Geezuz, if our anxiety doesn't kill us, our showerheads will. lmao
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Showerheads may be spraying out bacteria
1 in 5 tested harbored bugs tied to pulmonary disease, study finds

updated 2:52 p.m. CT, Mon., Sept . 14, 2009
Your showerhead may deliver more than a refreshing spray of water. New research suggests disease-causing bacteria hide out inside showerheads, hitching a ride to your face and body inside water droplets.

The grimy results come from genetic tests run on samples from 45 showerheads in homes, apartment buildings and public places from nine U.S. cities in five states: New York, Illinois, Colorado, Tennessee and North Dakota.

About 20 percent of the showerhead swabs harbored significant levels of Mycobacterium avium, bacteria linked to pulmonary disease that most often infects people with compromised immune systems, said lead researcher Norman Pace of the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Pace and colleagues found that M. avium and related pathogens were clumped together in slimy biofilms that coated the insides of the showerheads at more than 100 times the levels found in municipal waters that are the origins for the showers' water.

Once the pathogen-laden water spurts from showerheads, the bugs can suspend in the air where showering individuals can easily inhale them into the deepest parts of the lungs, Pace said.

For those with immune-compromised systems, Pace recommends changing out your showerhead regularly. Sufficiently cleaning showerheads may prove difficult as they are full of hard-to-reach nooks and crannies. While chlorine-bleach products may remove some bacteria, mycobacteria are resistant to chlorine. He added that microbes attach more easily to plastics, so an all-metal showerhead might be a good investment for the immune-compromised.

Don't panic — showerhead germs won't kill you

At the end of the day, Pace doesn't recommend steering clear of the shower. "It's like anything else — there is a risk associated with it," Pace said

The study, detailed in the Sept. 14 online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32845180/ns/health/

Watch showerheads go sky high in stores. LOL Good thing I have a spare. Think I will finally get one of those shower filters before I install it, hate that chorine anyway.

I saw this on the news. Maybe we should dip our shower heads in bleach????? Do you think it would work?

Actually they did say that dipping would kill some of the bacteria but the bacteria that is resistant to chlorine would not be killed. Plus the showerheads have so many cracks and crevices. Damn I'm getting sick just thinking about it. Oh wait, I was already sick.. Ok paying attention again..

I'm going to do some digging and see what other suggestions are out there besides buying a damn shower head several times a year.

How many years have we had showers?
And now your gonna worry about it?

No I am not going to worry about it, I am going to do something about it. I am going to replace the existing one because it's old anyway and I already got a replacement before I found this article. I also wanted to cut down on the chlorine by using a filter because the clhorine drys out my skin. As for the contaminants that stay in the showerhead I never thought about it. Once I am made aware of somthing I do something about it. That doesn't make me paranoid it just makes me take action. Where I am the water isn't all that great, I already strictly use a filter for the water I drink.

Actually I am thinking about installing a whole house filter...I can't do much about what I am not aware of but I sure can do something about what I 'am' aware of. My house leaked air for a year or more before I learned where to look for leaks, now I save at least 80 bucks a year in ac because I did something about it when I became aware of it. I'm not rich, so that savings is important to me.

I also have whole house surge protection from the electric coop, because the electric here goes on and of repeatedly just before it goes out completely, at least two or three times a month. If anything is damage by a surge.. all appliances.. they are replaced by the coop. I just tend to be practical.