European Court annuls TiO2 classification

European Court of Justice annuls the carcinogenic harmonised classification

Just as we were going to print, we got the news that the Titanium Dioxide Manufacturer’s Association (TDMA) – with BCF, CEPE and the American Coatings Association as interveners supporting the case on behalf of the coatings industry – have won the Titanium Dioxide court case at the European Court of Justice against the European Commission. This is a battle that industry has been fighting as its number one priority since March 2015, when the French authorities first tabled their concerns that TiO2 was a carcinogenic substance.

We have always argued that titanium dioxide is an inert pigment, which is a critical substance for paints, coatings and printing inks, and does not have any alternatives. We have also always argued that the one scientific study that supported the classification decision was not sound - something the judge agreed with, stating that the Commission made a ‘manifest error’ on the reliability and acceptability of the study on which the classification was based. The press release from the European Court of Justice also states that the decision to classify TiO2 ‘infringed the criterion according to which that classification can relate only to a substance that has the intrinsic property to cause cancer’. The importance of this result in terms of setting a precedent for other poorly soluble low toxicity particles cannot be underestimated – we had outlined a further 300 substances that would have potentially been subject to the precedent of the TiO2 classification.

We will inform members of what action they need to take as a result of the annulment of the TiO2 classification in due course. Most importantly we will be talking to the Health and Safety Executive to establish if the UK will recognise the European Court’s decision and make the equivalent GB CLP changes to TiO2 in the UK.