Lithopone is manufactured by a process (Fig. 1) in which barium sulfide solution is prepared by reducing barite ore (BaSO ₄) with carbon and leaching the resulting mass.

As of August 7, the use of titanium dioxide in food is banned in the European Union. Europe is taking a precautionary principle approach based on findings from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

The European region struggled with the rising inflation that caused energy prices to rise leading to higher production costs thereby, negatively impacting the prices of titanium dioxide. The transportation routes were further disrupted along with the uncertainties in the construction and automotive industries. In addition to this, the offtakes and purchasing behaviour of the end-user consumers also declined, fueling the declining price trendss for titanium dioxide.

Nano-sized TiO₂ generally shows low or no acute toxicity in both invertebrates and vertebrates. However, exposure of Daphnia magna to 20 ppm TiO₂ for 8 consecutive days was found to cause 40 % mortality. Zhu et al. showed minimal toxicity to D. magna after 48 h exposure, while upon chronic exposure for 21 days, D. magna suffered severe growth retardation and mortality. A significant amount of nano-sized TiO₂ was found also accumulated in the body of the animals. Similar findings with coated nano-sized TiO₂ (T-Lite™ SF, T-Lite™ SF-S and T-Lite™ MAX; BASF SE) were reported by Wiench et al. Biochemical measurements showed that exposure to TiO₂ NPs induces significant concentration-dependent antioxidant enzyme activities in D. magna. Lee et al. showed that 7 and 20 nm-sized TiO₂ induced no genotoxic effect in D. magna and in the larva of the aquatic midge Chironomus riparius.

Fig. 5. ROS values (Abs of NBT) in samples of MSSA treated with A: 0.2 mg/mL P25TiO₂NPs; B: 0.02 mg/mL P25TiO₂NPs; C: 0.2 mg/mL VitaminB2@P25TiO₂NPs; D: 0.02 mg/mL VitaminB2@P25TiO₂NPs after 3 h of irradiation (red) and 6 h (blue). SD < 0.20 and p < 0.05 between C-D and A-B.