The European Court of Justice annuls the cancer classification for titanium dioxide that was introduced in Regulation 2020/217. The Court considered that the Commission made a manifest error in its assessment of the reliability and acceptability of the study on which the classification was based. It also found that the Commission infringed the criterion according to which that classification can relate only to a substance that has the intrinsic property to cause cancer.
ECHA acted as an intervener in support of the Commission in these cases as the classification was based on the opinion of its Committee for Risk Assessment.
In detail, the verdict states that damage observed in laboratory studies is due to physical effects and is not related to the intrinsic properties of the substance. In other words, it was claimed that the development of tumours in rat lungs, which is at the root of the RAC Opinion and the contested classification and labelling, is a secondary effect, common, moreover, to other dust, resulting from excessive lung overload and not from an alleged carcinogenic potential for titanium dioxide.
The basis for the classification and labeling rules is to describe the substances' inherent chemical properties, and therefore the court believes that the cancer classification of titanium dioxide should be revoked.
Now the Commission needs to appeal the verdict, which must be done before February 2, 2023.
Titanium dioxide in cosmetic products
The permitted limited use of Titanium dioxide in cosmetic products might not be changed considering that the restriction is not based on the classification itself but on scientific conclusions about potential health risks drawn by the EU's scientific committee SCCS.
