CWQA Position Statement

Chloramines

Pure Potassium is an element appearing in the Periodic Chart of the Elements in the alkali metal group along with lithium, sodium, rubidium, cesium and francium.

Potassium chloride is chemically defined as a salt, KCI. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines potassium chloride as a "crystalline salt KCI occurring as the mineral sylvite in carnallite and in natural waters and used chiefly as a fertilizer and in the making of potassium compounds".

This same Webster’s Third International Dictionary defines salt as a "colourless or white crystalline compound NaCI consisting of sodium chloride", i.e., common table salt.

However, a strictly chemical definition of "salt" as found in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is "any substance which yields ions other than hydrogen or hydroxyl ions". A salt is obtained by displacing the hydrogen of an acid by a metal". In this broader scientific chemical sense, potassium is also a salt.

In summary, both Sodium Chloride and Potassium Chloride are chemically defined as salts with sodium chloride often referred to as "common salt" or just "salt".