclose the printer. For example, the ender3 pro has a box bag that you can put the printer in. Solves the problem.

My custom printer has the activated carbon airfilter/fan. Its probably overboard, but I did have that in my workspace for a while, so it was worthwhile for the time. I have no good metric when the filters should be replaced... I don't know any way to monitor particulate load in a filter.

tdeck2• 3 years ago

It sounds like the issue is particulates rather than gasses; in that case an activated carbon filter won't do much and a HEPA filter would be better.

esskay9• 3 years ago

With all the new materials that you can get I think a combination of both (plus venting to outside) is needed for real protection.

The current hot new printer is the Bambu Lab X1. It's aimed at consumers and is capable of printing things like Carbon Fiber Nylon, Polycarbonate and Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). These are far more volatile than run of the mill PLA and theres less studies available on their long term effects so take as many precautions as possible should be the message.

brewdad• 3 years ago

It may not be "news" but seeing as 3D printing is still very much at the Eternal September stage of growth with many less technical owners entering the hobby, it's a very good idea to keep putting this information and any new knowledge out there.

esskay9• 3 years ago

Yup, pretty much the reason I shared it. The 3d printing community is going through somewhat of a transition with the 'next generation' of 3d printers (Voron and Bambu Lab X1 & P1P). The latter is a high performance, high print quality consumer focused printer capable of printing anything from basic PLA up to complex carbon fiber and nylon based materials and all its got is a tiny little filter box which does next to nothing.

The worry is that people think "its got a filter built in, its fine" when its not even close to being true.

71a54xd3• 3 years ago

I 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.

gamedna• 3 years ago

correction: ... and do my thing.

71a54xd3• 3 years ago

haha I love that HN is down voting this

dokem• 3 years ago

It’s the ‘extrusion room’

olao993• 3 years ago

older article, same source: https://rh.gatech.edu/news/627220/particles-emitted-consumer...

EamonnMR• 3 years ago

I thought that this was common knowledge. I've been running my printer in well ventilated spaces only for years.

bobbywilson0• 3 years ago

I 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-scienc...

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/newsroom/feature/2022print3D.html

Mountain_Skies2• 3 years ago

IIRC, 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.

auguzanellato2• 3 years ago

Enclosures 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.

hooverd4• 3 years ago

The Stratasys patent expired a couple years ago, thankfully.

esskay9• 3 years ago

Yep this prevented any commercial options. It's why the Ikea Lack became so popular as an easy and low cost enclosure to make - I've got one for my Prusa Mini+ and it obviously does nothing to help with venting.

asddubs3• 3 years ago

I know that if I print PLA and stay in the room, it will give me a headache after a while. And I can definitely smell it, so at least something is getting released into the air. I don't know if that actually means it's harmful, but I stopped staying in the same room if a printer is running.

alpaca128• 3 years ago

In over a year I've never noticed a smell from PLA during a print. Maybe that varies between manufacturer, some "PLA" filaments are actually weird mixes (like PLA+).

But keeping it in a separate room doesn't hurt.

mft_• 3 years ago

Agree; with PLA there’s a definite recognisable smell.

Also, when I first got my printer, I had it running in a corner of my office room and found I would reliably get a sore throat after a few hours printing. It’s now shifted to the basement with a extractor fan nearby.

0xbadc0de5• 3 years ago

Traces!? 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• 3 years ago

On the same vein, see the _dust_ that can be produced with filled materials: https://www.thregr.org/~wavexx/rnd/20230113-carbon_fibers_3d... (posted on HN 10 days ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34367420 without comments)

LarryMullins4• 3 years ago

The smell of these things just screams cancer-death. When your senses are throwing up such powerful red flags, it pays to heed those warnings.

Symbiote2• 3 years ago

PLA 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• 3 years ago

SLA owners, away and looking foward meme.

Yea, no this is surprise. Ventilate it.

fnordpiglet2• 3 years ago

Actual study:

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• 3 years ago

In 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-422• 3 years ago

Don'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.

Jemm• 3 years ago

Teflon 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.

auguzanellato2• 3 years ago

That 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).

hsglch3• 3 years ago

I wrote a review article summarising studies about emissions during 3D printing: 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

louislang2• 3 years ago

What impact does an enclosure with a filter have on the emission of particles and VOCs?

rmnwski• 3 years ago

Emissions 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...

hsglch3• 3 years ago

This 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

exabrial• 3 years ago

So 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• 3 years ago

Any 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• 3 years ago

Where'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!

iancmceachern4• 3 years ago

Anytime 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

asddubs3• 3 years ago

do you have more info? I googled but didn't find anything relevant

iancmceachern4• 3 years ago

What kind of info are you looking for? Glad to try to help

GuB-422• 3 years ago

There are many plastics and even more polymers. We usually reserve the terme "plastic" to synthetic materials but there are plastic-like materials in nature, like amber. Polymers includes things like proteins and DNA, basically what life is made of.

So saying that releasing "bad things" (what does it even mean?) is a fundamental property of polymers is a bit too much. What "bad things"? What plastics? What dose?

iancmceachern4• 3 years ago

Thank you, I can't edit it, but if I could I would edit my post to say "synthetic polyners"

treeman79• 3 years ago

One 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.

alonmower4• 3 years ago

I 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• 3 years 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• 3 years 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?

alonmower4• 3 years ago

The 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• 3 years ago

I 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_a2• 3 years ago

Headline:

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• 3 years ago

Maybe it's "commercial" as in "sold as a complete product" as opposed to a DIY printer using the RepRap firmware or similar ?

martin_a2• 3 years ago

Doesn't make any sense. A self-built printer is using the same ABS/PLA like a one I bought.

nomel4• 3 years ago

Yet there's no difference between any of these.

Groxx• 3 years ago

I 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• 3 years ago

Let 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• 3 years ago

People 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.

Psychlist2• 3 years ago

I'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• 3 years 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• 3 years ago

For 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.

jameslao• 3 years ago

HEPA filters will filter out particulate but doesn't help with VOCs. For that you need carbon filters.

genpfault• 3 years ago

(2019)?

esskay9• 3 years ago

To 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• 3 years ago

I'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.

Psychlist2• 3 years ago

Unless you absolutely have to have a window, plywood also works. Maybe find an old flatbed scanner and reuse the bed as your window?

joe_guy• 3 years ago

Call your local glass installers and ask them for a local plexy supplier or if they can supply it.

RobotToaster• 3 years ago

All of these tests, which were done at high doses

nomel4• 3 years ago

If 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• 3 years ago

Are 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-compa...

berjin• 3 years ago

My 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-...

Julesman• 3 years ago

So does life. heh. Vent your spaces. Vent all your spaces all the time. Jeez. :)

IYasha• 3 years ago

Who would be heating plastic and not expecting toxic fumes? )

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

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