3-D Printed Materials Could Be Toxic: Is It Safe To Use Printed 3-D Materials?

3-D printing has been a major breakthrough, with uses for it ranging from medical procedures to industrial and technological applications. However, a recent study found that the materials used in 3-D printing could be highly toxic, therein putting human lives at risk.

The researchers claimed that very little is known about the safety of the materials used in 3-D printing. Since 3-D printing has been used in many medical and industrial applications, these researchers were curious about the safety of 3-D printing materials. Some researchers even found that 3-D printed materials may cause allergic and inflammatory reactions in patients.

The researchers wanted explored the general health and development of organisms that are exposed to 3-D materials, thus they experimented with zebra fish embryos.

In their experiment, the researchers placed zebra fish embryos around discs, which were printed from two types of commercial 3-D printers - fused deposition modeling (FDM) printers and stereolithography (STL) printers. The researchers found that the embryos exposed to both types of discs have a low chance of survival, and had reduced lengths and decreased hatching rates compared to the controlled embryos. Also, the embryos exposed to the STL-printed parts had malfunctioned and they died within a week.

The 3-D printing market is expected to reach a net worth of $16.2 billion by 2018.

The findings of this study were published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

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