The Salt Institute is a nonprofit association representing salt producers (companies which produce salt and market it as sodium chloride) and is dedicated to promoting better understanding of all aspects of salt production and use.
The Salt Institute’s mission is to “Increase understanding regarding the contributions of responsible salt use, enabling improved quality of life, better health, and safer and more reliable transportation.”
Institute activities are international and include information services, public affairs, research support, education/training and industry programs. Our budget is about $1.5 million; we have a staff of four. We have two basic functions: first, serving as a unique resource for information about salt production and use (and history, etc., as well) and, second, serving as the industry advocate with regard to public policy and public relations. One of our principal services is to bring together salt producers with like interests and challenges and stimulate discussions which allow each company to better prepare for efficient salt production and marketing.
The Institute's Technical Data Center contains thousands of technical reports, medical journal articles, salt sales statistics, technical standards and specifications and a wide variety of other background materials on salt. This TechData Center is a prime source of information for scientists, journalists, scholars, various industry researchers and government officials. The Institute supplements the information collected in its TechData Center with on-line access to a wide variety of electronic databases dealing with all aspects of salt and its myriad uses.
From its vantage point just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC in Old Town Alexandria, the Salt Institute maintains close liaison with federal, state and provincial government agencies throughout the U.S. and Canada. We are engaged internationally in public issues management, often working through our member companies. The Institute participates in the public policy process by contributing its unique perspective and information about salt production and uses and the likely consumer and industry impacts of proposed policies.
Input from the Salt Institute has helped focus policy discussions on such diverse matters as the safety and utility of low-sodium diets, the injury accident reduction benefits of highway deicing, environmental impacts of various salt uses, proper procedures to assure the integrity of underground injection wells used to extract brine from underground salt deposits, salt and trace mineral needs of livestock and poultry, salt mine worker safety, nutrition labeling, the public health benefits of iodized salt...and many others. Salt Institute representatives represent the industry on technical committees of the American National Standards Institute and similar standards-setting committees of the Canadian Standards Board and American Society for Testing and Materials.
Expert witnesses representing the Salt Institute testify before legislative bodies and regulatory agency hearings and policy forums at all levels from Washington and Ottawa to cities and counties throughout North America -- and, selectively, worldwide. Salt Institute experts have addressed major conferences in Europe, Asia and South America as well. Salt Institute spokespersons address industry, government and consumer conferences and work closely with news media explaining topical issues to the public. Oftentimes, the Institute cooperates with other groups to promote improved highway traffic safety, sound nutrition education, worker safety and water quality protection.
Improved knowledge is the basis for both better public policy and improved production safety and efficiency. Over the years, the Salt Institute has sponsored engineering and medical research, field studies and laboratory investigations on impacts of various uses of salt. Recent studies have included the contribution of deicing to winter road accident reduction, the role of sodium chloride in protecting animals' immune systems, the health impacts of worker exposure to salt dust in mining conditions, the adequacy of the national feed composition database, and genetic and the links of diet and health. Historically, Institute-sponsored research in trace mineral nutrition for animals was a key factor in creating the scientific feeding practices for livestock and poultry which established North American meat and poultry producers as the world's most efficient. The Salt Institute has also conducted auto skid tests and studies of salt's ice-melting effectiveness in cooperation with organizations such as the National Safety Council, the Canada Safety Council, state/provincial and local agencies and independent laboratories. Hundreds of lives are saved each winter due to effective winter highway deicing.
The Salt Institute annual meeting serves as the industry's principal forum for exchanging information and taking actions on a wide variety of matters affecting salt producers' operations. Its programs focus on activities which can be more efficiently and effectively achieved collectively rather than by individual companies. These range from programs to promote worker safety to industry environmental management guidelines on proper outdoor storage of deicing salt.
Through its monthly e-newsletter, SI Report, the Institute keeps members informed of developments throughout the world affecting salt production, transportation, distribution and uses. The password-protected members-only version of SI Report contains additional information beyond that distributed to the public on this website. We also distribute important documents or post them in the password-protected portion of the website.
The Salt Institute is a catalyst for international cooperation within the salt industry and maintains close working relationships with its numerous international members and their national and regional associations, particularly in Europe, China and Japan. The Salt Institute is the co-sponsor of periodic worldwide technical symposia of those interested and expert in salt issues and is co-sponsoring the next Symposium to be held in Beijing in September 2009.
We conduct general meetings, at least one each year. Our 2007 annual meeting included salt producers from Australia, Brazil, Germany, China and the Netherlands in addition to our regular members from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. All members are invited to each meeting; non-members are ineligible to attend. Interested in membership?
If you'd like salt-related information delivered automatically via a
newsreader, you can subscribe to our Salt
Institute NewsCentral service or add any of our
feeds to your
newsreader.
 |
| [About Salt Institute] [About salt] [About the salt industry] [News] [SI Member Business (password required] [E-Mail Salt Institute] |