As it says in the title, I have a question regarding boron.
Disodium Tetraborate for example is used in supplements, and in chemicals such as fertilizers and cleaners etc.
Is it the quantity that you consume that makes it toxic?
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There’s a famous saying that covers this: “*The dose makes the poison.*” Almost anything can be deadly if the dose is great enough, including water.
Toxicity is all about dosage. Water can be toxic in high enough amounts, but at the same time it is a requirement for life.
Boron is known to be an essential nutrient for plants. It is speculated to have some essential role in animals but no one knows for sure, and even if so the required daily intake would be very small. Its toxicity is similar to that of table salt.
> Is it the quantity that you consume that makes it toxic?
Absolutely. **Everything** will kill you if you take too large a dose – like how you can die from drinking too much water. Some things will kill you if you take too *little* a dose – like how you can die from drinking not enough water. Everything is fine in the right amounts – it’s just that for a lot of things, the right amounts are zero or practically zero.
While there is the dosage issue, what you name sounds like a complex molecule, of multiple elements. Once you form a new molecule, it has different properties than its elements. Just like water is 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, but you can’t use it to fuel fires, and it isn’t explosive like either of its components.
Molecules have different biological effects than the elements that make them up. Eating sodium metal would be real bad as it would react with the water in your saliva, and chlorine will cause a real bad day. But table salt is pretty important in our diets.
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