Baking Soda wont hurt the cat mixed with the litter. From personal experience, I didn't find it helped much though. So I switched to the arm and hammer clumping litter.
Hi, I love using baking soda in my non clumping litter. With persian cats I am afraid the clumping litter get in the fur of their feet and when they groom themselves, it clumps in their gut.
I put a layer of baking soda on the bottom of the litter box, add litter then add another layer of baking soda. Stir lightly