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Boron
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General Description
    Synonyms: amorphous boron

    OSHA IMIS Code Number: B142

    Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Registry Number: 7440-42-8

    NIOSH, Registry of Toxic Effects (RTECS) Identification Number: ED7350000

    Chemical Description and Physical Properties: Odorless, black, hard, solid; brown amorphous powder; crystals
      element: B
      molecular weight: 10.81
    Potentially hazardous incompatibilities: Avoid storing with fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, ammonia, nitric acid, sulfur, hydrogen iodide and oxidizing agents.
Health Factors
    Notes:
    1. Elemental boron does not exist naturally.
      Occupational exposure to boron is mostly through inhalation of dust during the mining and subsequent processing of borate-containing minerals (e.g., borax, colemanite, boracite, kernite, and ulexite).
    2. EPA's oral reference dose (daily oral exposure likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime) of boron is 0.2 mg/kg/day (based mainly on animal studies with boric acid).
    3. Although some animal data indicate boron to be an essential element with unknown biochemical mechanism, human requirement of boron as a micronutrient has not been conclusively established.
    4. The California Department of Health Services established a notification level for boron of 1 milligram per liter of drinking water.

    Date Last Revised: 12/02/2005

    Literature Basis:
    • California Department of Health Services-Drinking Water Program: Drinking Water Notification Levels, 2005.
    • U.S. EPA Integrated Risk Information System: Toxicological Review of Boron and Compounds (CAS 7440-42-8), 2004 (EPA 635/04/052).
    • Panel on Micronutrients, et al.: Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2000, 800 pp.
    • Pohanish, R.P. (editor): Boron, Boric Acid and Borax. In, Sittig's Handbook of Toxic and Hazardous Chemicals and Carcinogens, Fourth Ed., Vol. 1. Norwich, NY: Noyes Publications, William Andrew Publishing, 2002, pp. 355-357.
Monitoring Methods used by OSHA
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