What is EDTA and is it harmful?!

What is EDTA and is it harmful?

2 weeks ago
Is it a preservative in creams?

In 1999, the annual consumption of EDTA was equivalent to about 35,000 tons in Europe and 50,000 tons in the US.[citation needed] The most important uses are:

Industrial cleaning: complexation of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions, binding of heavy metals.
Detergents: complexation of Ca2+ and Mg2+ (reduction of water hardness).
Photography: use of Fe(III)EDTA as oxidizing agent.
Pulp and paper industry: complexation of heavy metals during chlorine-free bleaching, stabilization of hydrogen peroxide.
Textile industry: complexation of heavy metals, bleach stabilizer.
Agrochemicals: Fe, Zn and Cu fertilizer, especially in calcareous soils.
Hydroponics: iron-EDTA is used to solubilize iron in nutrient solutions.
More specialised uses of EDTA are:

Food: added as preservative to prevent catalytic oxidation by metal ions or stabilizer and for iron fortification.[citation needed]
Approved by the FDA as a preservative in packaged foods, vitamins, and baby food.
Personal care: added to cosmetics to improve product stability.[citation needed]
Oil production: added into the borehole to inhibit mineral precipitation.[citation needed]
Dairy and beverage industry: cleaning milk stains from bottles.[citation needed]
Flue gas cleaning: removal of NOx.
Dentistry as a root canal irrigant to remove organic and inorganic debris (smear layer).[citation needed]
Soft drinks containing ascorbic acid and sodium benzoate, to mitigate formation of benzene (a carcinogen).[citation needed]
Recycling: recovery of used lead acid batteries.
Medicine:

EDTA is used in chelation therapy (brand name Endrate®, marketed by Hospira;generic product is also on the market) for acute hypercalcemia and mercury poisoning and has been used for lead poisoning.[citation needed].
Combined with chromium, EDTA is used to evaluate kidney function. It is administered intravenously and its filtration into the urine is monitored. This method is considered the gold standard for evaluating glomerular filtration rate, Cr-EDTA's sole way out of the body is via glomerular filtration as it is not secreted or metabolised in any other way.
Used as anticoagulant for blood samples
In veterinary ophthalmology EDTA may be used as an anticollagenase to prevent the worsening of corneal ulcers in animals.
Some laboratory studies also suggest that EDTA chelation may prevent collection of platelets ([or plaque] which can otherwise lead to formation of blood clots and prevent blood flow) on the walls of blood vessels [such as arteries]. These ideas are theoretical, however. [3]
In laboratory science, EDTA is also used for:

Scavenging metal ions: in biochemistry and molecular biology, ion depletion is commonly used to inactivate metal-dependent enzymes which could damage DNA or proteins
Complexometric titrations.
Buffer solutions.
Determination of water hardness.
EDTA may be used as a masking agent to remove a metal ion which would interfere with the analysis of a second metal ion present
An anticoagulant in medical and laboratory equipment.
A preservative (usually to enhance the action of another preservative such as benzalkonium or thiomersal) in ocular preparations and eyedrops. See "les conservateurs en opthalmologie" Doctors Patrice Vo Tan & Yves lachkar, Librarie Médicale Théa.
A titrant used to determine nickel concentration in an electroless nickel plating bath.