Sodium hydrogencarbonate

Toxicity to terrestrial plants

Description of key information

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

Few reliable studies are available exposing different species of plants to NaHCO₃. 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 expresses 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
31days	Seeds of common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris	30 -150 mmol/L	LOEC 5040 mg/l LOEC 2520 mg/l	% seedling emergence Chlcontent	Yu et al., (2019)
5 months	avocado plant, Persea americana	1.5 g/L	NOEC 1500 mg/l LOEC 1500 mg/l	height and diameter stem quantity leaves	Alvarez-Acosa et al., (2019)
7weeks	Seedlings of barley, Hordeum vulgare	10 and 20 mM	LOEC 840 mg/l	fresh and dry shoot mass	Mahmood et al., (2011)
30 days	Seeds of tabacco, Nicotiana tabacum	100 mM	LOEC 8400 mg/l	biomass of root, stem and leaves	Zhang et al., (2014)
10 weeks	seeds of sorghum, Sorghum bicolor	60 and 120 mM	LOEC 5040 mg/l	growth	Sial et al., (2019)
10 days	seedlings of tomato, Solanum lycopersicum	25-100 mM	LOEC 2100 mg/l	growth	Gong et al., (2014)
5 days	seedlings of tomato, Solanum lycopersicum	25-100 mM	LOEC 6300 mg/l	growth	Gong et al., (2014)
4 days	seeds of cucumber, Cucumis sativus	90 mmol/L	LOEC 7561 mg/l	growth	Sun et al., (2014)