Titanium dioxide.

Titanium dioxide, CAS 13463-67-7, is the pigment doing the work in white DTG and DTF ink and in the underbase beneath a dark-garment print, and it is why white is the channel that settles, needs recirculation and wears parts out. Its regulatory story is settled and widely mis-told. The EU harmonised classification as a category 2 carcinogen by inhalation, for powder forms containing 1% or more of particles 10 µm or smaller, was introduced by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/217, annulled by the General Court in November 2022, and the Court of Justice dismissed the Commission's and France's appeals against that annulment on 1 August 2025, in Joined Cases C-71/23 P and C-82/23 P. The occupational side did not move, and a shop's own paperwork still carries it: Kornit's safety data sheet for NeoPigment Eco-Rapid White lists NIOSH's potential occupational carcinogen notation alongside ACGIH 2024 limits of 2.5 mg/m³ for fine and 0.2 mg/m³ for respirable nano titanium dioxide. That same sheet says the pigment in the ink is a liquid dispersion, immobilised in a binder once dry, which is the line that tells an operator where the exposure actually sits: dry powder handling, not a printed shirt.