Chapter 4: Bleaches and brighteners · Part 1: Oxygen bleaches
Sodium perborate
- Made from a hazardous chemical
The worst fact: Australia classes it as "May damage fertility. May damage the unborn child." The EU took it out of household detergents sold to the public from 1 June 2013 because so many people were exposed and safer options existed. Australia's Poisons Standard doesn't name it, and the national regulator found no restriction on it, though boric acid, which it breaks down into, is a Schedule 5 Poison.
Why brands use it: it's a cheap, very stable oxygen bleach. In warm, damp storage it keeps almost all its strength, where uncoated percarbonate loses most of its strength in 10 days.
Take care if: you're pregnant or trying to conceive. Animal studies show the testes and the unborn baby are the parts of the body most sensitive to boron.
Comes from: borax reacted with caustic soda and hydrogen peroxide. Australia classes borax as "May damage fertility. May damage the unborn child." That doesn't mean it's in the product, but it's not a great starting point for something you clean with.
Myth check: "It's just another oxygen bleach, like percarbonate": no. Percarbonate leaves washing soda behind. Perborate leaves boric acid.
Contaminants: nil.
Fair to say: the EU's own risk assessment found detergent use on its own wasn't an unacceptable risk. It was restricted because people are exposed to boron from many sources at once. Australia's regulator said household bleaching use isn't expected to cause whole-body effects, because it mostly touches skin. Look for percarbonate instead.
Correct as of November 2026. What the badges mean
Sources
- Safe Work Australia. Hazardous Chemical Information System (HCIS): classifications for each chemical, and for borax. hcis.safeworkaustralia.gov.au
- NICNAS. IMAP Tier II assessments: sodium percarbonate (2016); hydrogen peroxide (2014); perborates (2018); peracetic acid (2013). industrialchemicals.gov.au
- European Union. Regulation (EU) No 109/2012 (perborates in REACH Annex XVII); Detergents Regulation (EC) 648/2004, Annex VII.
- HERA. Risk assessments: sodium percarbonate (2002); hydrogen peroxide (2005); sodium perborate (2002); TAED (2003); FWA-1 (2004); FWA-5 (2003). heraproject.com
The full source list is at the end of Chapter 4.