How clean is your shower?

I read this lovely little article from Reuters and proceeded to make an internal eeewwwww-type noise. It turns out my shower is not making me as clean as I had hoped. If you're anything like me, the last time you cleaned the inside of your shower head was ... never, and that exactly where the problems start.

Here's a snippet:

An analysis of 50 showerheads from nine U.S. cities found that about 30 percent harbored high levels of Mycobacterium avium -- a group of bacteria that can cause lung infections when inhaled or swallowed. Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder found the levels of Mycobacterium avium were 100 times higher than those found in typical household water.

"If you are getting a face full of water when you first turn your shower on, that means you are probably getting a particularly high load of Mycobacterium avium, which may not be too healthy," said researcher Norman Pace in a statement.

Mycobacterium avium is linked to pulmonary disease, causing symptoms such as a persistent drug cough, breathlessness and fatigue, and most often infects people with compromised immune system but can occasionally infect healthy people.

To read the rest of this article, click here.