Shaktima Kotulla
SALT LAMP WARNING! PLEASE SHARE!!!
My father an electrician discovered something that could be potentially fatal. He made many attempts to make the following information and risk known to several Government Departments in Australia and he suggested to me to put it on social media in the hope it may save a life.
One of my salt lamps internal electrical lights ceased working so I took it to my dad to have a look at. He was firstly shockingly surprised to find the poor quality of electrical workmanship and safety. He explained to me that the combination of salt (a conductor of electricity) and water were an electricians worst nightmare when working with electricity because water and salt becomes corrosive and conductive.
Salt Lamps undergo a process that sees it condense water when the light is turn on and then seeps out water when turned off, and more so in humid conditions than dry. In my case the salt water seeped into the electrical lamp holder which is inside the salt crystal and tripped the circuit breaker in my house.
The risk is that the wet lamp could become electrically active and touching it could be fatal. There was NO safety wire inbuilt which would normally trip an earth leakage circuit breaker and therefore provide you with some protection from electrocution, you can check this by looking at its plug, if it only has two prongs it has NO Earthing prong/safety wire. ALL my lamps in my house (4 of them) have only two prongs. There is no way of attaching an earthing/safety wire to the salt as its too brittle. Chances are your salt lamps have no safety/earthing wire too.
If you wish to keep your salt crystal its best to unplug it from the wall, remove the electrical casing, discard the electrical casing and cord and just use your salt crystal as an ornament in your home, patio or garden.
- Shaktima Kotulla (Perth, W.Australia)
PLEASE SHARE!