Sodium carbonate

Toxicity to terrestrial plants

Description of key information

In accordance with REACH Annex XI, the study does not need to be conducted as in water sodium carbonate is dissociated into sodium and carbonate ions and both ions will not adsorb on particulate matter. Therefore, direct and indirect exposure of the soil compartment, via the use of sludge of an STP, is unlikely. Furthermore, it should be realised that sodium carbonate is naturally present in soil and toxicity for terrestrial plants is expected to be low.

Few reliable studies are available exposing different species of plants to Na₂CO₃. Overall, the different authors expose the plants via water irrigation or using and hydroponics system, growing plants in a water based nutrient rich solution, hence all available data are express in terms of mg/L rather than mg/kg soil. Here is presented a summary table of the results:

Time exposure	species	Concentration range exposure	Effective concentration	Based on	Reference
10 weeks	seeds of sorghum, Sorghum bicolor	60and120mM	LOEC 6359 mg/l	growth	Sial et al., (2019)
14 days	seedlings of rice, Oryza sativa	5-20 mM	LOEC 530 mg/l	growth	Bu et al., (2012)
14 days	seedlings of rice, Oryza sativa	5-20 mM	LOEC 530 mg/l	growth	Li et al., (2017)
7 days	seeds of the bitter vetch, Vicia ervilia	5 -25 mM	LOEC 1060 mg/l	Germination rate	Seperhri et al., (2016)