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Taking Showers Can Be Harmful To Your Health
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."
Taking showers 'can make you ill'
Showering may be bad for your health, say US scientists
OMG! OMG! Wait, the article goes on to say:
"These bacteria [â¦] rarely cause disease in healthy people. Further work will need to look at whether finding these organisms is associated with any increased risk of infection."
Thanks, BBC.
I guess a couple of co-workers are actually just taking good care of their health. I'm pretty sure one of them doesn't come anywhere near this bacterium more than twice a year.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Finally the medical community is backing my position on showers ... and I know it's just a matter of time before some new study proves I'm right about the Doritos and climbing the basement stairs.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
sponge baths, given by sexy barely legal nurses in underwear, now that's healthy, in more than one sense of the word.
Onda Technology Institute
Why bother with CLR? That's a lot of effort to keep your showerheads clean and safe.
What I've done to protect myself against this terrifying bacteria is to actively encourage the growth of black mold in my shower, which suppresses bacteria growth.
This has a lot of benefits:
1. Chinks in the grout between tiles are filled automagically with an attractive black growth.
2. I never have to clean hard-to-reach areas, since this is where the mold grows best.
3. My shower is now cute and cuddly due to the "furry" coating on exposed surfaces. It's like a panda bear, except without the bamboo and pointy teeth!
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
From the (somewhat incomplete) information in TFA, I think you're right that running the water before stepping in helps. Not sure about whether the fact you're taking a shower at the time matters, as the concern is inhaled bacteria.
It also seems that metal shower heads are not as bad as plastic.
Oh, and the bacteria in question are opportunistic - healthy people rarely get sick from them. So maybe it makes sense to give small children more baths than showers (which is what my family always did when I was growing up anyway); to consider taking baths when sick; and to consider what this implies for care of the elderly.
Other than that, this just seems a bit over-hyped. (Not seeing what the comparison to TB adds to the story beyond sensationalism, for example.)
See you simply don't care to keep yourself or your family healthy. I change my shower heads, shower pipes, tile, grout, and wetboard once/week. The bathroom manufacturers who came out with this study....err who have HEARD of this study think it is a good idea.
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
Back in the day I had to choose between my friends in the shower or my ability to keep getting laid. It wasn't a hard decision ;)
So, enough suspense already! Which one did you pick?
#DeleteChrome
Arguably people get staph infections in hospitals because hospitals put so much effort into sterilizing every little thing. It leaves the hardiest, and fastest spreading bacteria and viruses to fill the vacuum rather than the millions of common germs that our body knows how to deal with. They've done studies which show a less rigorous sterilization regiment can actually reduce the rate of infections but the whole 'germs are evil' mindset prevents hospitals from actually changing their behavior.
So, enough suspense already! Which one did you pick?
I think it's obvious; he's on slashdot, after all.
Jerry: Hey, you're not giving it to me, man. What's wrong?
Kramer: I just took a bath, Jerry. A bath?
Jerry: No good?
Kramer: It's disgusting. I'm sitting there in a tepid pool of my own filth.
All kinds of microscopic parasites and organisms having sex all around me.
http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheShowerhead.htm
And when you DO unscrew the shower head you will find......
NOTHING!
Because this story is largely BULL. You can stick a swab just about anywhere and find SOMETHING to sensationalize.
But having done more than my share of plumbing I can tell you shower heads are as clean on the inside the day you replace them as they were the day you installed them.
You might find calcium deposits. But then thats also in your tap where you get water to drink or cook.
Could you possibly find some bacteria? Probably, especially if you live where water is not chlorinated.
But is there enough to make you sick?
Well lets think about that for a second: If this bacteria could be washed out of the shower head onto you, then simply running the shower for a minute before you step in would solve the problem.
And, don't we all do this anyway?
Tempest. Teapot.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
No doubt. Forget how dirty the shower head is. Try swabbing a human. Yucky people.