THE OBSCURE HISTORY OF A UBIQUITOUS PIGMENT: PHOSPHORESCENT LITHOPONE AND ITS APPEARANCE ON DRAWINGS BY JOHN LA FARGE
3. Safety measures The MSDS should provide recommendations for safe handling, storage, and disposal of lithopone. This may include guidelines for personal protective equipment, proper ventilation, and spill response procedures.
Prof Maged Younes, Chair of EFSA’s expert Panel on Food Additives and Flavourings (FAF), said: “Taking into account all available scientific studies and data, the Panel concluded that titanium dioxide can no longer be considered safe as a food additive . A critical element in reaching this conclusion is that we could not exclude genotoxicity concerns after consumption of titanium dioxide particles. After oral ingestion, the absorption of titanium dioxide particles is low, however they can accumulate in the body”.
Since then, there has been a few animal studies suggesting titanium dioxide is connected to cancer. A 2017 study in Scientific Reports, for instance, found that rats with titanium dioxide in their diet had impaired immune systems, which could contribute to autoimmune diseases and colorectal cancer.