Powdered material that can become airborne during additive-manufacturing loading, handling, maintenance, and post-processing, including powder-bed technologies.
Evidence
NIOSH's safe-3D-printing guide says users may be exposed to ultrafine particles and chemicals in makerspaces, schools, libraries, and small businesses, and that NIOSH evaluated emissions from printer and filament combinations to understand these risks.
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page 5 · Foreword · 1some 3D printer users have expressed concerns about potential exposures to ultrafine particles, chemicals, and safety hazards. These printers are often used in non-industrial workplace settings such as makerspaces, schools, libraries, and small businesses. Based on these concerns, NIOSH began evaluating emissions from different printer and filament combinations ... to understand the potential health and safety risks.
NIOSH identifies inhalation of powdered materials, dermal exposure, and fire or explosion risks as hazards in additive manufacturing, and reports that nanomaterial-containing filaments can emit nanomaterial-containing particulate matter.
Source: CDC/NIOSH: 3D Printing (Additive Manufacturing) ↗NIOSH reports that additive manufacturing can expose workers to powdered materials by inhalation, that fused-filament printers emit respiratory irritants, and that nanomaterial-containing filaments can emit nanomaterial-containing particulate matter.
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What are the types of hazards? / Laboratory studies have indicated · 1Inhalation of materials used in powdered form may occur. ... Fused filament fabrication desktop printers emit respiratory irritants ... Printing with nanomaterial containing filaments lead to emission of nanomaterial containing particulate matter.
HSE's RR1195 additive-manufacturing study found that metal-powder exposure can spike during manual cleaning, powder testing, and powder transfer, with the highest surface metal concentrations in powder-transfer areas; it notes established evidence that occupational metal exposure can cause skin and lung diseases.
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Summary · 1There is established evidence from various manufacturing industries that occupational exposure to metals can cause skin and lung diseases ... spikes in emissions were measured during some activities e.g. manual cleaning, powder testing and transferring the powder. The highest surface concentrations of metals occurred in areas where powder transfer tasks were carried out.
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page 2 · Summary · 1There is established evidence from various manufacturing industries that occupational exposure to metals can cause skin and lung diseases ... spikes in emissions were measured during some activities e.g. manual cleaning, powder testing and transferring the powder.
NIOSH explains that powders can become airborne as workplace dust and may create significant health or safety implications; its 2024 analytical-methods chapter describes dustiness testing as a way to quantify dust release and inform exposure estimation and risk mitigation, including for additive-manufacturing feedstocks.
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page 2 · 1 Introduction; a. Powders, dusts, and aerosols · 1–2If powders become airborne as a dust within the workplace, they may pose significant health or safety implications. ... This chapter briefly discusses how dustiness information may be used to develop low-dust products, inform exposure estimation, and execute risk mitigation ... Others are synthetically manufactured or processed, such as pigments, pharmaceuticals, polymers, resins, or additive manufacturing feedstocks.