Titanium Dioxide: A Paint & Food Additive That Makes Things White A nice fresh coat of paint brings the luster back to any room. Crisp white walls look so clean, don’t they? Funny thing though, the chemical they add to the paint to get that sparkly white colour is the same ingredient that’s added to foods (like skimmed milk) to make them more appealing to the eye! Skimmed milk is basically milk with all the good stuff removed. It has a blueish colour that, without an additive, doesn’t look very appealing and would be less likely to sell. Titanium Dioxide is added to bring it back to a colour we all recognize as milk. Likewise, cottage cheese would be an off-yellow colour without the use of Titanium Dioxide as an additive as well. Titanium dioxide has recently been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as an IARC Group 2B carcinogen ”possibly carcinogen to humans”. Titanium dioxide accounts for 70% of the total production volume of pigments worldwide. It is widely used to provide whiteness and opacity to products such as paints, plastics, papers, inks, foods, and toothpastes. It is also used in cosmetic and skin care products, and it is present in almost every sunblock, where it helps protect the skin from ultraviolet light. Unfortunately, Titanium Dioxide causes systemic genetic damage in mice. That’s right, it’s a possible human carcinogen. One ingredient frequently used in vitamin manufacturing is titanium dioxide, a nanoparticle powder made of fine titanium bits. It’s best known as an ingredient in sunscreen, but it’s also used in thousands of cosmetic products as well as nutritional products. Yep, if you take certain vitamins made by GNC or Centrum (as well as hundreds of other companies), you are eating titanium dioxide. Source What’s even more interesting is Titanium Dioxide doesn’t get listed in product ingredients since it falls under the classification “manufacturing aid.” That’s a slick legal way to avoid letting the consumer know there is a possible carcinogen being added to their food.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 11:41:47 +0000
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