According to data released by the China Coatings Industry Association, the total production of China's coatings industry has increased from 12.72 million tons in 2012 to 24.388 million tons in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.7%. Coatings, as an intermediate commodity, are closely related to downstream consumer markets such as the automotive industry, real estate, infrastructure, and home furnishings.

In beauty and personal care products, the ingredient is listed with its colour index (CI) number ‘CI 77891’. When nano grade titanium dioxide is used in our sunscreens, this is referenced as ‘titanium dioxide’ [nano] in the ingredients list.

TiO₂ comes in many different forms. However, only a few of these forms are considered food-grade (acceptable to be added to food). Many studies that raised concern about the safety of TiO₂, including the concern for genotoxicity, used forms of TiO₂ that are not considered acceptable for use in food and have different properties than food-grade TiO₂. Other studies did use food-grade TiO₂, but took steps to break the material down into smaller particles than what would normally be found in food.