CJEU rules TiO2 not carcinogen

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has upheld a ruling of the General Court of the European Union in November 2022, annulling an earlier decision to classify TiO2 as a carcinogen. This should remove any danger of the white pigment being restricted under REACH in the foreseeable future.

In 2016, France’s National Agency for Food, Environmental &Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) proposed classifying TiO2 as a human carcinogen by inhalation. ECHA’s Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) adopted an opinion stating that this was justified in 2017.

Based on that, the European Commission adopted a regulation in 2019 proceeding with the classification and labelling. Effects were suspected from TiO2 in powder form ≥1% or more of particles of a diameter of ≤10 μm. 

Manufacturers, importers, downstream users and suppliers joined to challenge this. The General Court decision found that the RAC “had committed a manifest error in its assessment of the acceptability and reliability of a scientific study on which the classification had been based”. 

France and the EC then appealed to the CJEU. The CJEU has now ruled that, even though the General Court had exceeded the limits of its judicial review, the annulment was justified and that the Court had been justified in its finding.