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Comment by jdnier | Hacker News Reader

Yep, bought a set of non-toxic chalk pastels for my son and found the generic "know to cause cancer" warning. I had to go to the manufacturer web site and look up the MSDS report. Turns out the white chalk (presumably) contains Titanium Dioxide—you know, what makes some sunscreens white. It wasn't clear if nanoparticles are the concern or just that TiO2 is just on the list.

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Many cosmetically coated pharmaceuticals also use TiO2 in the coating formulation, to make the coating nice and shiny white. Iron Oxide is another common pigment used for coating tablets and pellets.

In addition, I once noticed that some gourmet "natural" bottled juice drinks had silica on the ingredients list, to give the appearance of having some sediment in the bottle.

link/pics? is that's actually a thing?

It's been years.

I can only find references on google to cucumber having silica on a bunch of health food/fad blogs. Presumably the gourmet brands are adding extra to capitalize on this.

If they wanted sediment, it would be cheaper to just add some of the actual fruit sediment they already have from earlier in the juicing process, rather than purchasing another ingredient.

bottled juice drinks had silica on the ingredients list, to give the appearance of having some sediment

Are you sure it isn't used for the opposite reason? Silicon Dioxide (silica) can be used as a suspending agent, so seems like it may have been added to prevent the natural sediment from collecting at the bottom.

Just because the FDA says it's OK doesn't mean you should be putting it on your face...

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