While few people can explain any health benefits for an increase in negative ions, there is little argument that a salt lamp makes people begin to feel better. They credit their feelings to the negative ions being released when the salt in their salt lamp is heated.
Essentially, a salt lamp is a block of mined salt hollowed out with a candle or some other light source inserted into the hollow space. The light is refracted as it passes through the salt block creating a beautiful distortion as it passes through and the heated salt also is said to give off negative ions, usually referred to simply as ions, to improve a persons health.
While the health benefit claims remain unproven, people who use a salt lamp have no doubt of their benefits. At the very least, the sights of the light from a salt lamp coupled with the warm salt smell can provide a soothing effect to help reduce stress. Colors of salt frequently used in lamps ranges from a pink or salmon color to a pale orange color. Usually, the salt is mined in Russia, central Europe or the Himalayas.
Ions Work As Air Cleaners
It has been noted that the negative ions created by the heating of the salt lamp combines with pollution in the air to make them too heavy to stay aloft and they fall to the ground where they are unable to be inhaled. This, it is claimed, is what makes the air healthier by using a salt lamp.
While the rock salt used in a salt lamp is considered block salt, they have been finely modeled into many different shapes during the hollowing process to create a decorative piece and not just a chunk of salt hollowed out to hold a candle. Their coloring will be unique and it would be difficult to find two pieces exactly the same shape and with the same colors.
Large lamps can be found that weight upwards of 250 pounds with a big lamp considered to be between 50 and 100 pounds. A small salt lamp may weigh around three or four pounds and go all the way to just under 50 pounds. The ionizing range varies based on the size of the lamp. A mini salt lamp of about four pounds may ionize the air in about a six foot radius while a large 40 pound salt lamp offers a range of over 35 feet radius.