You’ll often hear about some study in the media and then — on examination — find it doesn’t really apply to your situation. Sure, substance X causes cancer in rats, but they ate 8 pounds of it a day for a decade. That’s why we were glad to see [Chuck] post a series of videos about 3D printing air quality based on his practical experience. You can see the summary video, below.

[Chuck] is quick to point out that he isn’t a doctor or even a chemist. He also admits the $100 meter from IGERESS he is using isn’t necessarily high-quality test gear. Still, the data is a good guideline and he did get repeatable results.

Not surprisingly, ABS was the biggest offender of throwing off hazard particulates. It also released formaldehyde unlike the PLA, HIPS, PETG, ASA, nylon, or TPU. Of course, some of those may release amounts too low for the meter to detect, but at least that is better. In addition, [Chuck] mentioned he thinks some of the plastics release styrenes, but the meter didn’t directly read that.

If you want more details, there’s a video about the different tests in detail. There’s also information about how he’s vented printers outside for handling the nastier plastics.

We’ve talked about fumes from lots of hacker activities in the past. There’s also the ongoing discussions about how safe it is to use 3D printed items for food that ties into all this.