About 250 million years ago, what is nowadays the Himalayan mountain range was covered by a primordial ocean. When the Indian sub-continent hit Asia, the ocean floor started to rise and created a huge salt lake. Eventually this salt lake evaporated and formed the salt layers in the Salt Range in India and Pakistan.

Himalayan crystal salt contains the same minerals and trace elements of which the human body is composed.

How much salt is safe to use? There is a big difference between the "regular" refined table salt to which most people are accustomed and natural, health-promoting salt. This difference can have a major impact on your health. Regular table salt is actually 97.5% pure salt (sodium chloride) and 2.5% chemical additives such as iodine, fluoride, calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, aluminum hydroxide, saccharine and others. Dried at over 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, the excessive heat alters the natural chemical structure of the salt. What remains after raw salt is "chemically cleaned" is pure sodium chloride, devoid of any life-sustaining minerals. One can say that this salt is bio-energetically "dead", because it does not project a specific energetic field around it (see pictures below). To keep this salt from sticking together and making lumps, chemicals are added. Then, to mask the bitter taste of these anti-caking agents, more chemicals are added.

Impact of mining salt?

Aloha Bay states that they know of no environmental impact of any consequence in mining salt from the Himalayans. The mines have been in operation for a very long time (some for hunderds of years) to produce edible salt for that part of the world. Only a very small protion (less than 5%) is used for the production of decorative salt lamps.

The production of the lamps uses no chemicals (it's hand work, mostly). Unlike other decorative (or household) products that are made of brass, steel, or (even worse) aluminum, they do not deplete natural resources, do not use a lot of energy, do not pollute, etc. The salt reserves in the Himalayas are incredibly large, at the current extraction rate it would take thousands of years to even make a dent in them.

The only concern they have is with salination of ground water in the near vicinity of salt lamp factories. In the Alho Bay factory, the water (for washing the salt) is recycled. In most other "factories", the backyard-garage type, this is not the case, and salt water is drained into the local sewage system, which, in the long run, can cause a problem with surface waters.