If you live in a major urban area and use a municipal water system, you may be sharing a shower with a pathogen linked to pulmonary disease that often harms people with compromised immune systems -- think patients undergoing cancer treatments, those suffering from AIDS or cystic fibrosis and pregnant women -- according to an analysis of some 50 showerheads used in nine cities and seven states.
The latest culprit infiltrating your water supply is mycobacterium avium (M. avium), a pathogen University of Colorado researchers found along with others inside showerheads around America at levels as much as 100 times greater than those found in background municipal water.
The problem: M. avium-laced water flows out of showerheads, distributing droplets that are suspended in the air and can be easily inhaled into the deepest parts of human lungs, scientists say. Among the symptoms of pulmonary disease connected to M. avium:
1. Shortness of breath
2. A persistent dry cough
3. Weakness
4. Fatigue
Because pathogens appear to like plastic surfaces, changing your showerhead to a metal one may be a good alternative, researchers say.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106, No. 38, pp. 16393-16399, September 14, 2009
EurekAlert September 14, 2009
Yahoo News September 14, 2009
Image source: CDC and Dr. Edwin Ewing, Jr.