Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/EQbSPdBlgm4   The melted plastic your 3D printer lays out emits toxic volatile organic fumes that could damage your lungs or worse.  Georgia Institute of Technology engineers tested the emissions from 3D printer filaments on live cells in tissue culture.   The results showed the most dangerous filaments are the ABS styrene plastic ones in comparison to the PLA lactic acid type.  The ABS requires heating to higher temperatures giving off more fumes and the heat transforms the plastic to possibly more dangerous compounds.    If you do use 3D printers at home, for safety’s sake, use an enclosure, ventilate the room well or use a garage, avoid breathing in the fumes, use the lowest filament temperature possible, and buy low emission filaments.   Qian Zhang, Michal Pardo, Yinon Rudich, Ifat Kaplan-Ashiri, Jenny P. S. Wong, Aika Y. Davis, Marilyn S. Black, Rodney J. Weber. Chemical Composition and Toxicity of Particles Emitted from a Consumer-Level 3D Printer Using Various Materials. Envi