Can I Use Salt As Sanitizer Instead of Chlorine?

[catfish]

To clarify, my research wouldn't be so sketchy if it weren't utterly impossible to google. You just can't look for info on salt water pools without running into a tidal wave of debate on chlorine generation, a murkiness you've helpfully increased by moving my post here. I'm sorry I didn't add a disclaimer before every one of my sentences that I do not know many solid facts at this point, except that I'm pretty darn sure the issue is not as cut and dry (no pun intended) as you make it.

And I don't doubt that sewage contamination of seawater does occur; I just am curious about: saline levels required for pathogens to survive, ratio of initial level contimination (much lower for not wiping one's butt vs. mass discharge) to volume (a pool or pond is obviously much smaller than the ocean, but how far does sewage contamination spread before the pathogens die off? Certainly it does not spread throughout the entire ocean, so the volume of waste/volume of water situation is not clear cut.)

If you feel so very passionately about people swimming in untreated water, I suggest you get down here right away with your sandwichboard and bullhorn, because there are literally millions of people taking a much bigger risk things than what I am contemplating. And that's all it is right now; contemplating.

[Watermom]

Thread locked by moderator until Ben decides if and when he chooses to reply.

[PoolDoc]

Mods, I'm re-opening it and moving it to the China Shop, just for fun. Usually, when people say dumb stuff, they are still asking for help, so I have to bite my tongue, and not say what I'm really thinking. It's nice to be able to speak more openly.

Plus, this thread will get Googled, and will serve as a nice repository for comments on the more extreme misconceptions about salt in pool water.

I'm going to let Chem_Geek respond, if he wants to, before I do so again. He'll be much nicer, if perhaps recondite.

[chem geek]

There are over 35,000 scientific peer-reviewed papers in respected journals regarding bacteria in the (salty) ocean. There's no way I'm going to list all of those here. In this paper, they isolated 519 different strains of bacteria looking for those that might be antibacterial (which sounds crazy, given they are bacteria, but they mean where one strain of bacteria produces substances that inhibit/kill many other strains) and there is also this paper regarding fecal bacteria in coastal wetlands. As for viruses, salts kills some, such as H1N1 as described in this paper, but not others as described in this paper, this paper, this paper, this book and many others. Perhaps you should buy the book Oceans and Health:: Pathogens in the Marine Environment.

Look at the CDC Surveillance Summaries for Waterborne Disease and Outbreaks which show outbreaks in recreational water including marine water and in fact in all untreated water where the outbreaks have varied sources whereas treated sources (i.e. chlorinated water) had mostly the protozoan oocyst Cryptosporidium parvum which is why the CDC Model Aquatic Health Code (MAHC) is looking at requiring UV or ozone in new/modified commercial/public pools.

A critical point that is being missed, however, is the volume of water. Oceans have a very large volume so when you swim in them the fecal bacteria that you shed get diluted greatly. The same is true in large lakes and in flowing rivers. Even so, people still get sick in such water venues. However, swimming pools are very different in that they are much lower volume and are mostly static. The fecal bacteria you shed, as well as the viruses and protozoan oocysts (if you are sick) all go into a much smaller volume of water where the bacteria can reproduce at will and the other pathogens survive until they find another host (i.e. swimmer). Salty water is not sufficient to kill or inactivate such pathogens and certainly not to do so quickly enough to prevent person-to-person transmission of disease. Remember that human body fluids already are at around 9000 ppm salt and that many of early microorganisms came from the sea so have mechanisms for dealing with salt.

And then there's the impracticality of having very high salt levels in swimming pools with the attendant metal corrosion issues, stinging eyes (do you open your eyes underwater in the ocean?) and killing of plant life and contamination of waste water treatment plants for inland locations whenever you backwash or otherwise replace the water.

I believe your idea needs a little more thought.

[PoolDoc]

Thanks, CG.