JediMasterThrash wrote:
The "iodine in table salt" myth is something that's been with us on-line crabbers since the beginning of time, as far as I can tell. It was prevalent on all crab websites and care sheets, and I just copied it onto mine assuming it was fact, since in all the years I've been on-line, nobody has questioned it.
Until now, this thread was the first I heard of questioning the iodine in table salt. So I did some research.
As with all myths revolving around water (such as stress coat), this one started in reef aquarium circles. However, it has been disproved as a myth. Iodine is in fact necessary for crustaceans in order to molt, and it's found naturally in seaweed.
Some crab websites/care sheets are now specifying that it's the "man-made iodine" that is bad for crabs. The "man-made" iodine in table salt is Potassium Iodide (KI), which is actually one of the best ways to get I- ions. So that is a myth as well.
So I checked out the anti-caking agents. There is no primary source of information on anti-caking agents being bad for crustaceans. Every entry on a crab website is copied from another crab website, it's unclear who started that myth either.
I looked up all the common anti-caking agents in the ecotoxicity database, and none of them show up as harmful to crustaceans.
Best I can tell, table salt is actualy safe, (but you still shouldn't use it for making seawater, since it lacks other the trace minerals, and seawater contians a mixture of several different kinds of salt, not just NaCl, and it is this balance of different salts and trace minerals that is important to sea life, not NaCl alone.).
I'm very glad this was brought up, I've learned something today.
I should do a revision of the care sheets this year, since I have been doing it every 2 years, and the last time was in 2006. I'll definitely remove the table salt bit in the next revision.
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Just to clarify my stance, FYI, I've just identified that table salt is a myth, but I still won't say 100% whether it's good or bad yet. At the moment, I can't find any evidence that it's bad. But as I go with these things, I post it on a couple forums, and see if anyone can provide any primary sources of information on the subject.
So if no sources of information show up in the next few weeks proving that table salt is bad, then I'll call the myth debunked. But until then, it's still up in the air.
Every once in a while, you just gotta re-look at something you take for granted. It's a good exercise.
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It is true that table salt contains a lot of iodine. A lot even for human needs. It was added to prevent goiter for people who live in areas where the soil contains no iodine (so they wouldn't get it naturally from foods).
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question367.htm
Note that I'm not saying we should use switch to using table salt to make saltwater. Even if it "might" be safe, it would lack other minerals. I have a previous post that talks about how everything is harmful in big enough quantities. The question is about how much is too much.
Right now, the crab community is paranoid about table salt. We think that even a little bit added to crackers is enough to kill our hermits.
I just question that. If it turns out to be "safe", that would just mean that we don't need to avoid things that include salt like the plague.
Obviously everything is better when it's all-natural and organic. Any artificial preservatives and agents aren't going to be good, but as before, the question is always in the quantities.
A form of cyanide is actually used as an anti-caking agent for some foods. But before we cry out in terror, you have to understand that the quanity well below FDA food grade limits. I mean you can eat a piece of dirt and it's probably got radioactive isotopes and poisonous chemicals in it. But it's not going to kill you because everything is in trace quantities. The potassium in bananas has a high concentration of the K-14 radioactive isotope. But you don't hear too much about banana induced cancer.
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Here's the list of anti-caking agents:
E500 Sodium bicarbonate
E535 Sodium ferrocyanide
E536 Potassium ferrocyanide
E538 Calcium ferrocyanide
E542 Bone phosphate
E550 Sodium silicate
E551 Silicon dioxide
E552 Calcium silicate
E553a Magnesium trisilicate
E553b Talcum powder
*E554 Sodium aluminosilicate
E555 Potassium aluminium silicate
E556 Calcium aluminosilicate
E558 Bentonite
E559 Aluminium silicate
E570 Stearic acid
E900 Polydimethylsiloxane
(List from wikipedia)
may have missed something, but from the information Ladybug posted, it doesn't appear the calcium silicate poses any health risk from its use as a food additive.
In fact, that OSHA website lists two studies:
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthguidel ... silicate/recognition.html
Quote:
Effects on Animals: No adverse effects of non-fibrous calcium silicate were identified. During a chronic inhalation study, rats were exposed...Over the 31 months of the experiment, no statistically significant adverse effects attributable to the calcium silicate were observed.
Quote:
Effects on Humans: No information was found in the literature on the health effects associated with exposure to synthetic calcium silicate. A manufacturer of calcium silicate reported that exposure may irritate the respiratory tract.
The only risk for calcium silicate is if it's in a dust-state, due to respiratory hazards associated with all fine dust particles (such as would happen if it was involved in a fire, or in a plant that processes calcium silicate in its pure form). And there are numerous substances that are safe until burned (and the resulting gasses become poisonous, but those gases are a result of chemical reactions with oxygen, and not the compound itself) or turned into airborne dust (due to respiratory problems). But the substances are safe in solid or liquid form.
And on to sodium and chloride, yes, NaCl contains sodium and chloride atoms, but it contains the chemical structure sodium chloride, which is not harmful, and is a chrystal lattice of Na+and Cl- ions. Chlorine gas is Cl2 (which is poisonous), which has completely different properties from Cl- (which is abundant in nature and necessary for life). And metallic sodium is Na (which is not poisonous, but is highly reactive with water), which has different properties from Na- dissolved in water (which again, is necessary for life, including "regulation of blood and body fluids, transmission of nerve impulses, heart activity, and certain metabolic functions".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium
And on top of that, The NaCl in table salt is the same NaCl that's disolved in sea water. In fact, sea water is 1.9% chlorine and 1.0% sodium by mass.
As an aside, I found this interesting article that shows that in order for plants to actually "live/thrive" in saltwater, a balance of different salts is required, and that our blood and seawater create this necessary balance.
http://www.jbc.org/cgi/reprint/1/4/363.pdf
Also, I might have missed something again, but I don't see anything in the "Ocean Salt vs Table salt" article that demonstrates any adverse affects of potassium iodide.
In fact, sea water should have 390mg/L of potassium and 0.060 mg/L of iodide according to the Natural Sea Water (NSW) average values.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/seasal ... 12003b.htm
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