Air date: November 15, 2009

Host:

Email
Share this segment
Download MP3

Not to get too intimate or anything. But say you've just come home from a long, hard day at work, and you're ready for a long, hot, relaxing shower.

So you turn on the water, disrobe, and get in. And it feels great. There's just one thing: the showerhead is spraying you with bacteria.

In fact, researchers found that many showerheads are breeding grounds for a kind of an infection-causing bacteria that tag along with the tiny drops of water coming out of your showerhead. Microbiologist Norman Pace is one of those researchers.

"So the shower produces a lot of small droplets, and then those you inhale. And the issue is do the particles, are they sufficiently small to penetrate the airways?"

Now, the fact that the water coming out of your shower has bacteria in it may sound terrible. But, really, nearly all water has some bacteria. Bacteria are pretty much everywhere.

So unless your immune system is weak, due to disease or drugs, there's not much cause for alarm, believe it or not.

But still, damp shower heads are breeding grounds for microbes. So if you don't like the thought of taking a bacterial shower, there are a few things you can do.

Pace explains that "a metal shower head loads up less than does plastic, and there are many reasons why that might be the case."

You can also try using a drip shower head that doesn't produce as many tiny droplets. And, of course, you can always take a bath instead.

Additional Resources:

• Get the details on this showerhead study, which is from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Comments

No comments yet