Salt Lamp Promotes Healthier Feelings

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.

Ethanol Industry Undergoing Growing Pains

There have been many changes in the ethanol industry since the days when Henry Ford designed him Model T to be able to run on grain alcohol produced by farmers for their own use. Since that time the oil industry was reluctant to embrace ethanol as an alternative fuel source and for many years the industry languished.

As oil shortages and high gas prices began to be more frequent, the public clamor over reduced oil prices and better availability, there has been a renewed interest in ethanol industry. When word began to spread about the availability of a new alternative fuel, people were willing to use ethanol-blended gasoline, but were unable to find a supplier except in the Midwest where corn was plentiful.

During that time the ethanol industry may have consisted of a half dozen or so refineries turning corn into alcohol for automotive fuel and they began to re-think the needs of increasing capacity. The federal Environmental Protection Agency gave them the initiative to do just that when the government passed the Energy Policy Act of 1992 followed by directions in 2005 to have 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol available for use as vehicle fuel by 2012.

Guaranteed Customers For Product

With the newer mandates coming down in 2005, the ethanol industry had the incentive to expand their facilities and with just over 100 refineries in operation in early 2006, another 56 refineries are under construction. Additionally, the EPA has directed several cities outside of California, to reduce emissions and switching to Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFAs) is one of the alternatives to meeting the mandates.

The ethanol industry has also helped other industries with their increased production, such as corn, which represents about 55 percent of the cost of producing ethanol. By products of ethanol refinement by the ethanol industry is also being made available to producers of products such as nail polish remover and paint thinners. Although there are few areas in the country that are friendly to growing cane sugar, it is also being considered by the ethanol industry for the biomass production of ethanol.

One element that tends to hamper the ethanol industry is the constant price fluctuations of corn. Before oil prices exploded in 2005, the cost of ethanol fluctuated nearly the same as gasoline. However, the corn prices go up and down, the fluctuations are more often and more noticible.