Brine spa/pool and bacteria

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TheCatLady

Active member
Apr 3, 2023
36
Romania
Hi everyone! I've been lurking on this forum for the past year and it has helped me tremendously with balancing the water in my hot tub.

But this topic is not about me or my tubs. It's more of a curiosity of mine that I'm hoping knowledgable people will be able to answer.

I live in an area where the are a few salt mines and places where brine pools happen naturally. A few people saw this as a business opportunity and have opened public brine pools/hot tubs. I generally avoid public pools and hot tubs, and even more so since knowing about water chemistry and sanitation. But I keep wondering, is water care all that different when it comes to high salinity?

A friend recently purchased a cedar tub (the wooden type with no filtration system and a wood fired stove) and filled it with brine. They don't use any kind of sanitizer because they claim bacteria can't proliferate in high salinity. How true is that? They also don't test the water in any way.
 
TheCatLady said:
They don't use any kind of sanitizer because they claim bacteria can't proliferate in high salinity. How true is that? They also don't test the water in any way.
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Simply untrue. There are plenty of examples of extremophile organisms in nature that live in harsh environments. Simply look up the term “halophile” and you see many examples of bacteria, fungi, and yeast as well as archaea that can live in water with salinities above 2M concentration (36% w/v). The oceans are full of bacteria and algae species that do quite well in the salinity of the seawater.

Whether or not any of those organisms can cause pathogenic disease in humans remains to be seen, but high salinity will not protect anyone from exposure.
 
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Thanks a lot! I thought as much regarding life of microorganisms in high salinity, but what about the "regular" ones we fear in our own spas? Like pseudomonas aeruginosa, legionella and the other nasties you can get from people soup? Can they live in such high salinity?
 
You'd have to look at each bacteria to see what their salt tolerance is. But even a cursory search can reveal that certain types of bacteria can survive when challenged to a harsh environment. Many either produce spores that can survive until conditions are right or they have inherent cellular processes that allow them to go dormant and survive. This article seems to indicate that P. aeruginosa can survive long periods of time in high salinity -

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Seawater salt-trapped Pseudomonas aeruginosa survives for years and gets primed for salinity tolerance - PubMed

The individual gene contributions build up the observed phenotype, but do not ease the identification of salinity-related metabolic pathways. The long-term inclusion of P. aeruginosa in salt crystals primes the bacteria, mediating a readjustment of the bacterial physiology to growth in higher...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Sure, hot salty water will not be a environment that is good for bacterial transmission and many of those saline springs are filled not just with sodium chloride but also other salts of magnesium and various other metal salts. All of that plays a role in keeping disease transmission down. But whether or not a person will acquire an infection can be a tricky thing with lots of unknowns. They bath at their own risk (and I'm sure the businesses that cater to them have relieved themselves off any liability with signed waivers by patrons that choose to use such facilities).
 
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It also depends on what these pools actually are.

Natural hot springs are very popular in Iceland, however they are also very careful about their use. Showering is required before entering, there are rules about being sick, or having open wounds (that people there actually follow) and the water is tested. There is also a constant inflow and outflow of fresh water. So while there may be no actual sanitizer in the water, they do have protocols in place maintain and monitor sanitation.

As for a stagnant brine pool or hot tub. No, that is not going to work.
 
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Your friends with the wood tub are just bathing together- no different than 2kids in a bathtub sharing the same bath water skin infections & all. 🤢 you pegged it- people soup!
 
Methuselah said:
Romania
"signed waivers"
I wonder...
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Yeah, most likely not :laughblue:

Even without waivers, regulations here are a bit of a joke.
But regulations aside, I do wonder about the safety of my friends that use a brine tub and insist bacteria cannot proliferate due to the high salinity.
It's still pretty gross to me. Sure, let's assume bacteria cannot proliferate at all. You still have sweat, skin cells and other bodily fluids that simly sit there with no filtration. Yuck!

Newdude said:
You HAVE been reading !!!!!! :ROFLMAO:

Bravo. :)

And Welcome !!!
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Sadly this is also from personal experience. At one point I decided to stop being the voice of reason for everyone and just have some fun (this was before I had a tub and new about water chemistry, which made me even more cautios). I got a urinary infection with antibiotic resistant pseudomonas aeruginosa that I battled for a while. NOT what my idea of fun was.
 
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No, it isn't. The tub is at a cabin in a very remote location and the water is brought in with a truck.
I'll suggest a filtration system and adding some chemicals, but ultimately it's their choice. I'm just gonna enjoy it by not getting in it :)
 
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