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.
However, it’s also important to note that such adverse effects depend heavily on the form of the titanium dioxide. It can come down to characteristics like “particle shape, purity, surface charge, solubility, agglomeration rate, photo-activation, etc.”
JECFA previously assessed titanium dioxide at its 13th meeting, at which time the expert committee assigned a “not specified” ADI for the additive due to an absence of significant absorption and a lack of toxicological effects in the available experimental animal and human studies. Since its original evaluation by JECFA, titanium dioxide has become a public point of contention, with its ban being introduced (and then subsequently withdrawn) in California legislation in 2023, a legal battle playing out in the EU over the additive’s ban and classification as a carcinogen in 2022, and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) calling titanium dioxide unsafe. However, supporters of titanium dioxide say that claims about its dangers are founded in unreliable studies, and some recent research has supported its safety as a food additive.
sufiicient sulphuric acid to extract up to 95 per cent or more, of the titanium oxide prescut. This extraction is carried on so that the resulting product, after the addition of the required amount of sulphuric acid, is in the form of a dry powdered .mass, in which approximately 95 per cent of the titanium is in a soluble form. Th dry powdered mass is thenextractedin suitable leaching tanks with water, whereby a solution of approximately 70 grams of sulphuric acid and 100 grams of titanium oxide to the liter, is obtained.