
What’s Lurking in Your Showerhead - anthotny
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/whats-lurking-in-your-showerhead
======
misja111
“You may have worms,” Dunn told me. “There’s even some evidence in the
Netherlands of little crustaceans.”

Ok so I have been living in the Netherlands for 46 years and I have never
heard about crustaceans in our showerheads :) I can't find any sources about
this on the Internet. Has anybody ever heard about this or is this just
nonsense?

~~~
anthotny
The presence of crustaceans has nothing to do with cleanliness. New York City
also has famously good water, and it has crustaceans:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/nyregion/the-waters-
fine-b...](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/nyregion/the-waters-fine-but-is-
it-kosher.html?_r=0)

~~~
finid
_New York City also has famously good water_

Not true! NYC does not have "famously good water". I found that out when I had
to change my counter-top water filter after about one year of use.

It was more than gross. Imagine having to drink that water without the benefit
of a water filter. By the way, I don't think water people drink in many
restaurants are filtered.

~~~
anthotny
But couldn't that just be the pipes in your building? The water comes from the
Catskills, and when it leaves there, at least, it's extremely clean.

~~~
teslabox
The water towers on top of NYC buildings tend to not be maintained especially
well:

    
    
      With their quaint barrel-like contours and weathered 
      cedar-plank sides, rooftop water towers are a constant on 
      the New York City skyline. And though they may look like 
      relics of a past age, millions of residents get their 
      drinking water from the tanks every day.
    
      But inside these rustic-looking vessels, there are often 
      thick layers of muddy sediment. Many have not been 
      cleaned or inspected in years. And regulations governing 
      water tanks are rarely enforced, an examination by The 
      New York Times shows.
    

[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/nyregion/inside-citys-
wat...](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/nyregion/inside-citys-water-tanks-
layers-of-neglect.html) (warning: autoplay video)

------
gkya
"He suggested that the female reputation for making tastier bread may derive
from the fact that the skin on women’s hands is more likely to be colonized by
fermentation-friendly lactobacilli from their vaginas."

This is the weirdest thing I've heard in a while and I wonder if there is even
a slight possibility that this is true.

~~~
mritterhoff
As a homebrewer who consumes the end product of microorganism processes, an
unexpected infection almost always yields off-flavors that are counted as
defects in the beer. That said, there are some beer types that are
"spontaneously fermented" by environmental yeasts, that end up with a sour
taste as a desirable characteristic, and the rest of the beer flavor profile
is crafted to harmonize with it.

I think there is a slight possibility the claim is true, but only for
sourdough breads.

------
jsight
Apparently the answer is "gross stuff". I didn't see much more usable detail
than that in the article?

~~~
teod
Gross stuff which is actually a collection of microorganisms. And reading
further, there's the idea that our exposure to this gross stuff may be
beneficial and one of the few ways we're still exposed to it. Or harmful.

Very interesting stuff in my opinion. Have studies like this been made more
accessible due to cheaper sequencing?

~~~
plussed_reader
And seeing as our bodies are colonies of microorganisms...

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cylinder
Why the focus on showerheads only and not water faucets which people drink
much more water from rather than bathe?

~~~
engates
It's probably the fact that shower heads have so much more surface area for
stuff to grow on and live in. One minute it's wet, and then it's drying for
the rest of the day. A water faucet is less hospitable to growing gunk.

~~~
gojomo
Hmm; I could see it being the exact opposite. The shower head, by drying out
after a single daily use, could be less hospitable to organisms that need
moisture. Meanwhile a faucet, used several times throughout the day, has areas
which never dry completely.

------
ars
You can (mostly) sterilize your showerhead if you want.

Turn up your hot water tank to the highest setting (150F) and wait for it to
finish heating, then just run straight hot water for about 10 minutes.

It won't kill everything, but it'll kill most things.

~~~
dashundchen
It sounds obvious, but this is incredibly dangerous scalding risk if someone
else turns on hot water expecting it to be a reasonable temperature while
you're doing this. Even if

Much easier to take your fixtures off and bleach/disinfect.

~~~
ars
> Much easier to take your fixtures off and bleach/disinfect.

You have a very different definition of "easier" than me.

And I don't know about you, but hot water is HOT, and I never use it directly
while expecting not to get burned - I always mix it with cold.

------
notadoc
> He suggested that the female reputation for making tastier bread may derive
> from the fact that the skin on women’s hands is more likely to be colonized
> by fermentation-friendly lactobacilli from their vaginas.

Not really what you want to read while eating sourdough toast.

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dec0dedab0de
Oh, I thought it was going to be the flow regulators. I keep meaning to remove
mine.

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module0000
Click bait or not, now I have to clean my shower head. Thanks a lot! :(

