“Unlike some other chemicals used in food, titanium dioxide has no nutritive, preservative, or food safety function—its use is purely cosmetic,” said CSPI principal scientist for additives and supplements, Thomas Galligan. “The prospect of titanium dioxide nanoparticles damaging DNA is concerning enough for us to recommend consumers avoid foods that have it.” 

Furthermore, this packaging has been shown to have both antibacterial and photocatalytic activity, the latter of which reduces ultraviolet (UV) exposure (5Trusted Source, 6).

We’re most often exposed to E171 through the foods we ingest. We find E171 in many food products, like popsicles, ice cream, gum, and more. Another way we ingest E171 is through pharmaceutical drugs. Many pills and capsules contain E171 as an inactive ingredient.  

Among the raw materials for coating production, titanium dioxide is more ideal, followed by lithopone. The covering power of lithopone is only that of titanium dioxide, and the price of lithopone is much lower than that of titanium dioxide, so lithopone still occupies a large market share.

Used for coloring paint, ink, rubber, etc. Inorganic white pigments are widely used as white pigments in plastics such as polyolefin, vinyl resin, ABS resin, polystyrene, polycarbonate, nylon and polyformaldehyde, as well as paints and inks. It is less effective in polyurethane and amino resins, and less suitable in fluoroplastics. It is also used for coloring rubber products, papermaking, varnished cloth, oilcloth, leather, watercolor paints, paper, enamel, etc. Used as an adhesive in the production of electric beads.

In vitro, in the hemocytes of the marine mussel Mytilus hemocytes, suspension of TiO₂ NPs (Degussa P25, 10 μg/ml) stimulated immune and inflammatory responses, such as lysozyme release, oxidative burst and nitric oxide production. Vevers and Jha demonstrated the intrinsic genotoxic and cytotoxic potential of TiO₂ NPs on a fish-cell line derived from rainbow-trout gonadal tissue (RTG-2 cells) after 24 h of exposure to 50 μg/ml. Reeves et al. demonstrated a significant increase in the level of oxidative DNA damage in goldfish cells, and suggested that damage could not repaired by DNA repair mechanisms. Another suggestion from the mentioned study was that hydroxyl radicals are generated also in the absence of UV light. It has been shown that fish cells are generally more susceptible to toxic/oxidative injury than mammalian cells.

Conclusion

For a substance that is relatively unknown to the public, it’s amazing how many everyday products TiO2 can be found in. Because of its many varied properties, our skin, cities, cars, homes, food and environment are made brighter, safer, more resilient and cleaner by TiO2. With a legacy of 100 years of safe commercial use, TiO2 is only going to become more vital as our environment faces greater challenges from a growing population.

Permanence and Stability