Food & Drink / Compounds / Antimony trioxide

Antimony trioxide in food: ingestion safety

Moderate risk

(People-specific data is limited; this page draws from human adult context.) Safety profile for Antimony trioxide relevant to people.

What is antimony trioxide?

The IUPAC name is Diantimony trioxide.

Also known as: Diantimony trioxide, Antimonious oxide, Antimony sesquioxide, Exitelite.

IUPAC name
Diantimony trioxide
CAS number
1309-64-4
Molecular formula
Sb2O3
Molecular weight
291.51 g/mol
SMILES
[O-2].[O-2].[O-2].[Sb+3].[Sb+3]
PubChem CID
14794

Risk for people

Moderate risk

Regulatory consensus

2 regulatory and scientific bodies have classified Antimony trioxide. The classifications differ — that's the data.

AgencyYearClassificationNotes
EPA——
IARC——

Regulators apply different standards of evidence — animal-data weighting, exposure-pattern assumptions, epidemiological power thresholds — which is why two scientific bodies can review the same data and reach different conclusions. The disagreement is the data.

Where you encounter antimony trioxide

  • flame retardant additive
  • textile industry
  • plastics manufacturing
  • paint production

Safer alternatives

Lower-risk approaches that achieve a similar outcome to Antimony trioxide:

  • Aluminum trihydrate (ATH)
    Trade-offs: Requires 5-10× higher loading to match flame retardancy. Increases material weight and reduces mechanical properties.
    Relative cost: 0.3×
  • Zinc stannate / zinc hydroxystannate
    Trade-offs: Higher cost. Lower smoke suppression in some polymer systems.
    Relative cost: 3-5×

Frequently asked questions

What products contain antimony trioxide?

Antimony trioxide appears in: flame retardant additive; textile industry; plastics manufacturing.

See Antimony trioxide in the food app

Look up products containing antimony trioxide, compare to alternatives, and explore the full data record.

Open in food View raw API data

Sources (1)
  1. ATSDR Toxicological Profile — CAS 1309-64-4 — reference

Reference data, not professional advice. Aggregates publicly available regulatory and scientific data; not a substitute for veterinary, medical, legal, or regulatory advice. Why we built ALETHEIA →