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Who's Behind the Shower Curtain?

Posted by simoniker on from the psycho dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "No, it's not Norman Bates. Instead, hundreds of millions of yellow, pink and white bacteria are hiding on your shower curtain. According to a study by San Diego and Colorado researchers, it should be enough to push you to turn the water off and to make you grab a towel. After analyzing the vinyl shower curtains from their own bathrooms, the scientists found '...about 80 percent of the organisms they found in the flaky scum were in the same genetic families as those known to infect wounds'. Sorry to leave you here, but I also have to go and buy another shower curtain, preferably a disposable one."

4 of 526 comments (clear)

  1. Kill them. by jrockway · · Score: 5, Informative

    I spray my shower curtain with bleach every week or so. That should kill our good bacteria friends...

    --
    My other car is first.
  2. Keep your shower Curtain clean by ralphb · · Score: 5, Informative

    We have a cloth shower curtain, and it goes in the laundry every week or so. They cost more, and washing is a hassle, but there's a lot less grunge to tolerate.

    Cleaning Instructions: How to clean a shower curtain to shine like new

  3. Re:I call BS! by MacGarnicle · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mozart was Austrian. The famous joke usually invokes Beethoven who was German but composed in Vienna.

  4. Re:I call BS! by bug-eyed+monster · · Score: 5, Informative
    "While I agree that the story itself was sensationalized..."

    Actually, the story itself is pretty level-headed, it's the summary posted on Slashdot that is sensationalistic (I believe that's what you meant when you said "sensationalized" but I just want to make it very clear). The article says:

    "About 80 percent of the organisms they found in the flaky scum were in the same genetic families as those known to infect wounds or cause problems for people with AIDS, cancer or other immune system disorders."


    But the submitter cut the sentence when quoting, removing the qualification and making it look like the organisms found affect everybody and not just a specific group of people.

    Another quote to show the article is quite reasonable:

    "Kelly and Pace emphasized that the bacteria they found on their shower curtains normally don't cause problems for humans. "We don't want to freak people out, because we're really only talking about immune-compromised people," Kelley said"


    The good thing is, now when someone is diagnosed with a deficiency in their immune system, they can be advised to use glass shower doors.