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CHICAGO: Shower heads can deliver a face full of dangerous pathogens, according to a study which found them to be ideal breeding grounds for bacteria.
U.S. researchers analysed 50 shower heads from nine different cities and found 30% harboured significant levels of a pathogen linked to lung disease called Mycobacterium avium.
While the pathogen is common in municipal water systems, the levels found clinging to shower heads in slimy biofilms were more than 100 times higher than the background levels in the water.
The research is detailed in the U.S. journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Pathogen-filled droplets
"If you are getting a face full of water when you first turn your shower on, that means you are probably getting a particularly high load of Mycobacterium avium, which may not be too healthy," said lead author Norman Pace, a microbiologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Pace's team began studying shower heads after research at the National Jewish Hospital, in Denver, found that recent increases in pulmonary infections from so-called 'non-tuberculosis' mycobacterium species may be linked to people taking more showers and fewer baths.
That's because water spurting from shower heads can distribute pathogen-filled droplets that are easily inhaled into the deepest parts of the lungs.
Immune compromised
"There have been some precedents for concern regarding pathogens and shower heads," said Pace. "But until this study we did not know just how much concern." Immune-compromised people like pregnant women, the elderly and those fighting off other diseases are most at risk of developing pulmonary disease caused by M. avium.
The symptoms include tiredness, a persistent, dry cough, shortness of breath, weakness and "generally feeling bad," Pace said.
The researchers sampled shower heads in public facilities, houses and apartment buildings in New York, Illinois, Colorado, Tennessee and North Dakota.
All these research is really hotch -potch
So called western scientist doing any kind of research, they blinding belief in statistic is really amazing, every man is unequal how can you came to conclusion about all man on bases of statistic?So I thing this artical is hoax.
Um... what?
TROOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
shower heads
sir.
i can confirm that shower heads can cause bacterial infections, shower heads which have not been used for some time,having a short break during last summer we stayed at a small chalet in Wales an Idealic spot.
However i contacted a very severe ear infection which my wife and I put down to the chalet not being used for some time and the shower head.
We both now always run the shower for a short spell before use when staying away.
A question of,"prevention better than cure".
Shower heads
Mmmm, I do have a problem with reporting, when it is put as though we have something new to worry about. When I get to the end of it, however, I find out they don't really think there is anything to worry about.
The best advice is to use a metal showerhead and run some water first before you get in. Uh huh.
Why did you need to be alarming? How many people will only read the headline and think it is accurate? How few will get to the end and realise they've been had?
Agreed
Agreed. Good article, but I'd expect less sensationalism from Cosmos, and the heading is something more resembling the Herald-Scum (a non flattering way to describe a rather mediocre Victorian "newspaper") than a popular science journal. The point of science is not to be "knee jerk".