Sulfonic Acids, C14-16-Alkane Hydroxy, Sodium Salts

Sulfonic acids C14-16-alkane hydroxy and C14-16-alkene sodium salts (CAS 68439-57-6) is an anionic hydroxy-sulfonate surfactant. The hydroxy-sulfonate structure provides good compatibility with strongly alkaline co-builders like sodium metasilicate, making it well-suited for high-pH cleaning formulations. At ingredient-level neat concentration, CLP data shows H315 (skin irritation) and H318 (serious eye damage). At working concentrations in finished products (<0.5%), the eye classification may not carry through to the product level — Meguiar's G18516 (pH 11.5–12.4) classifies H315 at product level only.

The ingredient is biodegradable per EU Detergent Regulation 648/2004 biodegradability tests (>80% CO2 evolution, OECD 301B). Aquatic toxicity data: EC50 water flea 4.53 mg/L (experimental, 48h); LC50 zebra fish ~4.2 mg/L (estimated, 96h). Not PBT or vPvB.

Listed on US TSCA inventory. No Prop 65 listing.

CAS number correction

This file previously carried cas_number: "931-534-0", which is wrong: "931-534-0" is this substance's EC (EINECS) number, not a CAS registry number, and was miscategorized into the cas_number field. The correct CAS registry number is 68439-57-6.

That correct CAS is the same one already used by content/ingredients/sodium-c14-16-olefin-sulfonate.md (common/trade name "Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate" / AOS). This is not a coincidence: alpha-olefin sulfonation produces a mixture of alkene sulfonates and hydroxyalkane sulfonates, and "Sulfonic Acids, C14-16-Alkane Hydroxy and C14-16-Alkene, Sodium Salts" (the CAS-index name for this file) and "Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate" (the common trade name used by the other file) are two names for materially the same commercial AOS surfactant product under the same CAS number. The catalog currently carries two separate ingredient files for what is, by CAS identity, one substance. This correction fixes the wrong CAS field only; it does not merge or deprecate either file, since a merge changes which slug every consuming product should point to and is a bigger structural change than a single-field data fix. Flagging for a deliberate follow-up decision on whether to merge them.

Sources

• CAS/EC identity cross-check: multiple independent supplier and regulatory sources (ChemicalBook, ECHA substance record 100.158.197, EPA ChemExpo, Federal Register 2026-02922) confirm CAS 68439-57-6 as the registry number for "Sulfonic acids, C14-16-alkane hydroxy and C14-16-alkene, sodium salts," with EC number 931-534-0.
• Blast-radius check: data/prop65/oehha-list.json has no entry for either the old (931-534-0) or corrected (68439-57-6) CAS, so this correction has no Prop 65 RAISE impact. The scoring impact for consuming products comes entirely from this file's aquatic_toxicity: true flag (unchanged by this correction), not from the CAS number itself, so no product's health, environment, or Prop 65 score changes as a result of fixing the CAS field.
• Consuming products checked: content/products/meguiars/meguiars-hyper-wash/index.md, content/products/meguiars/meguiars-ultimate-wash-and-wax/index.md (both cite this ingredient's aquatic_toxicity: true for an environment-axis deduction; neither cites its CAS number in any scored deduction), and content/products/armor-all/armor-all-snow-foam-wash/notes.md, which per the run backlog routed around this file entirely and used sodium-c14-16-olefin-sulfonate.md instead once the CAS discrepancy was noticed. None of these need rescoring from this correction.