Study: is 3d printing safe?

I've stumbled upon this amazing study published by taulman on instructables.com regarding safety of common 3d printing materials, namely ABS and nylon (and trimmer line!) as far as releasing outright toxic CO and HCN gases. The testing setup seems watertight to me, so I'd say the results are credible.

Long story short:

Quote

Based on our measurements using the world Safety Authorities (OSHA NIOSH ACGIH) Limits, 3D Printing is safe.
There was NO measured HCN from "3D Printing ABS" based materials at specified temperatures.
There was NO measured HCN from "3D Printing Nylon" based material at specified temperatures.
There was 0.1ppm of HCN while printing with a "Non-3D Printing" material (Trimmer Line)

I was able to find this link on the wiki, but it's only mentioned once on the forum in a comment deep inside a discussion on some unrelated topic, so I guess it worth bringing it to everyone's attention -- hope it doesn't violate any rules

Here is what I wrote on that article nine months ago:

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,154775,155110#msg-155110

Watertight? I don't think so...

Andy

ajayre Wrote:
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> Here is what I wrote on that article nine months
> ago:
>
> [forums.reprap.org]#
> msg-155110
>
> Watertight? I don't think so...

Yeah, this keeps coming around like a zombie...

Your objections are mostly hand waving without any concrete observations. Sure, many chemical exposures "could" be dangerous, but certainly we are generally exposed to almost all of these chemicals but in concentrations so low to be lost in the noise. If the toxic dose is 500ppm and we are measuring levels <0.5ppm then there is no point worrying about it.

You know for example, there are other common sources of HCN, such as cigarette smoke? Also, a few minutes google research would probably answer your questions. If you are concerned, it would be helpful if you did this and report back some findings.

For example, [oehha.ca.gov], [www.cdc.gov], [www.hpa.org.uk], none of which indicate to me there is a short or long term exposure risk at the known levels associated with 3d printers.

There are obvious precautions to take, for example adding only a small amount of ventilation can prevent build up of fumes. If you smell fumes and experience headaches etc then add ventilation. If you have fish or birds that are particularly sensitive to environmental exposure then take extra precautions.

This is the same advice as for using any type of chemical - paints, glues etc in enclosed spaces. I don't see any reason to treat 3d printing as exceptional.

after printing abs for months, i have had no problems, however printing with the trimmer line for a few hours gave me a small headache, but after drying out the trimmer line, i had no problems, so basically as long as you dry it out its fine.

Wow, thats a really scientific approach



aduy Wrote:
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> after printing abs for months, i have had no
> problems, however printing with the trimmer line
> for a few hours gave me a small headache, but
> after drying out the trimmer line, i had no
> problems, so basically as long as you dry it out
> its fine.

well i wasnt planning on testing it, but basically if you dont dry the shit out, it outgasses more toxins, because they are dissolved in the water, thats what it comes down to.

aduy Wrote:
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> well i wasnt planning on testing it, but basically
> if you dont dry the shit out, it outgasses more
> toxins, because they are dissolved in the water,
> thats what it comes down to.


Unfortunately that's not how it works. There is no "water" to dissolve in. The water is diffused into the plastic at the molecular level.
It is slightly more plausible that there are other volatiles in the plastic that outgas at the same time you are driving the water off, but there are holes in that as well.