Desktop 3D Printers: Sales Soaring, Emissions Standards Coming

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1 News Desktop 3D Printers: Sales Soaring, Emissions Standards Coming Posted May 23, 2018, 7:07 AM More desktop 3D printers mean more questions about the chemicals and particulates they release First voluntary emissions standards expected this fall Desktop 3D printers popularity and sales have soared in recent years with consumers in homes, schools, and libraries snapping up the new technology. Manufacturers sold about 171,000 desktop 3D printers in 2016, according to the Consumer Technology Association, a trade group for the electronics industry. The group projects continued robust growth, with forecasted sales of 373,000 in The increasing popularity of the printers are raising new health, safety, and liability questions. These include questions about the potential health effects of the chemicals and particulates they release. Concerns range from the exacerbation of existing conditions like asthma to respiratory irritation to long-term effects like cancer. In the hours it can take to print a toy, belt clip, or door stop, a 3D printer can release hundreds of chemicals known to be harmful, said Marilyn Black, vice president and senior technical adviser for Underwriters Laboratories Inc., a global independent safety science company. As a result of these concerns, the first voluntary, consensus emissions standards are on the horizon. University scientists, federal regulators, and

2 industry are working with UL to develop ways to consistently measure the chemicals and particles 3D printers can release, Black said. The standards also will cap particle and chemical emissions from the machines, she said. The Wild West UL is supporting the research for the standards because consumer exposures in the 3D desktop printing world are the equivalent of the the Wild West when it comes to emissions, Rodney James Weber, an atmospheric chemist from the Georgia Institute of Technology, told Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Environment. Industrial shops that use 3D printers to make replacement and other equipment parts have at least some chemical and particulate indoor air standards, Weber said. Schools, homes, offices, and libraries don t, he said. And for some, the new standards, expected to be released this fall, can t come nearly soon enough. People think someone tests these things before [they are] sold, said Monona Rossol, an industrial hygienist with Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, a nonprofit organization in New York that provides health, safety and other services to art schools, museums, and theaters. Someone should say that never happens, they never test for toxicity first, Rossol said.

3 Market Doubling The desktop market that serves school, library, and home users and also medical offices, architects, designers, engineers, and others has been doubling year-over-year for some time now, Josh Snider, a spokesman for MakerBot Industries LLC, a 3D printer maker, said. In the greater Washington area, high schools, such as Our Lady of Good Counsel High School and Gonzaga College High School, offer students 3D printing opportunities, as will the Arlington Public Library system, which is planning a new Maker Space. As for higher education, you can t walk into a college that doesn t have them, Rossol said. Leading desktop makers include Ultimaker B.V., MakerBot, XYZprinting Inc., and Formlabs Inc., according to data on the website of Statista, a data reporting company.

4 Particulates of Concern Some of the leading makers, like MakerBot, are heavily involved in the voluntary, consensus standards for emissions currently being developed by UL. University scientists, and federal and local agencies including the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the California Air Resources Board, also are involved in the standards work, as are retailers and the companies that make the plastic feedstock the 3D printers use. The standards fill a high priority need given the absence of environmental, health, and safety criteria for 3D printing, the American National Standards Institute and a partner organization said in a roadmap they released in The roadmap describes hundreds of different technical standards being developed for the many types of 3D technologies and their uses. Click here to watch a video of a 3D printer at work. Black, of UL, said the standards that apply to desktop printers will be based on particulate and chemical emissions research carried out by Emory University and Georgia Tech. So far, research at Emory suggests that the toxicity of 3D printer emissions is primarily driven by the quantity of particles, not the specific chemicals that may be part of the particles, Weber said. The particulate emissions are a concern because the particles are so small they can be inhaled deep into the lung, Barry Ryan, an environmental health professor at Emory, said.

5 As for the specific types of chemicals involved, Black said emissions can include styrene and formaldehyde, which increase the potential risk of cancer, and the respiratory irritant methyl methacrylate. Ready, Shoot, Aim For some consumer and health advocates, the marketing and safety research have come in the wrong order. We wish that it wouldn t always be Ready, Shoot, Aim, said Christine Holley of the advocacy group Texas Campaign for the Environment in Dallas, an environmental grassroots organization. Holley told Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Environment she hopes that as manufacturers are creating products, they would think about consequences while they were in the creation stage rather than Oh, we created something that s out in the world, maybe we should see if that s a safe product. Rossol expressed skepticism that the new UL standards, which Black said will be updated as science and technologies evolve, can keep pace with the rapidly changing 3D printing world. As soon as UL issues standards addressing certain filaments, for example, Rossol said, the manufacturers will change the chemicals in them. You can t keep up, said Rossol, whose advice to clients will remain the same regardless of the new standards: ventilate, ventilate, ventilate. CPSC commissioner and former chairman Elliot F. Kaye expressed concern about the long latency period that can accompany some potential health effects that might accompany users, especially children s, exposure to 3D printer emissions.

6 If the feedstock, the printing process, or the final products lead to something of a massive chemical exposure that has a long-term chronic effect on people, especially children, we re just not going to know that for decades, Kaye said. The best-case scenario is that there s no harm, he said, but often we re not at the best-case scenario. New Costs for Makers As for the makers themselves, the new standards may bring new costs if they want to get a UL safety certification. Yet several companies said they are eager to comply with the standards as a way to set themselves apart in a competitive market. I actually prefer that there are some standards, Vinson Chien, the director of the U.S. office of XYZprinting in Lake Forest, Calif., told Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Environment. Chien and others in the industry said some of the newer companies produce desktop machines that are open and less protective. Newcomers to the market produce something that s more like a DIY kit, Chien said. Do-it-yourself kits raise several concerns, including that many have no barriers between the printing equipment and users, thus increasing potential chemical and particulate emissions, according to companies and scientists Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Environment spoke with. Other Research Underway The federal government, in addition to being involved in the soon-to-bereleased voluntary standards, is currently working on other initiatives to assess emissions and consumer exposures from 3D printers.

7 The CPSC, for example, is involved in a study with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to look at carbon-based nanoscale compounds in 3D printer filament. The consumer safety agency also has agreements, and is looking into more joint research projects with other agencies, to research consumer exposures, the agency told Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Environment by . This is the first part of a Bloomberg Environment and Bloomberg Law joint series looking at emerging safety standards in the realm of 3D printing. To contact the reporters on this story: Martina Barash in Washington at mbarash@bloomberglaw.com; Pat Rizzuto in Washington at prizzuto@bloombergenvironment.com To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Patrick at spatrick@bloomberglaw.com; Marissa Horn at mhorn@bloombergenvironment.com Martina Barash Reporter Pat Rizzuto Reporter Environment & Energy Report TOP