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 hundreds of thousands of potentially armful species. So what did they do? First, they wrote an article which will soon be published by Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Then, they rushed to the store to buy new vinyl curtains. Sorry to leave you here, but I also have to go and buy another shower curtain, preferably a disposable one.
The researchers aimed their microscopes at the grunge -- or "soap scum biofilm" -- a mix of soap, bacteria and bacteria waste products or mucous that forms thin, crusty layers. They examined four vinyl shower curtains from their own bathrooms. And they were amazed by what they saw.
The researchers scrutinized key pieces of genetic material in each bacterium they found. They uncovered a surprisingly large, diverse community of hundreds to thousands of potentially harmful species, which sent them pronto to the store to replace their vinyl shields.
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.
So the researchers are giving us some practical advises.
They advised hospitals and residential facilities with immune-compromised residents to use disposable shower curtains.
[San Diego State University biology professor] Scott Kelley and his colleague Norman Pace, [a University of Colorado professor,] 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.
They still don't know where all these bacterai came from. They might come from the water system or own dirt. Anyway, these professors of university are now turning into house cleaners.
"I clean my shower curtain more frequently now and change it much more regularly," said Kelley, who hung up a new one just last week.
"I'd advise to run your shower curtains through the clothes washer every few weeks," Pace added. "Better yet, get a glass door. Glass accumulates this biofilm slower."
Source: Cheryl Clark, The San Diego Union-Tribune, May 2, 2004
6:34:31 PM
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