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3D Printers Shown To Emit Potentially Harmful Nanosized Particles
An anonymous reader writes "A new study by researchers in the Built Environment Research Group at the Illinois Institute of Technology shows that commercially available desktop 3D printers can have substantial emissions of potentially harmful nanosized particles in indoor air. Many desktop 3D printers rely on a process where a thermoplastic feedstock is heated, extruded through a small nozzle, and deposited onto a surface to build 3D objects. Similar processes have been shown to have significant aerosol emissions in other studies using a range of plastic feedstocks, but mostly in industrial environments. In this study, researchers measured ultrafine particle concentrations resulting from a popular commercially available desktop 3D printer using two different plastic feedstocks inside an office. Ultrafine particles (or UFPs) are small, nanosized particles less than 100 nanometers in diameter. Inhalation of UFPs may be important from a health perspective because they deposit efficiently in the lung and can even translocate to the brain. Estimates of emission rates of total UFPs in this study were high, ranging from about 20 billion particles per minute for a 3D printer utilizing a lower temperature polylactic acid (PLA) feedstock to about 200 billion particles per minute for the same type of 3D printer utilizing a higher temperature acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) feedstock. The emission rates were similar to those measured in previous studies of several other devices and indoor activities, including cooking on a gas or electric stove, burning scented candles, operating laser printers, or even burning a cigarette."
This is obvious FUD created by some government to prevent people from using 3D printers to print guns.
The emission rates were similar to those measured in previous studies of several other devices and indoor activities, including cooking on a gas or electric stove, burning scented candles, operating laser printers, or even burning a cigarette.
When multiple options are available to mitigate the problem, then the most often used should be eliminated.
Hear you all, stop cooking! You're potentially killing yourself from nano-particle emissions. Stop cooking, now, please.
Perfect excuse for the EPA to seize control over printing devices, with all their power to pass regulations without legislative oversight or the consequences of answering to the people.
Hooray.
My guess is that we're going to find nanoparticles a VERY common part of our environment, and that just about any process that grinds or sprays is going to generate nanoparticles.
Fortunately, considering that bacteria and viruses are ALSO nanoparticles, our bodies have evolved amazing defenses against them.
-Styopa
Detecting the rate of generated nanoparticles when burning scented candles? Wait, I hear the investment coming, we are going to get rich!!!
"Cooking on gas or electric stoves and electric toaster ovens was a major source of UFP, with peak personal exposures often exceeding 100,000 particles/cm and estimated emission rates in the neighborhood of 10 particles/min."
So in other words, a toaster puts out 10x more UFPs. Nothing to see here folks.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20087407
Right up there with frying food or scented candles. We'll get back to you on that, sure.
Every time there is a potentially harmful substance, Americans get this complete knee-jerk reaction that there never ever could be any kind of harm in the history of mankind, and it's all just fearmongering by tree-huggers/environmentalists (a word that is actually *bad* in America, just like everything "social" and with "love" is hated with bile and brimstone).
Because the big companies that control their delusion of a free will told them so, to be able to continue abusing them.
Have fun with your asbestos and Roundup, you morons!
They need to be enclosed and have a ionized air filter...
How do they compare to pollen? Are they full of spiky little projectiles that want to burrow into my nasal cavities and cross-polinate with my mucus membranes to create a giant mutant dandelion in my head? No? Then I'm not... ahh, ahhhhh, AH-CHOO!, sniff. worried.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
- burn your fingers
- trip on the power cord
- drop the printer on your big toe
Medical science has been saying for YEARS that frying Scented Candles is bad for your health.
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
Every time my kids break a plastic toy they are, no doubt, emitting plastic nanoparticles. Every time I crunch a milk jug in the trash or use a plastic comb I'm emitting plastic nanoparticles. Every time I snap open a plastic garbage bag or sit on my old polyester-upholstered sofa I'm emitting plastic nanoparticles.
Have you ever looked at the layer of paper dust around a printer?
There better be a lot of these particles emitted, or they won't be of much concern to me.
3D printing shown to cause potentially harmful cuts into corporate profits.
Can they be made to place the UFP? I know they process is currently uncontrolled however a little engineering could make 3D printing even more interesting
Your'e all thinking it, I just said it for you
So open a window or turn on a vent fan when you use a 3d printer. Good to know. Those of us with existing respiratory issues actually do appreciate hearing about unexpected sources of crap in the air.
Sure, it may put out the same amount of particles as more common things, but I imagine they're different types of particle. The site is dead so I can't check, but is there anything said about the relative dangers of one particle compared to another? I'm sure, for example, nanoparticles of plastics are much more hazardous than nanoparticles of burnt toast.
Medical science has been saying for YEARS that frying Scented Candles is bad for your health.
But breaded fried candles are part of my heritage!
Another lot of "Researchers" wanting to use scare tactics to get funding.
"Additionally, more controlled experiments should be conducted...."
I like to see the testing results in a wood shop or metal shop. Let them measure nano particle emissions when using spray cans or how about a simple inkjet printer?
Suddenly the world is full of "Harmful" nano particles. Scary things you can't see or prove easily always good for a good scare.
We need a nano tax to stop the inhuman crime of nano particle emission. I want to see Greenpest protesting against nano pollution. Get your banners out morons.
So I cook and own a laser printer. I'm screwed. But last printer is another room, door closed.
Medical science has been saying for YEARS that frying Scented Candles is bad for your health.
Which is worse though, frying them or eating them fried? Obviously more healthy poached.
Wait...
Don't tease the participle just because it dangles. It can get some blue pills for that and then you'll be sorry!
@Whee
What about the next big thing from Boeing, flying Scented Candles?
melting plastic results in fumes, gee go figure, glad we wasted our collective tax money on yet another "NO FUCKING SHIT" study
For regulation, and then restriction.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Oh... My... Gawd!
I use a gas or electric stove on a nightly basis! Some nights I even *sobs* barbecue!
Wow. So these things make slightly less nanoscale dust than most 2D printers (which, inkjet or laser, make dusting your bookshelf look practically good for you). Call me when the liberal media stops trying to spread FUD about "gun printers".
Yes, smoke sometimes curls from the printhead. No surprises there. Usually, there's not much, but hey, ABS chemicals aren't exactly a health-product.
What I would have liked to have known though is whether the use of covers ( eg, stabilising temperature and keeping the workpiece enclosed ) make any difference.
There is actually benefit to using covered printers, so it wouldn't be that difficult to add some filters to them would it? It's an entirely practical approach too, since plastic fumes are always worth avoiding.
And the use of less emotive terms for smoke would have been nano-appreciated.
GrpA
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
Enclose the printer and add a fan and a nano-filter. Done. Government conspiracy mitigated just like that.
Makin' that drank, dawg!"
Damn! That's just how I troll!
There was a similar study on this surrounding laser printers.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/printer-health.htm
Above poster suggests study should have included mitigation effect of enclosures.
It would be interesting if an OSHA, CDC or other regulation/law could require enclosures, and invalidate the patent some company IIRC holds on them for public health reasons.
How long before someone figures out how to turn this phenomenon into a weapon? The reason this is important is that as soon as someone does, BAM, they're baned. That translocation to the brain thing's kind of worrisome. I keep important things there, wouldn't want bits of foreign material ending up in there. I likes me a CLEAN brain, not one what looks like that Pacific Garbage patch!
Slightly off topic but related, I've always wondered how much plastic the world drinks in a year from gallon milk/water containers. I've noticed there's always plastic pieces near where the lid screws on, and I can't imagine they are super careful with the process to make the containers, they've been the same since I remember back. Also, what about those plastic lined paper milk "boxes"? They always taste like paper, I can't stand drinking from those.
"The emission rates were similar to those measured in previous studies of several other devices and indoor activities, including cooking on a gas or electric stove, burning scented candles, operating laser printers, or even burning a cigarette."
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Whatever it takes to create an excuse for the government to regulate them. Can't have the peasants making their own shit.
Gotta keep that Guangdong gravy train rollin.
3D printers will be regulated out of existence in two years. Guaranteed.
Boeing? My ex-girlfriend invented those at our last fight.
Guess I should have patented it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Does this sound suspiciously to anyone else like, say, 'moving'?
Long live the BSD license
It's the same as other shit we do every single day of our lives. Why is this written as a DOOM! story???
This must be a trap, if you have ever printed with PLA you know it smells sweet, kind of like maple syrup. I could sit next to my printer all day cause it smells so good. I guess its time to invest in some type of vented enclosure for my printer.
Polylactic acid is naturally biodegradable in the human body, forms lactic acid, which is also produced by your muscles during exercise. ABS is different.
Also known as Dreamliners
Emit potentially harmful nano sized particles.
This reeks of manipulation.