Is 3D Printing Slowly Killing Us? - 2014

There's heaps of different FDM filaments available these days, but how safe are they to print with?

I did some research and found some shocking info...

Please be careful and always use extraction when you're 3D Printing!

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[spikekent]

You never cease to amaze me with the breadth of 3D printing info you give us mate.
I realise this video is over a year old, but still an very important subject and one that most of us hadn't even considered ... I know I hadn't.
Thank you so much

[albertroswell]

I think it is time to make a follow up video, I am concern too, and we are in 2017, I would like to see how have you solved this ventilation issue in your printers

[scottallen]

I just came across this video and noticed that the gears shown at 0.52 are from my exact printer! Purchased Derlin gears for my Printrbot. I added the red match marks, drilled the hole to access the motor mount screw and I even recognize the red valve handle in the background from my basement. I feel just slightly famous now. 😀

[cattenit]

hepa filter is NOT enough... you need a VOC (volatile organic compound) filter with a hepa filter... hepa filters will ONLY removed solids from the air and miss many other things like gases such as formaldehyde... and activated charcoal filter ionizer and hepa filter is probably the safest way you can print... i would even suggest getting one and 3d printing/building an enclosure that encompasses the filter pulling air IN from inside the enclosure and venting clean air out so there is negative pressure inside the enclosure making sure nothing bad can escape... please do another video to update safety concerns in the community

[MakeItWithCalvin]

Good points on the fumes being generated. I table saw/machine "Delrin" (acetal) and when table sawing it the formaldehyde makes my eyes and nose BURN for a while after and this is in a decently ventilated area.

One other thing to note is the PTFE/PEEK in hot-end nozzles decomposing over time can release other gasses. I think the big thing is just using common sense! If in doubt a little fresh air doesn't hurt anything.

Ultimately i still think burning yourself on the hot-end is a bigger concern for the short term!

[megandeveson]

Wow! I hadn't even considered this. Thanks for getting the word out Angus. Looking forward to the "Sunshine and Lollypops" vid coming! :P

[fletcherluders]

Thanks for putting this up, it's an important consideration point that I haven't really put enough though into apart from the generic 'print in well ventilated areas' rule of thumb.

[xccuber]

this changes my thoughts about bringing my 3d printer home from work

[RichardEricCollins]

I used to work in a pathology lab and we used a lot of the chems you talked about, and we always used them in a fume cupboard. Although the quantities were far higher; and this is the important part, needs a proper study to see how much is released and if the form it is released as is bad.
I only use PLA because I 'hope' is safer. I guess I need to go and look. 

[barrettdent]

Very good video. Definitely something to be thinking about. We're bring manufacturing into our home environments. But we should be considering the safety aspects in the same way a factory must.

[xccuber]

i haven't been in the 3d printing hobbie for that long i got my printer for christmas in 2018 and only started using it two months ago so am glad I saw this as soon as I did

[MarioIArguello]

3D printing is like injection molding, you have to be aware of the materials MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) to have a good reference of the type of polymer you are working with and melting, not only for best performance but more importanly for health safety. I know this probably takes the fun out of 3D printing, but keep in mind gases are always released when you heat up polymers. Proper VENTING is a must.

[enfuiji]

A HEPA filter won't help you - what's being released is a gas; it'll go right thru that filter. You need to route a duct to the outside air; similar to what you would do with a laser cutter. Open frame machines will need to be enclosed in a box. In order to get decent airflow, I'd use a fairly powerful centrifugal blower instead of a regular PC case fan to move the air.

[xccuber]

my 3d printer is in my basement but i did spend alot of time sitting next to it but have now decided to just set a timer and only come back when it is done.

[ralphzoontjens]

I do not advise at all to use petrochemical plastics unless you have a well-controlled environment and as such can restrict the amount of parts that enter a human body. For home use I advise, and also personally restrict myself to, only bioplastics. For now that means I only use PLA. The future is in bioplastics and this is what in my view development should be geared towards. Thank you for bringing up this issue, it is very important and we can compare it to the widespread use of asbestos until it was banned in the late 80s (in Holland). An uncle of mine has worked with this 20 years ago and now has lung cancer caused by it, and about 1-2 years life expectancy.

[DutchBrony]

you also need to be careful when printing cups and other food related items. there could be contaminants in the plastic that can get in your food or drinks.
some metals that are used for the extruder could also release fumes at high temperatures that can contaminate your print.

i would never print stuff to process food, and i advice other to be careful when they want to do it.
it is possible to print food safe items, but you need to do some research on all aspects of your printer if it is food safe and how to make it so.

[SianaGearz]

Look, i think the dangers of formaldehyde have been massively overstated. It's a substance you ALREADY have in your bloodstream and which is produced by your body. It was widely used, certainly too widely and too liberally, in the past, exactly because it was considered to be absolutely safe, but also because it's present in anything plant-based or animal-based and is released while processing. People who have natural gas cookers breathe a lot of it in, so all professional cooks do, a lot more than you will ever manage. It's in walls and furniture and everywhere and there has been a decision to limit its use in some categories of products, but not to tear down everything that contains it.

Certainly it's true that wherever there's a heater, there's a temperature gradient and a minuscule portion of material will be burned.

But then you look at California and there's a cancer warning on everything. Is it made out of metal, plastic, rubber or leather? Cancer warning. Has been fried or cooked? Cancer warning. Cancer warning cancer warning cancer warning. There's a road within 50 meters or a parking lot? Cancer warning. And cancer cases are not getting fewer, or at least certainly not because of this. Sure there's plenty of cancer and it would be nice if it went away, but the bulk of the cases occur purely naturally or through extremely potent carcinogenic affairs, such as smoking. And yes, smoking releases formaldehyde too, but that's probably not even the bad part. And by the way, do you drive? Or do you ever travel by bus? You're inhaling a lot more burnt fuel, certainly carcinogenic, than formaldehyde from a 3D printer.

I'm not sure what you want to accomplish with a HEPA filter. It removes particulate matter, but the substances you were speaking of are highly volatile gases, it's no barrier to them at all. Air ionizers also release formaldehyde from organic dust in the air and from objects, so go figure.

[Wolfhound]

What preventative measures do you take to reduce fumes you are coming in contact with? Crack a window, have an enclosure built with a ventilation/filtration system, etc...

[anthonymedica]

My two cents, just as somebody who works in the chemical industry...

Be smart about the materials you're working with. POM is regularly machined and injection molded in plenty of shops, but there are basic safety concerns you should undertake, just like when you're say, working on your car's brakes or painting your house.

Please read the MSDS for the materials you're printing with. Please read up on what people in the machining and molding and casting sides of the plastics industries do when they work with these materials, and learn from them. 

For printing to elevate its utility, we're going to need to start working with more complex materials, and they are going to entail a new set of concerns that things like PLA don't have. It might be emissions concerns, or it might be residual monomer concerns, or any of the other host of issues that can be unique to any polymer type.

[SaltGrains_Fready]

Just imagine the environmental protection agencies having their hand on this blossoming industry.
U would need all kinds of approvals and have constraints as to where they can operate and ventilation requirements and so on and on - the price of the units will be 10 times the current costs under such onerous regulations.