Chemistry in the News: Titanium Oxide

A common ingredient, titanium dioxide, toothpaste, sunscreen, and cosmetics can help reduce health risk but this metal titanium has appeared in the Chemical Research in Toxicology journal. The research center has stated that titanium dioxide is a safe ingredient to use in products for skin or consumption but titanium dioxide is also shown to be toxic when it is exposed to the ultraviolet light which is the sun rays. It is ironic because sunscreen was suppose to protect the skin against the hot heat in the first place. Chemical Research in Toxicology tested the compound in powder on pig skin which is often substituted for  human skin; it was shown that the crystalline form of titanium oxide called rutile was easier to wash off and did not have much effect on the skin in indoor low ultraviolet light. Anatase was the other form of crystal that was tested under the low ultraviolet light indoor and was difficult to wash off along with damages on the outer layer of the skin. Anatase is a type of polymorph but will change to rutile after 915 degrees centigrade. This degree difference just tells us more of how much of a difference anatase is from rutile.

 Titanium oxide

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx400285j