- Environmental Considerations
Due to its low binder requirement, lithopone provides paints with good flow and application properties. In the plastic processing industry, it is added to plastics to increase the plastic product’s UV tolerance, thus increasing its outdoor life. In the leather industry, it is one of the sulfide-based white pigments. It is also used in the production of linoleum floorings.



In a review published in 2022 in the journal Archives of Toxicology, researchers found that the ingestion of E171 is a “a definite health risk for consumers and their progeny.” After reviewing dozens of in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro studies on the toxicity of E171, the researchers wrote that two facts must be noted: “First, reprotoxicity studies show that animals of both sexes are impacted by the toxicity of these nanoparticles, underlining the importance of conducting in vivo studies using both male and female animals. Second, human exposure begins in utero via maternal-fetal transfer and continues after birth by breastfeeding. Children are then chronically re-exposed due to their food preferences. To be relevant to the human in vivo situation, experimental studies should therefore consider nanoparticle exposure with respect to the age or life period of the studied population.”
Lithopone is produced by coprecipitation of barium sulfate and zinc sulfide. Most commonly coprecipitation is effected by combining equimolar amounts of zinc sulfate and barium sulfide:
100% Min
The pigment is expensive, especially when volume prices of systems are used. Most paint and ink companies buy raw materials per weight and sell their products by volume. As TiO2 has a relatively high density, ρ ≈ 4 g/cm3, the raw material contributes substantially to the volume price of a system.
North America
Market Dynamics
Genotoxicity Assessment
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
We are committed to providing our customers with the highest quality products. Our Lithopone is manufactured using advanced technology and quality control processes to ensure consistent and reliable performance. We understand the importance of meeting your specific requirements, so we offer different grades of lithopone to meet the needs of various applications.
Although the evidence for general toxic effects was not conclusive, on the basis of the new data and strengthened methods our scientists could not rule out a concern for genotoxicity and consequently they could not establish a safe level for daily intake of TiO2 as a food additive.
Overwhelmingly, research that’s relevant to human eating patterns shows us that E171 is safe when ingested normally through foods and drugs (1,2).