Salt Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine (NaCl) that is an essential ingredient for human life. The human body has to maintain a saline solution in the blood in order to be healthy. If the level of salt is too high, death from extreme thirst can occur. On the other hand, if the level is too low, the body is unable to absorb water and death may occur. The oceans of the earth are all salty and contain a salt solution that is similar to that of the human body. This has led many to conclude that it is likely that life began in the sea.

Salt is a colorless crystalline substance that is brittle. Its chemical name is halide and its crystalline structure is cubic. If it has a color, such as pink, it is a result of the admixture of one or more impurities. Common table salt comes from two major sources. Rock salt is dug from underground deposits that were formed by geologic forces that created salt lakes like the Great Salt Lake in Utah or the Dead Sea between Israel and Jordan. Salt mines can yield tremendous quantities of impure salt that can be used for industrial purposes. The other major source is saltpans, where salt water or seawater is collected into shallow pools. The sun evaporates the water, allowing the salt to be left behind.

All salt originated as salty water or brine. Originally, the rock salt formations found in many places were brine that collected with the evaporation of a lake or a shallow sea. Numerous lakes around the world are salty. and serve as sources for salt production.

Besides common table salt, there are other salts formed by other elements. The chemistry is complex, but essentially, a salt is produced from the combination of an acid with a basic compound. These numerous compounds of salt are of great importance in the manufacture of many products. Salts that are not sodium chloride include calcium chloride (CaCl), calcium carbonate (CaCO3), and sodium bisulfate (NaHSO4.H2O).

Potassium chloride (KCl) is a salt. It is sold as “light salt” to flavor food for people who are afflicted with hypertension, as table salt can aggravate their blood pressure and contribute to a cardiovascular incident or stroke. It is also used in executions by lethal injection. Salt compounds, especially sodium chloride, are used extensively by the chemical industry in the manufacture of chemicals. Much of the chlorine used by industry comes from salt.

It has been estimated that modern medicine would be powerless without the many drug molecules that are developed from salts in at least one stage of the manufacturing process. Probably half of all drugs are either developed or delivered to the cells in the body by means of a salt. Salt is also important in livestock production. Blocks of salt are made available for cattle or other animals to eat along with their natural feed. In nature, many animals will seek out sources of salt as an aid to their diet.

Salinity can be a severe problem for farmers who use irrigation. The evaporation of water brought to fields for crop irrigation can cause the accumulation of salts. The salt left by evaporation reduces the fertility of the soil. Eventually, the land will be rendered infertile by the salt. The use of salt to make modern highways passable during times of ice and snow consumes great quantities of salt. The practice causes vehicle corrosion and saline pollution in areas where the road salt dissolves and enters into the surrounding land or streams.

Throughout human history, salt has been of great importance to people; Roman soldiers at one period were paid in salt. The word salary is derived from the Latin word for salt. In ancient times, an enormous trade in slaves for salt was conducted.

Sea salt has the additional benefit that it often carries iodine, which is needed by the thyroid glands. Without iodine, goiter develops, with devastating effects. The Kiwanis Club International has a global program to eradicate goiter by funding salt factories in a number of poverty-stricken areas of the world. These manufacturing plants add iodine to the salt that will be consumed by local populations in areas remote from the sea.

Salt has been used as a preservative from near the beginning of human history. Pickles, sauerkraut, and other foods are preserved by means of salt.

The salt prevents the growth of bacteria or fungi or other microbes. It also retards the oxidation of fats that cause meats or nuts to become rancid. Salt adds flavor to numerous foods and is consequently an important ingredient in cooking.

Many religions have used or still use salt in their rituals. For example, Buddhists have used salt to repel evil spirits; when the 13th Dalai Lama died in 1933 he was buried on a bed of salt to ward off evil spirits. The Pueblo Indians of the American southwest worshipped the Salt Mother. Among the Hebrews and Israelites, salt was used in the Salt Covenant. The New Testament relates that Jesus called his disciples “the salt of the earth” because of their power to create a divine sense among people that resembled the flavoring of a dish with salt.

Bibliography:

Rene Ashley, Salt (University of Wisconsin Press, 1991);
Robert Froman and M. Jauss, The Science of Salt: An Informal Introduction to Some of the Fundamentals of Chemistry and the Chemical Industry (D. McKay Co., 1967);
Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History (Penguin Group, 2002);
P.H. Stahl and C.G. Wermuth, , Pharmaceutical Salts: Properties, Selection and Use (John Wiley & Sons, 2002).