Dirty Laundry - Part 2: The Conundrum of Borax

I promise I’ll stop talking about laundry soon. But before I do there was a topic I wanted to share with you regarding one of the ingredients in one of our products. We almost didn’t allow it. I am referring to the borax in the Earth Elementals Laundry Soap. Borax is very effective at killing bacteria. So it does a great job at making your clothes not smell. Unfortunately, it’s also good at killing other things: like insects, plants, and if you eat enough of it then yes, people too.

But let’s back that up a moment and straighten out some facts. Borax, aka sodium borate (Na2BO3) is closely related to common table salt (NaCl). They are both naturally occurring minerals that are commonly found together (albeit the salt in much higher proportions), having formed as precipitate minerals from dried ancient seas. That said, I still would not advise sprinkling some borax on your potatoes. And just as salt is an integral factor in the stability of our ecosystems, so is boron in borates. We all need a little bit but too much could kill us. Don’t worry about getting enough though; just like salt we generally get enough through natural sources.

Of course we’re not talking about trying to maintain the balance in our ecosystems here. Make no mistake, borax is poisonous. But why is it poisonous? What happens? I’ve heard a variety of numbers and I honestly don’t know which to trust: some say as little as 15-20 g can kill an adult human (or as little as 5 g to kill a child or small pet) and yet the WHO lists borax as “Unlikely to be acutely toxic”, which based on their classification indicates that a rat can consume up to 2 g or more of borax per kg of its body weight (although rats can tolerate slightly higher levels than humans that index of toxicity is the norm). That number roughly translates to saying that a 70 kg (155 lb) adult can consume about 150 g of borax – given the proportions present that’s up to 1/3 of a bag of Earth Elementals Laundry Soap. I wouldn’t recommend testing that though. Even still, what I have taken away is that borax is more toxic with chronic exposure than it is acutely. That means it’s easier to kill someone using a small amount of borax repeatedly for a long time allowing it to build up in the body slowly than it would be to give them a big heaping serving of borax and just expect them to die from it. Also, males appear to be more sensitive to it than females – specifically the testicles. Apparently chronic borax exposure is also effective at making a man infertile. This however, is not my recommended method of birth control. All that in mind, chronic borax exposure is still not as easy as that. Under many “normal” conditions, borax can be filtered by the kidneys (and excreted in urine) and not accumulate in the body. The most damaging conditions generally require absorption through damaged / burnt / infected skin. I assume the same could be said for internal scar tissue and ulcers.

This however, is why we boycotted borax in skin care products. See, it is also an effective emulsifier (allowing oils and water to mix) as well as preservative. So you can understand our stance on not allowing creams and balms that contain borax. But coming back to those cleaners: Earth Elementals recommends that their laundry soap is also a great all-purpose cleaner when mixed with water (and it is – we’ve tried). My advice: don’t worry about it. The amount of borax present in a solution of cleaner based on that product is relatively small. And unless you have particularly damaged skin and are using the product 6 or 7 times a day every single day (NOTE: these numbers are somewhat arbitrary) you’ll be fine. And even if you are, or you just want to be extra careful, wear gloves.

Now if this has been filled with, or even speckled with interesting new facts on borax, please don’t go killing people. Or even rats for that matter.