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Taking Showers Can Be Harmful To Your Health

Posted by timothy on from the healthiest-guy-alive dept.

TheClockworkSoul writes "According to both the BBC and NewScientist, showering may be bad for your health. Apparently, dirty shower heads can be an ideal breeding ground for Mycobacterium avium, a bug responsible for a type of pulmonary disease more prevalent than tuberculosis in developed countries, cases of which have risen in parallel with the rise in showering. Tests revealed nearly a third of devices harbor significant levels of the critter."

3 of 431 comments (clear)

  1. does CLR kill it? by yincrash · · Score: 4, Interesting

    they keep dipping the shower heads in that stuff and it's magically shiny! maybe it'll kill bugs too?

  2. hmmm by Rip+Dick · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I know most people, myself included, run the water for a minute or two before stepping into the shower. (Due to the time it takes for the water to heat up, etc.) Would this help avoid getting sprayed with a build up of bacteria or is the stream of germs constant? Also, hot water + soap + friction can kill a lot of germs, wouldn't the fact that you're already showering help the situation?

  3. Re:Nothing to see here, move along... by couchslug · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Hospitals do all kinds of disinfection that you wouldn't and couldn't do in your own home, and people still get staph infections."

    They also ignore and omit proper precautions, even those as basic as a physician washing his hands between touching patients.

    We lose more people to MRSA in the US than we do to murder and the WoT, but it doesn't make much news for some reason...

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    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."