Fig. 1

TiO₂ particles in human (post mortem) liver and spleen. Time scans of the spICP-HRMS analyses of a liver sample (a) and spleen sample (b). The number of spikes in the time scan is directly proportional to the number of particles in the sample. The signal height of the peaks is directly proportional to the particle’s mass from which the equivalent spherical particle size is calculated [22, 23]. c The calculated number-based particle size distribution (left axis and dark colours) and the calculated mass-based particle size distribution (right axis and light colours). Since the particle size distribution in liver (red bars) and spleen (blue bars) are very similar, they are stacked