Titanium dioxide nanoparticles found even in human, animal and infant milks
Contamination with nanoparticles of titanium dioxide (TiO2) is even more widespread than expected. Researchers from French laboratories found them in all the milks tested: infant milks, human breast milks and milks from cows, goats and donkeys. .
A nearly widespread contamination
In a press release published on July 23, INRAE unveils the results of a study carried out in partnership with AP-HP, the SOLEIL synchrotron and CNRS and published the same day in Science of the Total Environment. They revealed the presence of titanium nanoparticles (TiO2):
- in 100% of animal milks (fresh or powdered, from cows, donkeys or goats, organic or conventional)
- and in 83% of infant milks analyzed (commercially available, from1st to3rd age, organic or conventional).
The study confirms that TiO2 particles can pass through the mammary gland barrier. They were detected in the breast milk of 10 female volunteers, and tens – if not hundreds – of millions of titanium particles per liter in animal milk.
Industrial milk is not exempt from contamination: up to 4 billion titanium particles have been detected per liter of infant milk.
Very worrying results
The results were widely reported in the media, thanks to an AFP dispatch. Le Monde newspaper who sought AVICENN’s advice, reports our comments: “These results are very worrying. The precautionary principle should lead the authorities to suspend the authorization of this substance for non-essential uses likely to lead to environmental and human exposure”.
→ AVICENN also hopes that this study will unlock funding for further titanium dioxide studies by independent academic laboratories: as this substance has been banned from the food supply, some funders believed, rather too quickly, that the issue was resolved. But this is ignores the fact that TiO2 is still widely used in many sectors, and that restrictions have been requested in vain to date*. However, university laboratories lack the funding to back up the toxicity studies already carried out:
* particularly in cosmetics (where it is sometimes labelled under the code name CI77891) and in medicines (other code E171).
Other nano-related news
Next nano events
- Thematic school of the NaMasTE research group (Manufactured Nanomaterials, Toxicology, Ecotoxicology and Risks: towards controlled development)
- Public: engineers, researchers (contract and permanent), PhD students, industrialists and members of associations working on nanomaterials.
- The program includes the physical chemistry, biology and environmental sciences needed to understand the key aspects involved in the controlled development of nanomaterials.
→ Safer-by-design approaches, which integrate analysis of the production, characterization of properties, fate, and impacts (beneficial or harmful) of nanomaterials and products containing them throughout their life cycle - Dates: October 5 to 10, 2025
- Organizers: CNRS
- Website: https://namaste.sciencesconf.org
- Training intended for occupational physicians, occupational risk prevention specialists (IPRP), company prevention specialists, prevention department staff from Carsat, Cramif and CGSS, institutional prevention specialists (Dreets, Dreal, MSA…).
- Organizer: French National institute of research and security (INRS)
- October 6 to 10, 2025
- Website: www.inrs.fr/…/formation/…JA1030_2025
- 3pm – Conference by Irène Frachon on her fight to reveal the dangers of Mediator, the difficulties encountered by whistleblowers in the face of institutional and industrial pressure, and the importance of their role in defending public health.
- 4pm – Round table on the manipulation of scientific information and the defense of whistleblowers moderated by Raphaël Lévy (professor of physics at Sorbonne Paris Nord University, specialist in nanoparticles and their uses in biology, coordinator of the ERC NanoBubbles project dedicated to research into the corrective mechanisms of science), with :
- Maud Bernisson, post-doctoral fellow at LISIS (CNRS), member of the ERC NanoBubbles project, on the mechanisms of influence of pharmaceutical companies in the scientific field.
- Marc Samama, professor, anesthesiologist, co-chairman of the Commission des blocs et plateaux techniques de la CME de l’AP-HP, past Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Anaesthesiology, director of the Office de l’Intégrité Scientifique de l’AP-HP.
- Solène Lellinger, Senior Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Health at Paris Cité University, specializing in the socio-history of medicines and their intersection with medical practices, and in particular the ways in which knowledge and information about medicines are produced.
- Cécile Barrois de Sarigny, Deputy Ombudsman in charge of whistleblower protection.
- With the support of the ERC Synergy NanoBubbles project
- Website: https://u-paris.fr/sante/irene-frachon-a-paris-une-conference-et-une-table-ronde-sur-lintegrite-scientifique