Scientific Studies
Boron at home
The use of borates has been the subject of many governmental and private-sector scientific studies.
In 2004, the EPA increased the allowable daily dose of boron from 6.3 milligrams to 14 milligrams per day (for complete study, click here). The revision was the result of a multi-year assessment of more than 200 studies on boron’s health effects, some of which were completed by scientists at the University of California, Irvine and the Research Triangle Institute.
In 2001, the United States Food and Nutrition Board, a division of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, set the daily tolerable upper intake level at 20 milligrams.
Study after study has shown that this essential micronutrient is not harmful under normal conditions. Excessive consumption would be excreted by the human body. Hyper-consumption would cause vomiting before toxic levels were reached.
These studies, plus hundreds of years of use, show that there are no uses of borates, including mining and refining them, that pose any practical risk to human health.
For more in-depth information about the studies mentioned above, you can download them by clicking on the links below.
- EPA's IRIS Report on Borates
- US EPA Pesticide Reregistration Eligibility Decision (PRED)
- Report of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) Tolerance Reassessment Eligibility Decision (TRED) for Boric Acid/Sodium Borate Salts
- Boric Acid General Fact Sheet - National Pesticide Information Center
