In a recent meeting of World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) committee, during which delegations of the USA, New-Zealand, Australia, Canada and Mexico expressed their concerns about several aspects of the intended classification of TiO2 as a class 2 carcinogen by the European committee.
Although the EU commission claims that the downstream consequences of a category 2 carcinogen classification and labeling of TiO2 will be small , the expected impact on global trade is expected to be significant. Given the links between CLP and many downstream EU product regulations spanning a range as wide as building materials to medical devices, a carcinogen label of such products will be mandatory. The main criticisms from non-EU parties concern the appropriateness of the proposed classification to address the concerns that have risen in animal studies with inhaled TiO2, and the appropriateness of the proposed labeling requirements considering international global harmonization (GHS).