The Uses & benefits Of Salt

Uses & Benefits

The multiple chemical and physical properties of salt make possible 14,000 known uses. From the days of the cave men, humans have discovered ingenious means to use salt to enhance the quality of our lives. So valuable is this common mineral that wars have been waged and revolutions fought for access to salt. Its largest use is largely invisible to the public: about 40% of salt worldwide is used as the raw material that chemical companies transform into chlorine and soda ash, the foundations of inorganic chemistry. Salt is a processing aid in innumerable industries and the means by which animal nutrition experts ensure the health and productivity of livestock and poultry. We are all familiar with the salt shaker on the table in most of our homes. We less often think of the salt we use to regenerate our water softeners to protect the pipes and appliances in our homes. And seasonally, many of us give thanks for the salt that road maintenance crews apply to keep our cars, trucks and school buses safely on snowy winter roads.

Salt in history

Salt's profound impact on human civilization spans recorded history... and precedes it.

Salt has influenced human existence virtually from the beginning. Neolithic settlements were at salt springs. Caravans trekked deserts trading salt ounce-for-ounce for gold.

Most cultures have folklore and art forms based on salt. And many cultures share traditions such as offering bread and salt to welcome visitors.

Salt’s economic and military significance produced trading partnerships…or armed combat. And economies and cultures ranging from the Sahara in West Africa to the Himalayan peaks of Nepal gives a glimpse of the salt trading culture of centuries gone by.

Religious texts and liturgy frequently employ salt metaphorically (e.g. “ye are the salt of the Earth”).

Roman soldiers were paid partly in salt, their salarium, today’s “salary.” Medieval Europe was forever changed when fishermen were able to salt the cod caught off North America’s Grand Banks, preserving them for sale in Europe.

Salt was involved in such historic events as the building of the Erie Canal, the French Revolution and the drive for India’s independence from British colonial rule.

Salt museums remind us of salt’s key role in the history of Europe, Japan and North America.

Consumer salt tips

Here are some of the fascinating applications of salt, many handed down in families for generations.

In our homes, salt makes food delicious … and so much more. In fact, there are more than 14,000 uses of salt, many of which involve helping us with our household tasks. Our grandmothers were probably familiar with most of them since many were for simple things around the home before the advent of modern chemicals and cleaners. Many "old" uses are still valid today and a lot cheaper than using more sophisticated products. Here are some of the fascinating applications of salt, many handed down in families for generations. We make no guarantees about the results, but most have stood the test of time.

The most familiar use of salt undoubtedly is in the kitchen and on the dining table. Salt accents the flavor of meat, brings out individuality of vegetables, puts "oomph" into bland starches, deepens the flavor of delicate desserts and develops flavor of melons and certain other fruits. No other seasoning has yet been found that can satisfactorily take the place of salt. But there are other uses around the home, too.Salt is an excellent cleaning agent, by itself or in combination with other substances. A solution of salt and turpentine restores the whiteness to yellowed enameled bathtubs and lavatories. A paste of salt and vinegar cleans tarnished brass or copper. Pour a strong brine poured down the kitchen sink to prevent grease from collecting and eliminate odors.Salt helps destroy moths and drives away ants. A dash of salt in laundry starch keeps the iron from sticking and gives linen and fine cottons a glossy, like-new finish. A thin paste of salt and salad oil removes white marks caused by hot dishes or water from wooden tables.A box of salt is an important item in many bathrooms. In mild solutions, it makes an excellent mouthwash, throat gargle or eye-wash; it is an effective dentifrice; it is an effective antiseptic; and it can be extremely helpful as a massage element to improve complexion.We offer these other tips Students are always on the lookout for good ideas for science projects; here are some featuring salt. And "sculptors" of all ages can enjoy easy and inexpensive salt dough.

Salt in industry

Salt is all around you. Many, even most, of the products you see are produced from salt or using salt in their manufacture.

Industries use most of the salt produced in the world today. The biggest single use of salt is also one of the least known. Salt is the feedstock for the chlor-alkali chemical industry, just as oil is for the petrochemical industry. The difference: we are not running out of salt! Chlorine chemistry brings consumers clean water, soaps and detergents, many medications, PVC pipes for our homes, cell phones, cosmetics, protective suits for SCUBA divers – and astronauts, digital cameras, flat panel TVs, electron microscopes, solar panels for energy production. The list is essentially endless. Manufacturing textiles, glass, rubber, leather, even drilling oil wells, depends on salt. Salt has 14,000 known uses.

Salt in Food

Man's inherent salt appetite isn't the only reason we use salt in food. It helps make foods safe and appealing.

A rock you eat? Salt is an essential nutrient. Humans, indeed all animals, possess an inherent appetite for salt. Small wonder, then, that salt is the world’s oldest food additive. Salt brings to food far more than one of the five basic taste sensations (sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami); it enhances other tastes. Sweets taste sweeter. Salt masks bitter tastes, making naturally bitter foods like chocolate and broccoli become delicious.Before recorded history, men learned salt’s key role in food safety and preservation by retarding the growth of spoilage microorganisms. Today, food technologists rely on salt to satisfy consumer preferences in color, texture, appearance and aroma. And, all evidence suggests that consumers do have preferences, and they prefer the attributes that only salt can deliver.

Winter road safety

Winter storms endanger roadway users and paralyze economic activity. Sensible Salting keeps roads open and safe.

Highways are the arteries linking our economy and our society. But only if they are open and safe. Driving in a snowstorm increases a driver’s risk of a crash far more than driving impaired by alcohol or drugs. We need to operate our roads so that would-be highway users can be assured that they and their cargos can arrive safely within a predictable window of time. Snow and ice contribute to congestion and traffic crashes. Winter weather congestion affects 70% of U.S. roadways.

Effective snowfighting provides assured access and safe driving conditions during and after winter storm emergencies. The cost of failure is steep, both economically and in human life. Allowing impassable roads costs jobs, sales, tax revenues … and lives. Snowfighting costs for an entire season are less than economic losses from a single day of icy paralysis. Effective snowfighting cuts injury accidents by 88%. Salt is the deicer of choice for its quick action, economical cost and ease of use. Dozens of other deicer products are available, but none has matched salt’s cost-effectiveness.

To maintain traffic safety and mobility during snow and ice emergencies, highway operations agencies use rock salt, solar salt and to some degree, evaporated salt, mostly in Europe. That’s been true since the 1940s in snowbelt regions worldwide. Development of the new technique of preventive anti-icing has brought new focus on using salt to combat winter ice storms on roads in what has been considered the sunbelt.

Sodium chloride melts ice at temperatures down to its eutectic point of –6° F (-21° C). The important variable is not the air temperature in this case, but the pavement temperature. Depending on whether the storm occurs early in the season or at the end of a particularly cold period, the pavement may be warmer or colder than the air, but even in the dead of winter, pavements are more often warmer than the air. Most snowstorms occur when the air temperature is between 20° F (-7° C) and 32° F (0° C), the temperature range where salt is very effective.

Salt is used on highways in two primary strategies: (1) traditional deicing strategy accomplished by applying dry salt or prewet salt to remove snow and ice bonded to the roadway surface, considered a reactive strategy, and (2) anti-icing, the application of salt prior to the formation of a bond between ice and the roadway, usually by spraying nearly-saturated brine on the dry pavement or applying a prewet solid, considered a pro-active strategy . When sprayed on as a liquid for anti-icing, the brine dries leaving sodium chloride on the pavement and its presence slows or prevents the development of a between the snow or ice and the pavement “buying time” until further storm response can arrive. More than 40% of dry salt produced in the United States is used for highway deicing

Feeding animals & plants

Livestock, poultry and pets need salt for optimal health and development.

All domestic and wild animals need salt, just as humans, a fact well understood by the ancient Greeks as well as early hunters and nomads who hunted animals near salt springs or deposits. Animals have a more well defined appetite for sodium chloride than any other compound in nature except water. Ruminants have such a strong appetite for sodium that the exact location of their salt source is permanently imprinted into their memory which they can then return to when they become deficient. Salt is unique in that animals have a much greater appetite for the sodium and chloride in salt than for other minerals. Because most plants provide insufficient sodium for animal feeding and may lack adequate chloride content, salt supplementation is a critical part of a nutritionally balanced diet for animals. In addition, because animals have a definite appetite for salt, it can be used as a delivery mechanism to ensure adequate intake of less palatable nutrients and as a feed limiter.

Less clearly recognized is the positive role of salt in horticulture. We think first in terms of how the Romans laid waste to conquered Carthage by plowing its fields with salt. Judiciously used, however, salt is a real boon as a fertilizer in certain applications.

Two concepts in particular will guide your further learning about salt and animal nutrition:

Trace mineral salt

Animals need more than salt for proper health and nutrition. Animals need trace mineral supplements. They are needed in very small amounts, or traces, in the diet, and hence their name, "trace minerals." The intake of salt and trace minerals is species-specific. Some of the trace minerals fed as a salt additive are iron oxide, copper, manganese, selenium, cobalt, iodine, zinc, and magnesium. Phosphorous, calcium, sulfur and some vitamins, such as A and D, are frequently added to salt as well. Also, salt has been used as a carrier to administer drugs like oxytetracycline, ionophores (ie., monensin and lasalocid) or anthelmintics (de-worming agents). Trace mineral nutrient needs pervade livestock and poultry but also include household pets and wild animals.

Subclinical trace mineral deficiencies occur more frequently than recognized by most livestock producers. Currently, minor but chronic under-consumption of trace minerals is a bigger problem than acute mineral deficiencies because the farmer (or pet owner) does not see specific symptoms that are characteristic of a trace mineral deficiency. Instead, the animal grows or reproduces at a reduced rate, uses feed less efficiently and operates with a depressed immune system. The end result for commercial animal producers is inefficient production and lower profitability.

Some areas have pastureland with soils deficient in one or more trace minerals; the forage is then also deficient in trace minerals. And many times, feeds are shipped in from another region that may be trace mineral deficient

Salt is a natural carrier for trace minerals since all farm animals have a natural appetite for salt. Moreover, when cattle, horses, sheep and other animals are on pasture with little, no or varying amounts of concentrate feeding, producers can supply trace mineralized salt free-choice in the form of a mineral block or as loose trace mineral salt in a box. Then, regardless of the amount of concentrates fed, and especially if none is fed, the animal can still consume salt and the trace minerals it contains. The trace mineral levels in salt or salt-based mineral products are guaranteed on the package.

Different levels of various minerals are added to salt for specific and different situations. The cost of adding the six trace minerals to salt is very low, ranging from less than one cent for poultry to 81¢ US for dairy cattle for a whole year. Horses, beef cattle and dairy goats can be supplied trace minerals with salt for a year for less than 40¢; and calves, swine, sheep and meat goats for less than 15¢. This is certainly low-cost insurance compared to the benefits derived. If selenium is also added to salt, at a level of 20 to 30 ppm, the cost will be about ¾¢ more per pound.

Free-choice feeding

Either in loose form or in compressed blocks, trace mineral salt can be mixed with feed or fed free-choice to improve animal health and productivity.

Salt can also be used as a feed limiter. Forage with salt added increases the appetite, and animals having salt available generally gain twice as much weight as animals fed no sodium chloride. Use of salt stations in pasture helps to distribute grazing throughout the area.

Softening hard water

Salt-regenerated water softeners protect homeowners' largest investment and their quality of life.

Hard water does more than dull your hair and shorten the life of your white clothes and turn them gray. It brings into the average home the equivalent of 90 pounds of dissolved rock which deposit calcium and magnesium in pipes and, particularly, on the heating surfaces of industrial boilers, home water heaters, washing machines and dishwashers. As a result, water softening systems that remove calcium and magnesium have become popular; some consider them a necessity for industrial boilers, institutions and private homes. If you have hard water, you need a salt-regenerated water softener. A water softener: