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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • As someone who does R&D testing on plastics that are used in medical devices, I have some insight. Of course the type of plastic matters, but all plastics use carcinogenic chemicals during the manufacturing/extrusion process.

    To make most plastic, a polymer resin is mixed with additives such as solvents, plasticizers, and stabilizers at high temperatures. Ideally, you want the additives to evaporate out during production so that you’re left with just the newly formed plastic.

    But some of these additives get trapped in tiny air pockets between polymer chains. When they’re reheated, the polymer chains relax and release the volatile, carcinogenic additives into the air.

    This is likely where the toxicity is coming from, not the polymer chain itself. So regardless of the type of plastic used, reheating the polymer during 3D printing will release some volatile additives.














  • If the US military were a country, its fuel usage alone would make it the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, sitting between Peru and Portugal.

    Fuel usage alone… Not too mention the high electricity use for AC and other equipment.

    In 2017, the US military bought about 269,230 barrels of oil a day and emitted more than 25,000 kilotons of carbon dioxide by burning those fuels. The US Air Force purchased $4.9 billion worth of fuel, and the Navy $2.8 billion, followed by the Army at $947 million and the Marines at $36 million.

    It seems to be growing every year… What would it honestly take to get enough people to take action against the military industrial complex? Is there even a way?