Jacksonville Florida resident Corey Dalton has terminal MS. Corey purchased a floatation tank for pain relief, but the Florida health department won't let him set up his float tank in his beauty salon. For over a year, he has done whatever the health department required of him to get an exemption, but they continue to deny his exemption. They insist that a floatation tank is a swimming pool.

I learned about Corey through a local news segment on his floatation tank (click here for the news segment). In the interview, Corey said that floating is the only thing that gives him any relief. "For that one hour…I'm in no pain whatsoever." The Florida health department has issued Corey a cease and desist that includes his own private use of the float tank.

Anyone who has ever floated knows that a floatation tank is not a swimming pool. The 800-1000 lbs of dissolved Epsom salt that causes a person to float effortlessly also makes the float tank a far cleaner environment than any swimming pool, even without the use of chlorine. Epsom salt is a natural antiseptic. For more info on the many health benefits of Epsom salt, click here.

When my wife and I were working on opening our floatation center in 2004, our village health department didn't want to bother with creating a new business category, so they passed us off to the Illinois state health department who deliberated for months on whether we were a swimming pool facility or a spa. The distinction is important because it dictates what rules and regulations apply to you. Some of the rules that apply to swimming pools are unnecessary and/or counterproductive for a floatation center.

In an effort to bring a reasonable conclusion to this debate, I propose that Florida health department official(s) who is confusing a floatation tank with a swimming pool actually spend an hour in a float tank. After 100s of personal float sessions over the past 6 years, I found that I can think more clearly while floating weightless in the relaxing environment of a float tank. Once the health department official is relaxed, they should consider this information provided by Andrea Salzman at www.aquatictherapist.com:

According to the National Library of Medicine, balneology refers to bathing in mineral waters. Any passive immersion in hot or warm baths in natural mineral waters or spas could be labelled as spa therapy or balneology. [1]

In contrast, hydrotherapy refers to the external application of natural (not mineral) water, with an emphasis on water temperature and the motion of water. [2] In the U.S., the term hydrotherapy is typically used as a synonym of the term "whirlpool bath" and is used predominantly to describe wound care.

Americans tend to feel that the power of immersion is in the activity that occurs once immersed (e.g. gait training, therapeutic exercise, functional task simulation). In fact, the American Medical Association takes pains to describe aquatic therapy as an attempt by a therapist to improve function through the application of aquatic therapeutic exercises [3].

It would appear that new definitions are needed by state health departments to encompass the broad range of water-related therapies that are available. "Swimming pool" is a grossly inadequate catch-all, especially when it results in a terminally ill man being deprived of a safe and healthy form of pain relief.

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