ASSESSING DAILY INTAKE OF INDOOR AIR POLLUTANTS FROM 3D PRINTING

Authors

  • Ivars Laicāns Rīga Stradiņš university, Faculty of Pharmacy (LV)
  • Elīza Ķibilda Rīga Stradiņš university, Faculty of Pharmacy (LV)
  • Krista Žvagiņa Rīga Stradiņš university, Faculty of Pharmacy (LV)
  • Žanna Martinsone Rīga Stradiņš university, Department of Occupational and Enviromental Medicine, Institute of Occupational Safety and Environmental Health (LV)
  • Ilona Pavlovska Rīga Stradiņš university, Institute of Occupational Safety and Environmental Health, Laboratory of  Hygiene and Occupational Diseases (LV)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17770/etr2024vol3.8154

Keywords:

3D printing emissions, exposure dose (ED), indoor air quality (IAQ), styrene

Abstract

The scientific community is increasingly focusing on indoor air quality (IAQ) more than ever, driven by on-going research and fresh perspectives including development of 3D technologies. Exposure dose (EDa) resulting from inhalation of indoor air pollutants emitted by 3D printers were calculated in this study. The consideration of emissions from 3D printers is based on experimental data, primarily sourced from reviewed literature. However, this research also includes some experimental values, excluding the background levels of these pollutants. Experiments were conducted using several 3D printers available (Zortrax M300 Dual) to compare the indoor air pollutants generated and their concentrations with information gathered from earlier research. In the experiments, filaments containing ABS (acrylonitrile, butadiene, and styrene copolymer material, commonly used for 3D printing) were utilized. EDa values of styrene, toluene, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde for 8-hour and 12-hour shifts for average and maximal (reported) concentrations were calculated based on the available experimental and literature data. The average concentrations of these pollutants were determined by calculating the arithmetic mean, which incorporated concentration values obtained from previous research and experimental data collected within this study. It was concluded that further investigation should focus on aerial concentrations of styrene generated during 3D printing. Calculated EDa for styrene from several studies exceeded the recommended guidelines for Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) set by the World Health Organization (WHO) by at least 35%. Further exploration is imperative to incorporate additional pathways of indoor air pollutant exposure, such as skin contact and ingestion.  This comprehensive approach will provide a more thorough understanding of the overall health risks associated with indoor air quality during 3D printing.

Supporting Agencies
The research was carried out within a Student Research and Innovation Grant “1-6.2.2/3” (from the RSU Alumni association). We would like to extend our appreciation to Daiga Kalniņa and Anita Seile for their invaluable contribution to this research. We are sincerely grateful for their dedication and support throughout the process.

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Published

2024-06-22

Issue

Vol. 3 (2024): Environment. Technology. Resources. Proceedings of the 15th International Scientific and Practical Conference. Volume 3

Section

Engineering Sciences and Production Technologies

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Ivars Laicāns, Elīza Ķibilda, Krista Žvagiņa, Žanna Martinsone, Ilona Pavlovska

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

[1]
I. Laicāns, E. Ķibilda, K. Žvagiņa, Žanna Martinsone, and I. Pavlovska, “ASSESSING DAILY INTAKE OF INDOOR AIR POLLUTANTS FROM 3D PRINTING”, ETR, vol. 3, pp. 127–132, Jun. 2024, doi: 10.17770/etr2024vol3.8154.