Short Stuff: Skittles and TIO2 | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh there's Chuck Ben Dave get. up all right so this is one that is a. little frustrating cuz I found over the. years I think we both agree that it's so. hard sometimes to find follow-ups to. legal matters yeah like there's a lot of. hay made when a lawsuit is put out uh. put out there or introduced or whatever. but then it's always so hard to find. resolution and we're talking about the.

fact that in July. 2022 um a man in California filed a. lawsuit against Mars Incorporated. because of. Skittles uh and because specifically an. additive called titanium dioxide class. action lawsuit that has health risks and. I tried to find a followup and what I. saw that that was dismissed oh was it I. didn't see that in November 22 without. prejudice wow and that which means a new.

lawsuit can happen and another woman in. summer last year in 2023 like a year. later uh again in California has sued. again and I don't know the status of. that one the reason they're picking on. Skittles in particular it seems like is. because back in 2016 Skittle said to the. world well I should say Mars Inc said to. the world hey we're not going to use. titanium dioxide anymore we're going to. phase it out of our our candies. specifically Skittles and here we are in.

2024 and Skittles still has titanium. dioxide in fact the candy makers or uh. food producers who use titanium dioxide. in their products aren't even required. to list it as titanium dioxide it's. listed as titanium dioxide which I take. to be a giant Fu to all the people who. filed lawsuits against Mars for that. what I don't get is why they would make. some big announcement about getting it. out of their candy and then keeping it.

there I don't know but I'll bet the CEO. that was in charge during that period is. no longer there I bet you're right they. were like uh that we have bad news like. we we can't make Skittles without. titanium dioxide and he said. what uh so should we talk about titanium. dioxide yes all right titanium is an. element in the Earth's crust it is. naturally occurring thing um not. anything unusual about titanium but when. it reacts uh interacts with oxygen. rather.

it forms a white powder very fine white. powder called titanium dioxide that. evidently is used as a whitening agent. yes in a lot of processed foods not this. is not we're using skittles cuz there. was a lawsuit but this stuff's in a lot. of stuff it is um and the reason it's a. whitening agent is because it reflects. light so well specifically all types of. light so it appears white um but it. reflects it so well it's used as as an. ingredient in in sunscreen and it's used.

as an ingredient kind of as sunscreen UV. protectant in other stuff like makeup. and toothpaste right so it is everywhere. the thing is is titanium dioxide it's a. naturally occurring thing like you said. titanium is natural so titanium dioxide. it's just what happens when titanium. comes in contact with oxygen right. um the problem with it being used in the. food industry and personal care industry. is that it's used in a specific form as.

titanium dioxide nanop particles and. we're talking like Nano nanop particles. they're the little tiny particles of. titanium dioxide that appear in your. food are about 100 nanometers across. your hair is 880,000 nanometers across. and because they're so small they can. scatter light right that's the. appropriate response to that they can SC. the smaller they are the more effective. they are at scattering light so that's. why they want to use those really tiny.

nanop particles but the concern is. because they're so small it can go to. all sorts of different parts of your. body and if it starts to accumulate it. can cause all sorts of problems That's. the basis of that lawsuit yeah they can. get the bloodstream what I want to know. is what does that stuff do for a Skittle. I don't know because it's not like. Skittles is white ain't no white Skittle. I no I think there actually is a white. like special Skittle like a limited. edition but this is used in regular. Skittles maybe it makes them reflective.

I don't. know okay so uh we mentioned the nanop. particles they can get the bloodstream. uh you said they can accumulate uh they. can accumulate in your organs which is. you know pretty scary especially I mean. any organ but especially when you're. talking about one of your filtering. mechanisms in your body like your liver. or your kidney if you're trying to. filter things and bad more bad things. are going in that's a problem yeah so we. should say specifically there is no. peer-reviewed evidence.

that that nanop particles of titanium. dioxide migrate to your liver your. kidneys sure or that they accumulate. there there's no evidence whatsoever and. that's what the um the titanium. producers Association says they like to. point that out the titanium dioxide. manufacturers association website says. there's nothing that says that food. grade titanium dioxide is harmful to. human health just want to put that out. there everybody that's what they say but. yeah sure so it it it makes sense to be. iCal because what we're talking about.

here are nothing but animal studies. almost exclusively Mouse studies and. they do cause damage in mice for sure. and they have been shown to um to uh in. inflame tissues in humans when inhaled. you're not inhaling titanium dioxide. nanop particles when you eat Skittles. but if you put everything together yes. it's good to be skeptical but it's also. good to be aware of the concept of. xenobiotics and their effect on the. human body as well as the corporate.

history of food manufacturers putting. unsafe harmful products in food long. after we've figured out like no this is. probably a problem so it's it's good to. use your brain but also you know no like. there's no like Smoking Gun here that. says yes titanium dioxide is going to. wreck your liver and give you cancer. that's just not there yet but it's it's. possible enough that people are like. just get that out of there who cares how. extra white you're T you're well you're.

not eating tide but your your Colgate is. you just COA you did a both Sid COA. that's amazing that explains why I feel. faint all right we'll take a break I'm. gonna give Josh some smelling salts and. we'll be right. [Music]. back should. [Music]. know.

[Music]. all right so you're probably wondering. well we have an FDA what do they say. about all this oh yeah they're great uh. the FDA says that uh titanium dioxide is. a food additive the food grade stuff. doesn't exceed uh if it doesn't exceed. 1% of the food's weight then it's all. fine and dandy uh however there are. companies.

and Nations and continents that are. getting rid of this stuff uh in 2015. Dunkin Donuts said you know what we're. going to going to use titanium dioxide. anymore uh in our powdered sugar. toppings uh the EU of course they're. always first in line saying H we don't. need that stuff let's just get rid of it. let's ban it they're they're always the. first in line saying that can harm. people who we care about yeah exactly. dang socialist Nanny state so uh you. mentioned that the tit you know big.

titanium dioxide is like hey you guys. don't need to worry about this it's in. such small levels it's not a big deal. and like you know you'd have to be a. real small kid to really get the worst. effect like oh I don't know kids who eat. Skittles right yeah that's a big one so. the environmental working group released. a um a paper a little while ago that. said that this stuff is in thousands of. CH children's sweets as an ingredient. and yeah if you're small.

if this stuff does accumulate at all the. smaller the body the more impact that. accumulation is probably going to have. um and it has been shown to make it. through the the gut like it it does make. it into the body Beyond just your. digestive system um but as the titanium. dioxide manufacturers Association points. out food grade Titanium or yeah food. crade titanium dioxide called. e171 uh it can't have more than.

40% uh of titanium dioxide to it in the. nanop particles I should say and that I. guess poon.org which is the national. Poison Control Center's website said. that oh I thought that was the band's. website is that not right no there's. poisoned. net um so the the national Poison. Control Center says that one1 of 1% of. the titanium dioxide that is in your fug. stuff which is just 1% of the food by.

weight so a very very tiny fraction. passes through the gut and makes it into. the rest of your body so there's just. just again two ways of looking at this. it does get out of your gut and into the. rest of your body where it may. accumulate if you eat enough Skittles or. Starburst or something like that um but. there's no studies yet that show that it. actually causes any harm my whole deal. is like just why just don't put it in. there and no one will ever notice or. care a L if Dunkin Donuts can do without.

it for their powdered Donuts then you. can do it for Skittles cuz there's I I. genuinely don't understand why it's in. there I saw one place where it's used as. a flavor enhancer um everyone else says. it's a color enhancer so maybe it has. something to do with the flavor Skittles. I don't know I also saw that if it is. used as a flavor enhancer it's mustard. and I don't remember any mustard. flavored. Skittles gross that could be pretty. gross it could also be great I haven't.

decided yet but yeah I'm with you I. don't understand why it has to be in. there either like I I think it's one of. those things where no consumer would. notice and of course I say that and then. a bag of Skittles comes out like a like. a solid weird lump like a pebble brick. with hair growing on I'm like what the. hell is this I mean I don't eat Skittles. anyway and uh Ruby doesn't eat a lot of. candy uh it's weird yeah I I've always. liked candy I like fruit candy I like. chocolate candy I do like Skittle I love. Starburst they have it in there too um.

so yeah I mean I'm probably riddled with. with titanium dioxide I think you'll be. right uh you got anything else I got. nothing else okay well then uh we're. done talking about titanium dioxide for. now and short stuff is. out stuff you should know is a. production of iart radio for more. podcasts myart radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever. listen to your favorite.

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