There is a striking bus in the outskirts of Prinsenbeek. Perhaps modest on the outside, but completely lined with sea salt on the inside. It is the Zoutbus of Anja Rood (65), a place where people with lung complaints, skin problems or simply stress can catch their breath. But the survival of the Zoutbus hangs by a thread. After this winter, Anja will make the decision: continue or stop.
The Zoutbus is no ordinary bus. Inside you imagine yourself in a mini salt room, filled with many kilos of sea salt. Medicinal salt is ground into fine dust via a device and gently blown into the room for fifty minutes. “You breathe that in, without haste, without stimuli,” Anja explains. “The mucus in your lungs dissolves, you can breathe better and you come out with more energy. People sometimes say: I almost feel reborn.”
The treatment – halotherapy – is especially popular with people with asthma, COPD, chronic colds, sinus infections or skin complaints such as eczema and psoriasis. Children also know where to find the bus. “They just play in the salt here, make mountains. In this way they actually create their own salt therapy,” says Anja, laughing. “And it really makes them feel better.”
The Zoutbus works, I see it every day, but it is not reimbursed.”
De Zoutbus is accessible and intimate. Not a large space with twenty people, but a safe, warm place for one or two people at a time. “You literally crawl into it,” says Anja. “It’s relaxation and health.”
Yet it is not a medically recognized treatment. And that is troubling. “It works, I see that every day, but it is not reimbursed by insurance. People have to pay for it themselves. And a puffer, what a medicine is, you simply get it faster from the pharmacy.”
It also ensures that after a good initial period, the number of visitors to the Zoutbus decreases. While the costs continue as normal. The bus must remain warm day and night, with constant humidity. “Electricity, maintenance, the loan for construction,” says Anja, “it all adds up. I don’t actually earn anything from it, even though I see how many people benefit from this.”
For Anja, quitting feels like giving up a dream. She came into contact with salt therapy herself after years of pneumonia. “After two major treatments I never had it again. Now I maintain it preventively in my can. If I feel mucus coming on, I go a few times and it is gone again. I wish that for others too.”
“The continued existence of the Zoutbus is, frankly, a financial issue.”
Yet the tipping point is near. “It’s honestly a money issue,” she says. “After this winter I have to decide. It is precisely then, in the cold and damp months, that salt therapy is so good for the lungs. If it doesn’t work now, it will be very difficult.”
That hurts, because entrepreneurship and making money was never her primary goal. “It’s more of a calling,” says Anja. “People come back and say: I have air again, I can walk again. That is so grateful. That is why I do it.”
But gratitude alone doesn’t pay the bill. The Zoutbus will wait until winter and then the decision will be made.
