Lauramine Oxide

Lauramine oxide (also known as lauryldimethylamine oxide or LDAO) is an amphoteric surfactant used as a foam booster, viscosity builder, and co-surfactant in cleaning formulations. It functions synergistically with anionic surfactants like SLS to enhance foam density and cleaning performance.

Readily biodegradable. Not on Prop 65, not an asthmagen, not a sensitizer, not a carcinogen. At typical consumer product concentrations (often under 5%), acute health irritation potential is low. Aquatic toxicity, however, is a real and confirmed hazard for the pure substance: multiple independent supplier SDS documents classify CAS 1643-20-5 as Aquatic Acute 1 (H400, "very toxic to aquatic life") and Aquatic Chronic 1 (H410, "very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects"), carrying the GHS09 environmental pictogram. A prior version of this file stated aquatic_toxicity: false and described the aquatic profile as benign; that was incorrect and is corrected here.

Regulatory status / hazard corrections

• Not California Prop 65 listed, not IARC/NTP/OSHA-Ca carcinogen-listed. These parts of the prior file's summary were accurate and are unchanged.
• aquatic_toxicity corrected from false to true. This file previously described the aquatic profile as "low... well below 1%" and claimed "no bioaccumulation potential." Both understated the hazard: the neat substance is classified Aquatic Acute 1 / Chronic 1 (the most severe GHS aquatic tiers), and while a low estimated bioconcentration factor (BCF approximately 0.7, suggesting low bioaccumulation potential specifically) is separately documented, that is a different axis from acute/chronic aquatic toxicity and does not offset it.
• The NFPA Health rating for the neat substance is 3 ("serious hazard"), not 1 ("slight hazard") as the prior file stated.

Sources

• Cayman Chemical SDS for LDAO (Lauramine Oxide, CAS 1643-20-5), revision 2026-01-07: GHS classification includes Eye damage 1 (H318), Acute toxicity oral 4 (H302), Skin irritation 2 (H315), Aquatic Acute 1 (H400), Aquatic Chronic 1 (H410); pictograms GHS05, GHS07, GHS09; signal word DANGER; NFPA Health 3 / Fire 0 / Reactivity 0; SDS §12 remark "Very toxic for fish," Water hazard class 3 ("extremely hazardous for water"). Not IARC-, NTP-, or OSHA-Ca-listed; not SARA 313; TSCA active.
• Independent corroboration: content/products/sun-joe/sun-joe-snow-foam-car-wash-soap-coconut/notes.md documents this same discrepancy from a second, independent primary source, that product's own SDS §3, which discloses lauramine oxide under the supplier trade name "Mazox CG" (Mason Chemical Company) at CAS 1643-20-5 and classifies it ingredient-level Aquatic Acute 1 (H400) / Aquatic Chronic 1 (H410), matching the Cayman Chemical SDS exactly. That build did not edit this shared file at the time; it scored the product directly from its own SDS finding and left a note for "the ingredient-file owner to reconcile in a future pass." This correction is that reconciliation.
• Blast-radius note (environment axis, ingredient-level aquatic-toxicity stacking rule, -1.0 raw per flagged ingredient, capped at -2.0 raw, multiplied by the product's exposure-pathway factor): this correction was NOT accompanied by edits to any consuming product file, per this audit's file-ownership scope (product files are owned by another process). See the audit report for the full per-product blast-radius accounting; in summary, several products already independently scored lauramine oxide's real aquatic toxicity from their own SDS (no change on next regen), several are already at the -2.0 ingredient-level cap from other aquatic-toxic ingredients (no change), and several currently show an explicit "lauramine-oxide: aquatic_toxicity: false, no deduction" citation that would need to become a real deduction on their next regen.