Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)
eandt.theiet.org
eandt.theiet.org
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.
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.
As someone considering a dust extraction hood for a hobby CNC - what happened?
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.
The business-end of the exhaust tube sits outside a window, and has a reservoir for collecting debris that make it through the tubing--seems to also subdue the odor.
To your point, the laser doesn't produce particles that are the same size a brill bit would (larger pieces sit pretty on the bed until they are lifted away) but I reckon it might still help!
Just spitballing, but would a setup that swaps the dryer-vent-fan for suction on par with a Shop Vac be able to move those larger chunks? (add water to the Shop Vac's belly before using it as extra filtering)
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.
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.
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.
PETG is supposed to be similarly relatively inert and safe compared to ABS and the vapors relatively non toxic. The problem is apparently fake PETG is quite common:
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/p8c85d/which_br...
These brands I would avoid as they must be using something other than PETG and likely have additives you don’t want to breathe.
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
But keeping it in a separate room doesn't hurt.
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.
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.
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 ;-)
>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
https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/plastics-rubber/about-mol....
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?
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.
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.
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.
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...
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
So yeah, there is probably lot going on. From simple water vapor to those by products that come with browning.
I don't think it's a recent issue. It's law, where I live, to have ventilation to outdoors, at any source of combustion gasses. Most of the "recent" papers say that most of the problems can be removed by using that fan that's right above the oven, by law. I am surprised that it's not also law to have these fans turn on automatically.
Even the stuff that doesn't cause cancer can still cause you physical harm. It takes very little effort to just be safe.
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-...
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.
The actual article should be this one:
ABS printing smells of burning plastic / a tyre fire (styrene), and shouldn't be done without plenty of ventilation etc.
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...
> 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.
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
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.
Last time I was near one, I could clearly smell the unpleasant burning plastic.
A good, recirculating activated carbon filter can do that. But then you need to swap it once per week (whether or not you've been printing), and you need the right type of carbon.
PTFE fumes though...
In practice though, the study shows PLA is safer because of significantly less fume creation with the lower printing temperature.
So relative risk for PLA is significantly lower than ABS, but it is incorrect to state that PLA is less toxic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odor_detection_threshold#Odor_...
You listen to your other senses, right? When you touch something hot, you listen to your sense of touch telling you that you're about to get burned. That doesn't mean your sense of touch can warn you of all hazards, but you certainly shouldn't ignore it when it does.
Farts smell. Carbon monoxide doesn't.
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'.
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.
1) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317425487/figure/fi...
Though I think larger point stands that its very hard to know risks of different particulate sources (like brakes).
Is a portable hepa filter sufficient? I don't even know what to look for.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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".
Was hyper sensitive to smells at that point on in life. Perfume being the next worst. Though not nearly that bad.
Yea, no this is surprise. Ventilate it.
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.
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.
"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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Any ideas if having this enclosed printer in my office is a real danger?
You could also get a pm10 and pm2.5 air quality monitor for a more scientific measurement. Gasses won't trigger those, depending on what they are.. I guess you could make a forced air device with 20 sensors in it, but nothing on the market is like that.
As for limited exposure, it's probably not too bad. But uncovered in bedroom... Whole different story.
Even that isn't close to being enough to filter it all out and I'd certainly not stay in the room for any length of time whilst it was printing.
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.
For most hobbyists PLA is the vast majority of their print time and it's a shame that we don't even have convenient and affordable systems to mitigate the risks of the baseline material (I don't consider cobbling together your own enclosure, ducting, and filter system convenient. As we have seen with open frame laser engravers, most consumers won't bother).
The worry is that people think "its got a filter built in, its fine" when its not even close to being true.