Rebecca Capua is an assistant conservator in the Paper Conservation Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2009. She received an MA in art history and an Advanced Certificate in art conservation from the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University in 2007. Her primary area of research is on the materials of American artists of the late 19th and early 20th century. Address: The Sherman Fairchild Center for the Conservation of Works on Paper, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028. Email: rebecca.capua@metmuseum.org.

At the present JECFA meeting, the committee considered additional toxicological studies relevant to the safety assessment of the chemical that investigated its toxicokinetics, acute toxicity, short-term toxicity, long-term toxicity and carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, and reproductive and developmental toxicity, as well as special studies addressing its short-term initiation/promotion potential for colon cancer. The experts acknowledged that a large number of toxicological studies have been conducted using test materials, including nanoparticles, having size distributions and physico-chemical properties not comparable to real-world uses of titanium dioxide as a food additive. The studies on non-representative materials were evaluated by JECFA, but the committee concluded that such studies are not relevant to the safety assessment of the additive.