A proposal by French authority stated that “Titanium dioxide” should be classified as a carcinogenic substance, in a press release in 2016. This proposal was submitted to ECHA (European Chemicals Agency).

Based on the proposal, Risk Assessment (RAC), an ECHA Committee categorized titanium dioxide as a category 2 carcinogen in 2017. The European commission labelled the same by adopting a regulation 2020/217 based on this decision by ECHA.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has annulled the labelling of titanium dioxide as a carcinogen by inhalation in certain powder forms. The label was revoked because of an error in the assessment of the study and the intrinsic property of the substance. The substance that is identified as a carcinogen must have the intrinsic property to cause cancer, which was not the case with Titanium dioxide. The court stated that the carcinogenicity hazard of titanium dioxide was linked to certain respirable titanium dioxide particles when they were present in a certain form, physical state, size and quantity.