While lithopone and anatase titanium white gained traction between the 1920s and 1950s, by the advent of the First World War, rutile titanium white had started to overshadow them. Their significance in the artist’s palette has since dwindled, and their use as an artist’s pigment is currently nearly obsolete.
Abstract
lithopone supplier in plastics and masterbatch
TiO2 NPs appeared to be more toxic to nematode Caenorhabditis elegans than submicron-sized TiO2. At a concentration of 1 mg/l, 7 nm particles affected its fertility and survival rate and were more toxic than 20 nm anatase particles. Similarly, Hu et al. showed that rutile particles (10–20 nm), at concentrations above 1 g/kg soil, can be bio-accumulated in earthworms, where they induce oxidative stress, inhibit the activity of cellulase and induce DNA and mitochondrial damage.

Above 10%, 1 kg of TiO2 should be replaced by 1.3 kg of Lithopone 30%, reducing the amount of polymer accordingly.
White powder
A 2023 study published in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology set out to examine the impact of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in mice “on the course and prognosis of ulcerative colitis,” by creating an ulcerative colitis disease model. Researchers found that the titanium dioxide nanoparticles significantly increased the severity of colitis. They also “decreased the body weight, increased the disease activity index and colonic mucosa damage index scores, shortened the colonic length, increased the inflammatory infiltration in the colon.” Researchers concluded: “Oral intake of TiO2 nanoparticles could affect the course of acute colitis in exacerbating the development of ulcerative colitis, prolonging the ulcerative colitis course and inhibiting ulcerative colitis recovery.”
While IARC listed titanium dioxide as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” they also add that “there is inadequate evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of titanium dioxide.” Of the four human studies that they reviewed, only one showed a potential risk for occupational workers inhaling titanium dioxide particles and lung cancer, while the other three showed no risk for cancer at all. And it’s key to note that IARC did not assess the effects of titanium dioxide found in foods.

This precipitate is not suitable for a pigment until it is filtered, dried, crushed, heated to a high temperature and quenched in cold water. The second heating in a muffle furnace at 725 °C produces crystals of the right optical size.
Health advocates urge US regulators to ban common food coloring additive, by Tom Perkins, The Guardian, June 2, 2023