Dead Sea salt in eye drops

On Quell’s Drug Facts panel, Dead Sea salt is listed as an inactive ingredient, with “Sodium Chloride” in parentheses after it. Sodium chloride is the chemical name for ordinary salt; “Dead Sea” names the source. Salt dissolved in water is a familiar base for many eye products, and tears themselves are naturally salty. The label makes no separate claim for this ingredient.

What the label actually says

Quell’s complete inactive list reads: Caprylyl Glycol, Dead Sea Salt (Sodium Chloride), Emu Oil, Glyceryl Laurate, Glyceryl Undecylenate, Manuka Honey, Polaxamer 188, Sterile Water, Terminalia Chubula and Tromethamine. Two things in that wording are worth noticing. The ingredient gets both a source name and a chemical name, so you can tell exactly what it is. And it’s under inactive ingredients, which means it isn’t one of the substances the label credits with the product’s uses. Those are the actives, Glycerol (1.0%), Polysorbate 80 (1.0%) and Light Mineral Oil (0.5%), and the uses line reads: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye.

What is Dead Sea salt?

The Dead Sea is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and by Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its water is far saltier than the ocean, and salt has been harvested from it and its shores for a very long time. “Dead Sea salt” is the general name for salt gathered there. Like sea salt anywhere, what’s sold under the name can vary, which is why a label that adds the chemical name, sodium chloride, is more precise than one that doesn’t.

Sodium chloride: the same salt as table salt?

Chemically, sodium chloride is the main component of table salt, rock salt and sea salt alike. What differs between them is where they come from, how they’re processed and what traces of other minerals ride along. In a drug, an ingredient has to meet the manufacturer’s specifications and be suitable for a sterile eye product, which a shaker of kitchen salt is not. Don’t make salt water at home and put it in your eyes; homemade solutions aren’t sterile.

Salt in a solution, in general terms

Many products meant for the eye are water-based, and dissolved salt is a common part of that base. The term you’ll see on other boxes is saline, which simply means salt water. Tears are salty too, as anyone who has tasted one knows; they’re mostly water with dissolved salts and other substances, topped by the thin oily layer that slows evaporation. We aren’t claiming a particular effect for the salt in Quell. The label doesn’t make one, and there’s no amount given to judge it by.

Why there’s no percentage

Active ingredients on an OTC Drug Facts panel are shown with their strength. Quell’s three are listed as Glycerol (1.0%), Polysorbate 80 (1.0%) and Light Mineral Oil (0.5%). Inactive ingredients don’t carry amounts. Federal labeling rules, at 21 CFR 201.66, list them by name in alphabetical order, so Dead Sea salt sits second simply because of the letter D. It tells you nothing about how much of the bottle it makes up.

Is salt the same as a preservative?

No. Quell is preservative-free, and salt isn’t listed or described on the label as a preservative. The phrase “preservative-free” is about the absence of the added preservatives some multi-use drops contain. What preservative-free means explains the term, and why the label’s instruction about the tip matters for any bottle: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Sodium in your diet and eye drops

People watching their salt intake sometimes ask whether drops add to it. The label’s dose is tiny (Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye), and eye drops aren’t food. If you’re on a strict sodium limit for medical reasons and want reassurance, a pharmacist can look at the label with you. The same goes for any product you aren’t sure about. Swallowing eye drops isn’t a route anyone should use, and the label is direct about it: If swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center immediately.

How to compare this with other drops

• Look under both active and inactive ingredients; salt usually appears among the inactives.
• Expect different names for the same thing: sodium chloride, salt, saline base, sea salt.
• Remember that inactive ingredients are listed alphabetically, not by amount.
• Read the warnings and the Do not use line, which matter more day to day than any single inactive ingredient.

If you’re working through every item on Quell’s list, the inactive ingredients section covers how that part of the label works, and the full panel is on our Drug Facts page.