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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.
So ... bad news for all the geeks that 3D printed their beverage cups ?
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3D Fish Tank decor
http://3dprint.com/61418/3d-pr...
http://www.advancedaquarist.co...
They are not too likely to reproduce anyway.
You need food grade plastics to print items that are going to be used in the preparation and consumption of food. As far as I am aware there is no such thing as a food grade ABS plastic. You can purchase food grade PLA for 3D printing however.
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.
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.
You can purchase food grade PLA for 3D printing however.
Hey now, lets not resort to cannibalism here! What'd I ever do to you???
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
There are potable-water applications for ABS pipe. I expect that means it's possible to have food-grade ABS plastic at least if certain conditions are met. On top of that ABS is often used in the housings of plastic kitchen appliances, so it still has to be safe for incidental exposure.
I wonder if the process that is used to injection-mold or to extrude ABS gives it different properties than the 3d-print method that may not subject the material to the same pressures.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
They tested on a Formlabs and a Stratasys Dimension Elite. The Dimension is an ABS plastic, the formlabs SLA printer is Methacrylate Photopolymer Resin. I'm feeling okay about my PLA printer.
OK, don't print little pirate treasure chests for zebra-fish aquaria, got it.
Who cares? The problems with chemical stupidity are not just about one species of fish. Unfortunately a large portion of our population relies upon the riches of the sea. If we keep screwing up the oceans with out industrial waste, especially discarded by products and plastic garbage we will see a rapid collapse of the entire ocean biosphere. It will mean starvation on a huge scale. Your statement bespeaks volumes about the utter public ignorance of key biological systems that have given us life. You can claim ignorance because most people do not even care about what is happening because of unrestrained garbage in our oceans, those who know the truth about the unregulated dumping of toxic plastic garbage that is causing the garbage patches do not have the luxury of ignorance that you enjoy.
As you bury your head in the beach sand it is almost certain that you will also be covered in little pieces of plastic that are starting to kill fish on a global scale. large plastics the big pictureabout how and why plastics are killing more and more marine life as they break down into smaller and smaller pieces and are eaten by smaller and smaller organisms.
With the oil and plastic industry now dictating our future it is entirely possible that our chemical stupidity will cause global starvation in the next century. Either we pay attention to the environment on a global scale or we will suffer the consequences of shitting in our own nest to the extent that our environment will simply kill us off. Here is hoping that eventually we can create closed systems with the plastic industry but right now the recycling of plastics and the science to stop the toxic destruction of our world is not a priority, within the next 40 years we either stop putting toxins in the ocean or we will not survive as a species. End of story.
This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
developmental mechanisms and pathways are highly conserved.
we don't want a repeat of thalidomide
WHAT cyanide, you dick? Cyanide isn't a free standing thing.
And before any pricks start hitting Google, I know what cyanoogen is, thank you very much, and it's not the same thing.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."