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You are confusing different classes of chemical contaminants. Rock salt which is spread on roads consists of a chemical subset of seasalt - which is completely

You are confusing different classes of chemical contaminants. Rock salt which is spread on roads consists of a chemical subset of seasalt - which is completely safe to humans as evidenced by healthy coastal communities. The contaminants discussed here are of an entirely different class, they are toxic at trace levels. Sea salt and rock salt are ubiquitous natural materials, if they were toxic at low levels plagues of disease would occur until animals evolved resistance to them.

isthispermanent 7y ago
It's not just about humans. Waterways, wildlife, agriculture. The term "Salt the Earth" is shorthand for covering land with enough salt to prevent anything from growing. Whether it's directly benign to humans is one thing, but the indirect effects are hard to account for.
- strainer 7y ago
  That phrase appears to be apocryphal, salt quickly disperses in practice and no land has ever been known to be deliberately contaminated by it. I feel these vague worries about road salting relate to this article about highly toxic contamination as a kind of "what-about-ery" but are even less connected by having been introduced as "kind-of-reminds-me-about-ery".
  - isthispermanent 7y ago
    We're dancing around the point here. Point being, that we cannot always determine the effects of continuously repeating small, seemingly benign actions. Taking tens of thousands of tons of salt from one place on Earth and dumping it on another where salt is relatively scarce has unknown side effects. Hand-waving over it with "eh, but it probably won't hurt anything" misses the point of the discussion. That is the attitude that tends to get us trouble. Smoking: "eh, that's probably not what's causing you to get sick" Climate change: "eh, it's probably not us" etc.
    - strainer 7y ago
      Since you are curious I really suggest you look into it - read some environmental studies and articles on salt pollution, get some details on the actual situation to offer rather than you know, just sayings and analogies.

isthispermanent 7y ago

It's not just about humans. Waterways, wildlife, agriculture. The term "Salt the Earth" is shorthand for covering land with enough salt to prevent anything from growing. Whether it's directly benign to humans is one thing, but the indirect effects are hard to account for.

strainer 7y ago
That phrase appears to be apocryphal, salt quickly disperses in practice and no land has ever been known to be deliberately contaminated by it. I feel these vague worries about road salting relate to this article about highly toxic contamination as a kind of "what-about-ery" but are even less connected by having been introduced as "kind-of-reminds-me-about-ery".
- isthispermanent 7y ago
  We're dancing around the point here. Point being, that we cannot always determine the effects of continuously repeating small, seemingly benign actions. Taking tens of thousands of tons of salt from one place on Earth and dumping it on another where salt is relatively scarce has unknown side effects. Hand-waving over it with "eh, but it probably won't hurt anything" misses the point of the discussion. That is the attitude that tends to get us trouble. Smoking: "eh, that's probably not what's causing you to get sick" Climate change: "eh, it's probably not us" etc.
  - strainer 7y ago
    Since you are curious I really suggest you look into it - read some environmental studies and articles on salt pollution, get some details on the actual situation to offer rather than you know, just sayings and analogies.