What Is Titanium Dioxide?

Lithopone 30% CAS No. 1345-05-7 / Storage method

Lithopone has therefore traditionally been used in stoppers and putties, jointing compounds and sealing compounds, primers and undercoats and in road-marking paints.

EFSA's evaluation is related to the risks of TiO₂ used as a food additive, not to other uses.

In a small study published in the European Journal of Nutrition in 2020, researchers examined the effects of several food additives, including titanium dioxide, along with artificial sweeteners and cleaning products by testing the fecal samples of 13 people. Titanium dioxide was among the samples that “induced significant shifts in microbiome community structure.”  The growth of the bacterium species belonging to C. leptum, which has been shown to decrease in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, “significantly decreased in the presence of … titanium dioxide” among other additives and sweeteners tested.

What is the FDA limit for titanium dioxide?

In addition to sunscreen, titanium IV oxide is also used in the production of paints. Titanium dioxide is a popular pigment in the paint industry because of its brightness and opacity. It provides excellent coverage and durability, making it an ideal choice for exterior and interior paints. Titanium dioxide is often used in white paints, but it can also be used to create a wide range of colors by mixing it with other pigments.

This constant high rate of ROS production leads rapidly to extreme macromolecular oxidation, here it is observed in the AOPP and MDA detected after 3 h in samples treated with bare P25TiO₂NPs (Fig. 6, Fig. 7). Macromolecular oxidation includes, among others, both protein and lipid oxidation. The ROS causes protein oxidation by direct reaction or indirect reactions with secondary by-products of oxidative stress. Protein fragmentation or cross-linkages could be produced after the oxidation of amino acid side chains and protein backbones. These and later dityrosine-containing protein products formed during excessive production of oxidants are known as advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP). They absorb at 340 nm and are used to estimate the damage to structural cell amino acids. Lipid oxidation is detected by the conjugation of oxidized polyunsaturated lipids with thiobarbituric acid, forming a molecule that absorbs light at 532 nm. Polyunsaturated lipids are oxidized as a result of a free-radical-mediated chain of reactions. The most exposed targets are usually membrane lipids. The macromolecular damage could represent a deadly danger if it is too extensive, and this might be the case. Moreover, it could be observed that cellular damage continues further and becomes irrevocable after 6 h and MDA could not be detected. This may be due to the fact that the lipids were completely degraded and cells were no longer viable. Lipids from the cell membrane are the most prone to oxidation. In fact, lipid peroxidation biomarkers are used to screen the oxidative body balance [51]. At the same time, AOPP values are up to 30 times higher for bare nanoparticles in comparison to the functionalized ones.

2. Mentality: the buyer has to prepare goods in advance, and the new order price is slightly less willing to purchase in bulk; Because the seller's inventory is small, the manufacturer has no willingness to reduce the price of sales.Trend: The load of titanium dioxide enterprises is stable, the willingness to ship at low prices is not strong, and the downstream buyers place orders in the early stage to establish inventory, and the short-term supplementary orders after the holiday are less. Anatase titanium dioxide due to the overall volume of the market supply side is less, the space for quotation negotiation is small, and the focus of new orders will move up. It is expected that the titanium dioxide market today just needs to be closed, and the market trading atmosphere is relatively light.

According to CCM, many enterprises, which belong to the top exporting producers of TiO2 in China, will speed up their efforts to go public. Reasons are the strong rebound of the TiO2 market in China as well as the positive view on 2017.

Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was conducted in a sample of vitaminB2@P25TiO₂NPs using a TA-THA Q5000 equipment. Temperature ramp rate: 10 °C/min, maximum temperature: 1000 °C, under air. Part of the same sample was mounted on conductive copper tape grids and observed through a Carl Zeiss Sigma scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an EDS probe, at the “Laboratorio de Microscopía y Análisis por Rayos X” (LAMARX) of National University of Córdoba (Argentina).

TiO₂ NPs appeared to be more toxic to nematode Caenorhabditis elegans than submicron-sized TiO_2.  At a concentration of 1 mg/l, 7 nm particles affected its fertility and survival rate and were more toxic than 20 nm anatase particles. Similarly, Hu et al. showed that rutile particles (10–20 nm), at concentrations above 1 g/kg soil, can be bio-accumulated in earthworms, where they induce oxidative stress, inhibit the activity of cellulase and induce DNA and mitochondrial damage.

TiO₂ absorbs UV light. This property makes it appear bright white under light, unlike other white materials that can look slightly yellow.

If you want to avoid titanium dioxide, Stoiber and Faber urge consumers to try and avoid processed foods as best as you can.

That being said, titanium dioxide is particularly popular in concealers. ​​As one of the most naturally opaque and pearly-white materials on earth, titanium dioxide has the ability to provide excellent coverage while brightening the skin, whether you’re dealing with blemishes, dark spots, acne, or dark circles under the eye.

Because of health risks, France banned titanium dioxide as a food additive in 2020. Two years later the European Union also banned titanium dioxide as a food additive. 

Scrap zinc or concentrated zinc ores are dissolved in sulfuric acid, the solution is purified and the two solutions are reacted. A heavy mixed precipitate results that is 28 to 30% zinc sulfide and 72 to 70% barium sulfate.

Though the regulated use of titanium dioxide in food products is legal in the U.S. and Canada, it's banned in some other countries, notably throughout Europe. In May 2021, the European Food Safety Authority announced that titanium dioxide can no longer be considered safe as a food additive.

Lithopone in fillers, adhesives, joints and sealants

Yet another study, this one published in 2006 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer said there was insufficient evidence to conclude that titanium dioxide causes cancer. However, the study also categorized the ingredient as a potential human carcinogen.

Fig. 3. Cell survival measured on samples of MSSA with bare and functionalized P25TiO₂NPs after 6 h of irradiation. A: P25TiO₂NPs, B:vitaminB2@P25TiO₂NPs, C: vitaminC@P25TiO₂NPs in concentrations of 0.2 μg/mL (red) and 0.2 mg/mL (blue). p <0.05.

≤0.3