Genotoxicity Assessment 

1.Mainly used in latex paints, water-based paints, inks, rubber, plastics, etc., replacing 30% of rutile-type titanium dioxide in latex paints, still maintaining the original film properties, and has the effect of reducing costs.

Le lithopone a été découvert dans les années 1870 par DuPont. Il a été produit par la Krebs Pigments and Chemical Company, entre autres¹. Il se faisait en différents grades, en fonction de la teneur en sulfure de zinc. Les qualités « bronze » et « or » contenaient 40 à 50 % de sulfure de zinc, ce qui les rendaient particulièrement couvrantes². Bien que ce pigment ait atteint son pic de popularité autour de 1920, il s'en produisait encore annuellement plus de 220 000 tonnes en 1990. Il est principalement utilisé dans les peintures, les pâtes et les plastiques³.

Having thus described the origin and uses of the pigment, we now come to the question, what is lithopone? It is, in short, a chemical compound usually consisting of 30.5 per cent zinc sulphide, 1.5 per cent zinc oxide and 68 per cent barium sulphate, but these proportions vary slightly in the different makes. Lithopone of this composition is sold as the highest grade, either as red seal or green seal, as it best suits the idea of the manufacturer. Many manufacturers, especially in Europe, sell and also export other brands under other seals, containing 24, 20, 18 and as little as 12 per cent of zinc sulphide with very small percentages of zinc oxide, the balance being usually barium sulphate, but sometimes certain portions of China clay or gypsum (calcium sulphate) or whiting (calcium carbonate). Such brands are not a chemical compound, but mechanical mixtures of the chemically compounded lithopone and the admixtures referred to.