Norman R. Pace of the University of Colorado and colleagues have found that the morning shower is essentially a bath in bacteria.
"As part of a project to measure microbes in the indoor human environment, they looked at shower water, in part because in showers bacteria are incorporated into fine droplets that can be breathed deep into the lungs.
The bacteria get into shower heads from the water and build up there, so the dose is highest when the shower is first turned on. Running the water for 30 seconds before stepping in would mean fewer bacteria in one’s face, Dr. Pace observed. Also, the bacteria seem to find metal shower heads a less hospitable niche than plastic ones.
He has turned up more than 15 kinds of bacteria in showers across the country, from Tennessee to Illinois, Denver and New York City, he reports this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
For New Yorkers, Pace found that the water carries a particularly high dose of Mycobacterium avium, a microbe related to tuberculosis.
"As part of a project to measure microbes in the indoor human environment, they looked at shower water, in part because in showers bacteria are incorporated into fine droplets that can be breathed deep into the lungs.
The bacteria get into shower heads from the water and build up there, so the dose is highest when the shower is first turned on. Running the water for 30 seconds before stepping in would mean fewer bacteria in one’s face, Dr. Pace observed. Also, the bacteria seem to find metal shower heads a less hospitable niche than plastic ones.
He has turned up more than 15 kinds of bacteria in showers across the country, from Tennessee to Illinois, Denver and New York City, he reports this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
For New Yorkers, Pace found that the water carries a particularly high dose of Mycobacterium avium, a microbe related to tuberculosis.
Tue Sep 15 04:49:43 2009