News Study: 3D Printed Objects Toxic?

[Brian_Krassenstein]

While studying zebrafish embryos researchers at the University of California Riverside discovered that the zebrafish embryos quickly died after being exposed to 3D printed tools. They decided to test the level of toxicity present in 3D printed parts from the Stratasys Dimension Elite 3D printer and a Formlabs Form 1+ stereolithography 3D printers regularly used by the lab. They published their findings in a paper titled “Assessing and Reducing the Toxicity of 3D-Printed Parts,” online in the Environmental Science and Technology Letters journal, where they documented dramatically increased levels of dead or developmentally damaged embryos exposed to the 3D printed materials. You can read more about this study at 3DPrint.com: http://3dprint.com/103953/uc-riverside-study-toxicity/

[dklassen]

Glad I'm not a zebrafish embryo. But it's not surprising that someone has come up with a study that says 3D printed parts are toxic. Gives them something else to go after.

[richardphat]

Duh,especially had been highly toxic 20+ years ago and shit have been the same all day. They have it written all over the MSDS....

[curious aardvark]

stratasys polymers and resin and some pla.

be interesting to see if some of the other materials: pet, nylon, antibacterial pla etc also had the same effect.

Pretty limited experiment to date.

[checktest]

"a standard FDM 3D printer that uses PLA 3D printing material"

"printers used by researchers in their study were a Stratasys Dimension Elite"

So, a Stratasys Dimension Elite prints with PLA now, huh? Nope, just ABS. More likely, the reference to PLA in this article is incorrect and should read ABS.

Also, near the end, SLR should probably read SLA.

Anyone proof reading these articles...?

[Sebastian Finke]

Silly, really. Nothing earth-shattering there.

[awerby]

It's hardly surprising that the light-catalyzed resins are residually toxic to fish. But that the PLA parts would kill them as well does fly in the face of all the propaganda I've heard about how safe this plant-based biodegradable material is supposed to be. It does seem to have some estrogen-mimicking effects that aren't talked about much, but could well harm developing embryos exposed to it.

Andrew Werby
Juxtamorph.com

[curious aardvark]

mind you most things kill fish :-)
I have yet to see any product of any kind meant for garden use that doesn't say: 'toxic to fish'.