Following the EU’s ban on E171, the FDA told the Guardian that, based on current evidence, titanium dioxide as a food additive is safe.  “The available safety studies do not demonstrate safety concerns connected to the use of titanium dioxide as a color additive.”

Is titanium dioxide safe?

Titanium dioxide prices varied across the Asia-Pacific region in this quarter. The supply disruption caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine made the supply of the feedstock titanium concentrate even more problematic, and in the first half of the second quarter, a bullish market outlook prevailed. The decline in TiO2 market values in India has also been backed by a decline in demand from downstream industries like automotive and construction.

While loose titanium dioxide presents a problem, titanium dioxide within sunscreen formulations presents a much safer option than conventional sunscreen chemicals like oxybenzone and octinoxate. However, titanium dioxide may become dangerous when it is nanoparticle size. Generally, nanoparticles can be 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Despite nanoparticles becoming increasingly common across industries, they have not been properly assessed for human or environmental health effects, nor are they adequately regulated. Researchers don’t quite understand the impacts nanoparticles could have on human health and the environment. However, because of their infinitesimally small size, nanoparticles may be more chemically reactive and therefore more bioavailable, and may behave differently than larger particles of the same substance; these characteristics may lead to potential damage in the human body or ecosystem.