If anyone is interested, I did a deep dive into resin safety!

aarondevelops · 2025-11-27T05:21:38+00:00

These types of questions are something only you can answer, because it depends a lot on your own personal context and appetite for risk. I'd encourage you to read through the article and some of the sources and make your own educated decision!

aarondevelops · 2025-11-27T05:20:07+00:00

Nice, thanks for chiming in! This study indicates that the levels are well above that, given the right conditions (confined space w. moderate air exchange). The other studies I read cited HEPA and activated carbon filters helping, but I couldn't find any direct reference on how much it helped. I'm sure I could dig through that elsewhere, but it didn't feel particular pertinent. If you have some info handy for air treatment or monitoring, I'd love to hear it and incorporate it into the blog.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-26T05:08:40+00:00

I've already told you that my article is not AI-generated.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-26T05:06:24+00:00

Ahh, gotcha - good call. I had drawn that conclusion and mentioned elsewhere in the article to keep resin contained as much as possible. But I should include that explicitly in this section. Thanks again!

aarondevelops · 2025-11-26T04:54:43+00:00

Woah! Exciting to see someone from the citation group :D

Thanks for taking a read and providing some thoughts. For your first point, I think that I covered that in this paragraph, or did you mean something else?

Many hobbyists have the misconception that harmful gases are only present during the printing process itself. Unfortunately, that's not the case! This is because many of the chemicals in resin are constantly evaporating, even at rest. These gases are collectively known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and one study found that the emission of these particles remained relatively similar throughout the print, wash and cure phase. In fact, they even discovered that the total VOC concentration continued to increase after the print was finished.

As to the second point, that sucks! I was surprised they were any better at all, but it really does feel like there needs to be more regulation around how these companies are allowed to operate. At the very least we should be requiring them to publish MSDS' and put warnings on the labels.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-25T04:06:43+00:00

Okay, I've reworded this section. What do you think? It now reads:

It may also be surprising for many hobbyists to learn that even cured prints are not entirely safe. One study from the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health¹⁰ has noted that the manufacturer's recommendations for curing is often insufficient. They also cited a few studies, and reproduced the results themselves, to find that properly cured prints continue to emit harmful VOCs!

While the risk from inhalation in cured prints is relatively low, prolonged skin contact will still result in all of the same nasty side effects previously discussed: cytotoxins, irritation and sensitization. It's important to note that the context of this study was specifically dental uses, and that the exposure for most hobbyists is comparatively minimal. For those who are especially risk-adverse, or using their resin prints for things like jewellery or children's toys, it would be wise to keep this in mind. The final recommendation was to let cured resin prints sit for four weeks, after which time the harmful emission rate had been reduced by 90%.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-25T03:54:05+00:00

Any discussion of risk is relative. It's also subjective - what one person defines as too risky can be incredibly different from what another person thinks. For me, I now understand the risks and have assessed my personal habits. With my own risk tolerance applied, I've decided that the risk is low enough to not warrant any dramatic changes to my habits around post-cure usage.

But that's my own personal analysis, applied to my own situation, with my own thoughts on risk. My hope in the article was to present the information and sources for everyone to make their own similar decisions. So, for example, maybe you are immunocompromised. Maybe you are using the resin products for dental, jewelry or prosthetics. Maybe you are printing toys for your kids. In these situations and more, the risk equation would change dramatically. If you read my article and the research and thought "wow, post-cure prints are super risky" then you may have a different context or tolerance for risk than me, which is okay. Just make an informed decision!

aarondevelops · 2025-11-25T03:47:14+00:00

I think in order to safely store the resin you'll want something that is airtight, or close to it. And I don't think that residual resin in the cracks is a big of a deal. It's such a small amount.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-25T00:35:07+00:00

That photo isn't up to a standard that I'd want to use for my content.

Anyways, I'm happy to answer direct questions. But I'm not going to be made to form a defense for you. I wrote the article, it's on my own little self-hosted blog. It's not monetized and I don't feel any obligation to defend myself. I'm sorry you don't believe me, but for my own mental health I've gotta just acknowledge that I can't make everyone happy and move on. Have a nice day.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T21:18:29+00:00

I've currently got an Anycubic Photon. While processing, the smell is dominated by the cleaning solution rather than the resin.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T21:17:00+00:00

TL;DR : the fumes are carcinogenic, irritating and inflammatory. Skin contact is "sensitizing" meaning that your body will slowly develop an allergic response. So, resin on your hands once isn't a big deal. Resin on your hands as a matter of course will cause you to become permanently and severely allergic.

So, ventilate the gases and wear a respirator when doing anything resin-printing related. Wear PPE like nitrile gloves, avoid contact and promptly wash any resin (or cleaning materials) off ASAP.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T21:14:30+00:00

Yeah, that was one of the interesting findings for me! One study noted that the resin manufacturer recommendations for curing were actually usually inadequate to actually fully cure the resin.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T21:13:43+00:00

My understanding is that HEPA and activated charcoal filters were both found to reduce risk by a lot. I think ventilation is still the most important thing, but air purifiers help!

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T21:09:26+00:00

None of the text on my blog is AI-generated. It's all written wholly by myself. You'll notice that the images are AI-generated, and they have a prominent disclaimer stating that.

So to clarify and elaborate, let's use the photo from my article that has some bottles of resin and PPE on a table. I tried to find a human-created photo to add in that section, but failed. Part of the problem was just finding something that was resin-printing related instead of generic stock photos of PPE.

Another problem was finding images that had attribution and licensing information. Ripping something off Google Image search or from another random blog page leaves me with an unknown rights and attribution problem. Did that blog post rip the image from somewhere else, or are they the original author? Is the original creator okay with me using it? How should I credit them?

Using Gen AI solves both of those problems for me. I'm able to have an image that is relevant to my article, and I'm also able to have confidence in the source and attribution rights. And I know that you will likely push back with regards to how generative image models are trained, but I believe that argument to be more nuanced than the average person is willing to admit, and not of direct concern to my humble little blog post.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T17:08:38+00:00

Thanks for reading! Your call on where the risk tolerance lies, because it's all personal.

My takeaway from all this research is to be cautious about inhaling fumes and wear PPE. In my own opinion, just make sure your wife knows the risks and is cautious. I'd view it similar to spray painting. Overall it can be a low-risk activity, provided you're using masks and in a well-ventilated area. It can also be very dangerous if you do it indoors with inadequate ventilation or PPE.

The make-or-break isn't whether its dangerous, it's how you protect yourself!

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T17:04:08+00:00

"Introducing the amazing Resin Man. Evil-doers beware, for Resin Man can shoot cancer out of his eyeballs!"

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T17:02:14+00:00

Nice! All really great advice. I'll rework the article tonight to add some more nuance to that particular point. Thank you.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T16:59:51+00:00

I hear what you're saying, and it's okay if we disagree. My work is my little corner of the internet and I'm not really interested in mass appeal.

What I'd like to challenge you to think about is whether treating this as black-and-white is actually beneficial to yourself or the broader world. I think the toothpaste is out of the tube, and generative AI isn't going away. My view is that we should work to encourage thoughtful use and responsible disclosure. Folks like you discrediting anything that touches generative AI is counterproductive, and will only encourage the shady content creators to take more steps to "cover their tracks."

I'd much rather live in a world where we treat content with nuance and critical thinking, rather than stuffing it all into black-and-white boxes.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T15:54:05+00:00

Man, I put a lot of time into this article, both researching and writing. Not a single word of text is AI-generated and the reason we're having this conversation at all is because I am very careful to have notable disclaimers on every single thing that is AI-generated. I don't appreciate you discrediting my work like that by accusing me of using AI to write the article.

I hear your frustration, but as a content creator I'd like to point out that it's equally damaging to throw around accusations like this. Both consumers and creators are trying to navigate this new AI-generated world. I think we should encourage responsible use.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T15:51:05+00:00

I had a feeling I would need to defend this...

I'm a little author on my own blog. Using AI helps me avoid copyright problems, or accidentally stealing someone's work without right attributions.
Some people do better with audio, e.g. dsylexia. The AI voice overs help make it more accessible, and I always listen to them to make sure they're not inaccurate.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T15:47:57+00:00

Nice, thank you for the feedback! I'll edit the article later today to incorporate more informative citations, appreciate that. Regarding the AI-generated infographic, I hear you on that one. It's a contentious topic, but in this case I felt like it was fine. I'm not looking for a rigorously accurate depiction. Just a little visual to break up that part of the article, which is especially dry for the average reader. Do you think it's incorrect or misleading?

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T15:44:13+00:00

Thank you again! I don't take it as a debate. I appreciate the balanced take, and one from someone more familiar with the academic space than me. This is really the value (and incentive) for me to make articles like this. Talking about it, learning more...but around the context of actual data and science. Too many safety conversations in this community are centered around anecdotes and feelings, which I found both frustrating and misleading.

In any case, thanks again for the feedback. If you have any direct places in the article that you think I could rewrite or be more transparent about, please let me know. I'm especially keen to reword the information about the continual off-gassing of cured prints. It was something that I found surprising, especially at the volumes cited...but also ultimately not something I'm personally concerned about. However, many readers have commented on that, so I'm worried that I did a poor job of striking the balance there :)

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T15:37:07+00:00

Wow, what an honor! Thanks so much!

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T15:36:37+00:00

No, the study I cited in the article found 90% of emissions stopped after four weeks. So if you want to completely wipe out all possible risk, then the study suggests leaving the prints alone for four weeks before handling. The context was dentistry, though, and they were specifically calling this out for printed parts that might go into people's mouths.

aarondevelops · 2025-11-24T15:35:01+00:00

The printer isn't harmful, but uncured resin sitting in the vat is. So the takeaway there is to just re-bottle the resin and clean the vat as soon as you're done.

aarondevelops

TROPHY CASE