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3D Printed Objects Found Toxic To Fish Embryos (universityofcalifornia.edu)
itwbennett writes: Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have found that the parts of two common types of 3D printers are toxic to zebrafish embryos. The researchers made this discovery accidentally when a graduate student whose work involves developing tools for studying zebrafish embryos "noticed that zebrafish embryos die after exposure to parts from the 3-D printer." According to the report, "While the embryos exposed to parts from the plastic-melting printer had slightly decreased average survival rates compared to control embryos, the embryos exposed to parts from the liquid-resin printer had significantly decreased survival rates, with more than half of the embryos dead by day three and all dead by day seven. And of the few zebrafish embryos that hatched after exposure to parts from the liquid-resin printer, 100 percent of the hatchlings had developmental abnormalities."
The photopolymer resins are usually UV cured. They contain chemicals that spit out free radicals to initiate polymerization. And you don't get a 100% cure.
The paranoid in me wore double gloves when handling parts with liquid resin. Newer stuff might be safer. But the stuff I used was gene scrambling goo in my mind.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
And cyanide is liquid at room temperature. Even a tiny (parts per million) amount of HCN would be enough to mess with developing embryos of anything, let alone extremely sensitive tropical fish.
OK, don't print little pirate treasure chests for zebra-fish aquaria, got it.
3D Fish Tank decor
http://3dprint.com/61418/3d-pr...
http://www.advancedaquarist.co...
Gotta like it when this stuff is discovered by accident. Do we have safeguards against putting the latest industrial chemical product into contact with millions of people? Seems like we don't.
A more accurate headline would be: "Some 3D Printer consumables toxic to certain fish"
The toxicity is not an attribute of manufacturing process. It's an attribute of the material with which it's manufactured.
Sensationalized headlines are in poor taste. Slashdot can be much better than this.
As anyone who ever had a fish tank will tell you.
What would be amazing is if they found things not normally in the egg that weren't toxic to the embryos.
to Bre Pettis' pretentious 3D printed coral? Anyone remember that or is that quickly forgotten by the hype machine?
The summary reads like he took apart a 3D printer then threw various components from it in a fish tank. I was left wondering why anyone would do that.
Would seriously like to know whether they were using PLA or ABS filament for their "not as toxic" melted-plastic machine test.
I'm printing exclusively with PLA at home, but have no idea which they're talking about.
So Makerbot called on people to help make hermit crab shells to dump in the waters....
guess that's a bit of a bad idea now.
http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2011/10/18/project-shellter-can-the-makerbot-community-save-hermit-crabs
so toxic chemicals can actually be... dangerous to living organisms? Who would've known. There is such a dramatic lack of concern for all the chemical crap we use to make plastics, and poor into food, and beauty products, and what not. While we have nearly eliminated deaths from infectious diseases in the west during the last 100 years, we have also become the sickliest people in the world, thanks to all the chemical crap we put in ourselves, on ourselves, and everywhere in our environment.
screaming they are fish?
"So what do you do for a living?" "I study Zebrafish embryos".
He just discovered that toxic chemicals are toxic.
I'm wondering why the University made this public in the manner that they did.
A bioengineering grad student of the University of California - Riverside isn't immediately aware that liquid resin "instant/3d printed" parts would affect experiments with their residue and/or outgassing?
I find that pretty sad.
In other news: 3d-printed guns harmful to humans.
Who would have thought.
they're not really fish until they're born anyways.
"3D Printed Objects Found Toxic"
"the parts of two common types of 3D printers are Toxic"
So, which is it? The printed objects, or the parts of the printers?
If I had read that headline on a SimCity3000 news ticker I would have let out a smirk. In other words: "Pollution kill fish."
Just don't feed 3D printed objects to zebra fish.
Reminds me of those old adverts for Radium, how it'll brighten your teeth etc etc. Maybe one day people will look back at all those Kickstarter videos for 3D printers they way we look at those.
3d printed fish contraception. Who knew it was this versatile!
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
oh yes, and midges fly southward when they the moon shines. Slashdot is evidently avoiding to be a news site..one more: the earth is not a disc, or, scientists found out that coughing can cause irritations in the throat. Or: when the sun shines, the risk of getting sunburn is higher. Or even better: children born in winter are three times more likely to have birthdays in the winter months. But great news, hey !!
However, there are 3D printers working here at the UW which can bioprint solar cells on flexible film, and ones that can even bioprint compostable furniture NOT USING PLASTICS.
Plastics are a transitory thing, in terms of what can be printed. Eventually, just as we can 3D print organs, we will do the same and move off plastics.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
From the article:
"Other unanswered questions include how to dispose of the waste material â" both solid and liquid â" created by 3-D printers. At this point, the researchers think it is best to take it to a hazardous waste center."
So how does the hazardous waste center dispose of the material if they don't yet know what aspect of the 3D printed part makes it hazardous? I assume there is a catch all process for such materials, like sealing it up real tight into something that won't leak and dropping it down a really deep hole. Perhaps another catch all is heat it up so hot that any molecules in the material are broken down to their constituent atoms.
Also, once we know what makes them hazardous then it is quite possible we can find a means to remove that aspect of the material and/or find a means for a user of that material to perform whatever process is necessary to render it inert. Such as if the process is to expose the 3D printed product to UV light then tell the manufacturer or user that it should be left out in the sunlight for how many hours it takes to destroy the hazardous material. For some items, like wind chimes and license plate holders, the UV exposure would be expected in normal use.
While this is certainly interesting it seems to me that this article is click bait, scaremongering, or both. Lots of people have been using 3D printed products without any health problems showing up. This is really something that should be of interest only to fish breeders and material scientists.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
So my plan for World Domination via 3D-printed zebra fish is dead in the water?