from the can-you-3D-print-a-gas-mask? dept.
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow0824
3D Printers Can Spew Toxic Cancer-Causing Chemicals, New Report Reveals
Multi-year research conducted by Georgia Institute of Technology and UL Chemical Safety suggests low-cost 3D-printing devices could pose a health risk by harming indoor air quality.
Publishing their work in two separate studies in Aerosol Science and Technology, one in 2017 and another in 2018, the researchers tested how 3D printers emitted particles when in a controlled environment. They found that as a byproduct, 3D printers generate a range of different-sized particles, including ultrafine particles, which can be inhaled into the pulmonary system, resulting in adverse effects on respiratory health.
“These printers tend to produce particles that are very small, especially at the beginning of the print process, and in an environment without good ventilation, they could significantly reduce indoor air quality,” said lead researcher Rodney Weber in a statement.
[...]“We found that one of the overriding principles is the temperature of the filament,” said Weber. “If you use a filament that requires a higher temperature to melt, such as ABS plastic, you produce more particles than PLA plastic filaments, which require lower temperatures.”
[...] The researchers recommend a few steps you can take at home to lessen the impact on air quality when using 3D printers, including operating them only in well-ventilated areas, setting the nozzle temperature on the lowest suggested setting, keeping a distance from operating machines, and using materials and machines that have been tested and shown to have low emissions.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @04:21AM (3 children)
The dust is known to turn boys into soy boy incels. These toys should be outlawed.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @04:46AM (1 child)
So in this fantasy of yours are you sucking off the nozzle to get all the soy goodness in one big gulp?
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @02:41PM
The only way to fix the soy boys is to send them to war. This is why we need to start World War 3 as soon as possible. Joining the
SturmabteilungProud Boys might straight them up.(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday November 14 2018, @07:15PM
Turns out that lung cancer makes it harder to get laid...
(Score: 2) by hopp on Wednesday November 14 2018, @04:23AM (6 children)
Use the printer in your garden shed with no one around.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Wednesday November 14 2018, @06:10AM (3 children)
full enclosure, flexible dryer hose, inline fan, dryer vent with a flap that closes when the fan is off. That's my solution.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 14 2018, @02:46PM
In a high rise building that doesn't work so well. Instead use positive pressure in the 3D printer room, and run the flexible dryer hose to the management floors of the building where nobody will complain because nobody there has any concerns about employee health. Problems don't exist just like climate change.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Friday November 16 2018, @03:24AM (1 child)
I'm putting my new printer in an enclosure for print quality reasons. Is it realistic to filter this? e.g. a Hepa filter for microplastics followed by a activated charcoal filter for the VOCs?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday November 17 2018, @04:37PM
I wouldn't see why not -- it will need a stronger fan though. I suppose you could actually just start with a shop vac, a HEPA filter, and then rig up some other filters inside the vac body. Will be loud of course.
I do like the outside exhaust vent. If you don't want to cut a hole in a wall, you could always cut a piece of plywood to fit in a window and cut a hole in the plywood and affix the hose to that. When you print, open your window and close it on the plywood barrier. When you aren't printing, pop it out and coil it up.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday November 14 2018, @09:46AM (1 child)
Also the laser printer/ photocopier.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Wednesday November 14 2018, @03:08PM
https://www.naturalnews.com/026007_printers_laser_toxic.html [naturalnews.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @05:07AM
I mean who could have envivsioned that heating plastics could produce toxic and undesired fumes? no one, it's possible that the manufactures might have thought you where not an idiot, but we are speaking of Bro Tech boys so..
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @06:24AM (3 children)
PLA is gross. Seriously -- it feels nasty, it's extremely brittle, it's messy and it looks cheap. I just hate the amount of unearned love PLA gets. Fuck PLA. Give me natural ABS any day -- beautiful ivory color and such a pleasing texture. Or for structural stuff, PETG (yes it is ugly and shiny but it has an amazing strength with just the right amount of flexibility without the warping characteristics of ABS and the brittle crappy nozzle smearing nightmare that is PLA -- it's functionality far outweighs its aesthetics (unlike PLA)). PLA is for stupid figurines, PETG is for working functional durable parts. So yeah, fuck PLA and the but-it-is-all-natural-smells-like-french-fries-comes-from-vegetables PLA fanbois -- you lot can go get hammered on PBR and choke on your skinny jeans in your mom's basement surrounded by your printed Star Wars figurines and iphone cradles, you "maker" motherfuckers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @08:18AM (1 child)
While I have great confidence you are technically correct... I rest my case.
I thought about buying a 3d printer a couple years ago and fume is one of the first things I thought about
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday November 14 2018, @07:17PM
Um, you haven't made a case. Please provide a link to said case, if it exists.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Wednesday November 14 2018, @08:17PM
I was trying to figure out what sort of plastic that was. LOL.
(Score: 1, Troll) by DannyB on Wednesday November 14 2018, @08:54PM
Instead of spewing toxic chemicals, how about a software option to form the spew into a nice concentrated stream which can then be collected into small tide-pod sized treats.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.