Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
On a recent autumn morning, I did something that I have never done before, something that had never even occurred to me as a thing that I might do or should feel embarrassed about not doing: I cleaned my showerhead. It’s possible, I hope, that others of you are similarly negligent. If so, I am here to report, dear readers, that it was gross. I am the proud owner of a handsome matte-black rainfall-style showerhead. When I unscrewed it and peered inside, I was confronted with a slimy, slightly clotted dark film covering the stainless-steel interior. I sprayed it with everything I had and left it to marinate in a bucket of bleach while I called my mother to verify that showerhead cleaning was not something she’d told me to do years ago. (It wasn’t.)
My sudden showerhead conniption was set off, indirectly, by Rob Dunn, an evolutionary biologist at North Carolina State University. Dunn’s laboratory is focussed on getting to know humanity’s most intimate microbial neighbors—the invisible army of bacteria, fungi, mites, and molds that live on our skin, clothes, and household surfaces. Earlier this year, as part of that mission, Dunn and his colleagues launched the Showerhead Microbiome Project, sending five hundred sampling kits to volunteers across the United States and Europe. (The team is still recruiting; you can sign up online here.) My kit was No. 260. It came with a pair of blue nitrile gloves and a questionnaire that probed my cleaning and showering habits. “We’re great at inspiring shame,” Dunn said. The sampling process took about five minutes: I rubbed a cotton swab over the showerhead’s inner surfaces while trying not to gag, then used a few paper strips to test the chlorine, nitrate, iron content of my tap water, and its pH. And then, before I walked to the mailbox, I got to cleaning.
Dunn and his collaborators hope to be able to tell me sometime in the next few months which microbes I eradicated. Their first step will be to sequence the DNA present in my swabbed gunk, in order to identify what classes of organism are generally present. Since showerheads are extreme environments—Dunn called them “the desert washes of your home,” alternately soaking wet and bone dry—he expects their inhabitants to include not only bacteria and fungi but also more unusual creatures like amoebae, algae, and protists. “You may have worms,” Dunn told me. “There’s even some evidence in the Netherlands of little crustaceans.”
So my showerhead might have crabs?
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 3, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday December 15 2016, @11:46AM
OK, so if you were to order one of these testing kits with the intention of inserting spurious material to confuse / boggle the researchers, what would you put in?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @01:29PM
One of my dogs landmines from the backyard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @02:14PM
A bobcat [xkcd.com].
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday December 17 2016, @08:28AM
Polonium, some of that anthrax that got loose in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and a liberal quantity of cheap vodka.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @11:47AM
ah-so. however if it lives in a showerhead it also lives in or rather on the pipe(surface).
good luck cleaning the pipe from source to showerheat.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Thursday December 15 2016, @01:12PM
The speed of the water may have something to do with it as well. There are going to be areas of very low water velocity in a rainfall style head more than many others as well, although most probably have areas where the turbulence creates pockets of little water movement. I don't recall seeing biological build-up in any pipes, although the hose where the water trickles out of the dehumidifier in my basement becomes quite the science experiment.
(Score: 2, Informative) by RS3 on Thursday December 15 2016, @08:17PM
I do a bit of plumbing and I find no biological buildup in supply pipes- just a thin mineral coating. One characteristic of organisms buildup is a sliminess. I'm not a biologist but my hunch is that the various showerhead organisms need air as well as water. No matter how well you think it drains, I guarantee they hold residual water days later, and as organisms grow, the water thickens, holes get clogged (by minerals too) and the problem escalates.
Dehumidifier and air conditioner condensate can be a very serious problem. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/legionnaires-disease/symptoms-causes/dxc-20248078 [mayoclinic.org]
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday December 15 2016, @08:50PM
Thanks, I'd completely forgotten about that.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday December 16 2016, @01:21AM
Seconded, I don't know shit about plumbing but I know that showerhead clogs are caused by minerals 'n' shit. The rare case I saw is that a friend who had one of those large-diamater showerheads noticed that the head pipe started getting musically resonant (sound roughly like a rusty gate hinge swiveling) when she took showers due to the lime and scale buildup.
I endorse CLR [amazon.com] for all of my removal-of-piss-crust-from-the-bottom-of-the-toilet-bowl needs.
But the best advice I can give California showerhead operators is this: locate and remove the flow-obstructor. Your hot showers will be fantastic, with magnificent pressure, and so-called "water crises" are just made-up bullshit here anyway. Sure, they tell you there are water shortages, and that you must accept austerity measures and get charged more and use less water year-to-year, but everytime you drive on the highway you see more and more 100-unit condo complexes under construction.
Yeah, no. To use another "wet" analogy -- If they tell you to conserve water, they're pissing on your head and telling you it's raining. They could offset the costs by adding an extra percentage to water rates to those folks who insist on having golf-courses for front yards, but fat chance. You are dumb and being fucked up the water-ass to enrich greedy land developers!
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday December 15 2016, @01:24PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @02:42PM
Random notes on an interesting thread --
Our "rainfall" shower head was emptying very slowly, sometimes we'd hear a series of splashes several hours after the last use--woke me up a few times in the middle of the night. Can't say that I worried about the standing water as a growth medium...but now I'll consider that also. Anyway, I tilted it slightly so that the water inside runs to one side and now it drains in a few minutes.
The little jets tend to clog, but they are rubber and it's easy to rub a finger across them (flexes the rubber slightly) to clear out the mineral(?) deposit. The rubber insert with nubs/jets seems like a nice design feature in terms of cleaning, but now I'm wondering if it promotes or discourages growth?
The hot water heater is at the other end of the basement, so we have to wait awhile for hot water in the shower. Seems like all that cold water running through the shower head before use could purge anything "loose" that has grown inside the head?
Tried cleaning deposits out of the inside of a chrome shower head with a "lime away" product and it stained the chrome finish. White vinegar doesn't work as quickly, but (at least for the minerals that we collect here) it does dissolve them in time (hours).
(Score: 1) by RS3 on Thursday December 15 2016, @08:07PM
I bet there's some residual water in there. I'm amazed at how "sticky" and globular water can be.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @12:09PM
sequence the DNA present in my swabbed gunk
The only possible excuse for wasting resources on such trivial minutia is cancer must already have been cured.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday December 15 2016, @12:30PM
What if your gunky showerhead is spraying you with carcinogens on a daily basis?
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @12:46PM
Cleaning your showerhead doesn't require sequencing DNA. Now if you wanted to motivate millennial idiot mama's-boys to clean their showerheads, you could code an app with one achievement unlocked by uploading photos of showerheads before and after cleaning. Then you monetize your app for ten billion dollars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @03:07PM
Sequencing DNA is now cheap.
You do NOW what is cheap; you save hard, expensive things (like "curing" cancer) for a later time, when it too becomes cheap.
It would be a waste of resources to use iron-age technology to build an iPhone.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Francis on Thursday December 15 2016, @03:44PM
Yes, but what's the point, it's the outside of the showerhead that has the e. coli that might possibly make you sick, if you happen to drink it, I guess. And even there, you're unlikely to get sick unless it's a specific strain that has the unfortunate habit of releasing toxins into the blood stream.
If we're going to get all freaked out about bacteria, it would make far more sense to worry about the bacteria on the tooth brush that people tend to leave in their bathroom. That at least tends to go in the mouth.
But, even there, it's not really worth worrying about as long as you haven't gone apeshit destroying the bacteria that are supposed to be crowding out the more dangerous ones.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday December 15 2016, @02:04PM
sequence the DNA present in my swabbed gunk
The only possible excuse for wasting resources on such trivial minutia is cancer must already have been cured.
The cure for (some forms of) cancer may very well lurk in the genomes of "friendly bacteria."
Even if they are not curing cancer, understanding the human-microbe society is incredibly important to human health. Presence of h.pylori in stool is indicative of bacterial ulcers. Before 1990, we knew people had ulcers, but had no idea what to do about them "drink milk" was the standard recommendation, while the pain and suffering could go on for years. With the h.pylori connection, identified by genetic markers, now they know to treat those most common form of chronic ulcers with antibiotics and they're gone within a week.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday December 15 2016, @06:12PM
Imagine that the Chinese guy who made your showerhead used a certain kind of cheaper-than-specced coating, which turns out to mutate the bacteria which live in there. You then rub then all over your body. Knowing may prevent some people from becoming sick.
[puts his super-cynical hat back on]
How do you expect that I'm going to be able to market my new Mr Clean(TM) Deep Inside BacteriaFree(TM) Showerhead Cleaner(TM), if I don't have a study to quote, PROVING how DANGEROUS your UNCLEANed showerhead is, for YOUR children
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @08:33PM
Don't forget to throw something in there about protecting your pets. You can tug more heartstrings with "children and pets" than you can with "children" alone.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday December 15 2016, @08:52PM
You would need to clean the mineral build up first as a practical measure before worrying about any germs. It prevents proper flow and makes that one stream annoyingly go sideways. That's super easy with CLR, a plastic bag, and a rubber band.
I doubt that too many organisms are happy swimming in CLR, so I feel pretty safe. I would even say spring fresh, since I use Irish Spring the soap of discerning Leprechauns :)
I'm quite amused that we're discussing shower heads today. It's a welcome break from the, well, you know.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @09:50PM
I wonder what Snowden says is in Trump's showerhead? (I would have said "Assange", but Russia hasn't told him what's in there yet)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bradley13 on Thursday December 15 2016, @02:46PM
We have more bacteria in our bodies than we have cells. We are surrounded by bacteria, fungi, and all sorts of microscopic critters. As a science experiment, my younger son once took cultures off of all sorts of objects - one of the most...fruitful...was a bar of soap in the school bathroom.
The gunk in the guy's shower head was undoubtedly harmless. He's likely to find the same kind of stuff in the nooks and crannies of his washing machine, his toilets, his dishwasher. What about his garden hose, put away in the Fall and taken out again, months later, in the Spring? Out of sight, in this case, really should be out of mind.
Anecdote: As an adult, I was entertaining a troupe of young nieces and nephews over the holidays. We all sat down on the floor to play some game or other. My aunt came by: "Get up, get up! You might get a germ!!!" Bleah. Germaphobes are worse than germs.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday December 15 2016, @02:49PM
Worst case? Spiders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @03:29PM
No, worst case WASPS. Our AC condensate drain was blocked by a nest started by wasps in the spring (before air conditioning season).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @04:49PM
Even worse... Missing hamster and strange odor from the A/C. Upon disassembly, found decapitated hamster stuck in the hamster wheel (fan).
(Score: 2, Informative) by DeKO on Thursday December 15 2016, @03:57PM
That's a myth. [nature.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by tynin on Thursday December 15 2016, @05:10PM
Comically, what you linked to, says you are wrong.
The myth you think you are referencing said that we are 10 to 1 bacteria to cells. All they found is we are closer to 1 to 1, but still favor more bacteria than cells.
(Score: 2) by tynin on Thursday December 15 2016, @05:12PM
I should have said, still favor more bacteria than cells, at least in the reference. Some people swing to either side, but no one is close to 10 to 1.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @08:19PM
Germaphobes can be hard to handle sometimes. I should know, I married one. There is a certain level of normal cleaning that everyone should do, but I can't tell you the number of things that I have had to clean to ridiculous levels just make my wife feel comfortable. I dare not tell her which of her preferred cleaning methods are actually ineffective, nor do I mention the places that never get cleaned (like the mentioned showerhead internals, pipes) that will interact with every day. Ignorance is bliss for a germaphobe and the people around them.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Thursday December 15 2016, @04:15PM
I think there are no crabs in your showerhead.
I have heard that there are species of woodlice (isopods) that can live in tap water. But only if it is very clean. I've never seen one of those, but I suspect that's what's meant. They are apparently almost transparent and don't look like the grey ones you find under rotting bark of a tree.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @05:06PM
Either those isopods are microscopic like tardigrades or the Netherlands needs to install some simple cheap strainers to filter out the small, yet still macroscopic, particles.
My well water goes through so much filtering that I can be sure that any occasional bit of debris that comes through is some old mineral buildup that broke free from the inside of piping that has been there long before the filters were installed.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday December 15 2016, @04:21PM
You should see whats in your pipes. Few years back I helped my friend do a plumbing upgrade. The old copper tube had a few millimeter film of a translucent greasy paste inside. It looked like a clogged artery. You also find little bits in filters, and sink strainers. Basically, pieces of rock, dirt and rust from piping. Face it, your water isn't as clean as you think it ought to be. But in the end, animals (including humans) are pretty hardy and don't mind a little particulate, algae, bacteria, etc. It just how life works.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday December 15 2016, @09:12PM
Indeed. Until a few centuries ago the typical source of water was the unfiltered buckets drawn from the local river or stream, the bed of which was absolutely *covered* in microbe rich dirt, and the water of which was all runoff carrying microbes from animal waste and corpses. Yet somehow we survived, almost as if macroscopic life had evolved from day one in a world utterly dominated by competing microbes, and developed the ability to thrive within it long before developing anything as sophisticated as bones or brains.
(Score: 1) by fraxinus-tree on Thursday December 15 2016, @04:24PM
I can see inside whenever I want. Nothing of interest there, except some occasional swirling bubble.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday December 15 2016, @06:09PM
It was there before you looked: did you die before you looked?
No.
Did you get a disease before you looked?
No.
It will not harm you.
Out of sight, out of mind.
STOP LOOKING!
DISCLAIMER: If you did die before you looked, you are now dead and cannot read this, nor sue me. IANAL, but i think my ass is pretty covered here.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @11:14PM
Yeah, your ass is pretty covered in whatever is growing in your showerhead.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday December 16 2016, @03:58AM
Aaaaaaaaand, I'm still not dead.
Wait....
Nope, not dead.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by inertnet on Thursday December 15 2016, @08:46PM
Tomorrows headlines:
- Countless new species discovered.
- Massive drop in water usage still unexplained.
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Friday December 16 2016, @01:34AM
I opened my shower head up and could clearly hear the Cantina Band playing. It was a retched hive of scum and villainy.
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday December 16 2016, @04:49AM
Some very intelligent Soylentils have alluded to this, but keep in mind that killing all the microorganisms in your living environment is bad for you.
We do not live in individual bubbles. We live in an incredibly complex and intertwined world. Our bodies are kept alive by a lot of things supporting us: the sun providing heat, light and energy, society providing many services and industries, the planet with its ecosystems, geology and meteorology, and yes, tons of microorganisms around and inside of us, most of which are harmless, many of which are indirectly beneficial, some of which are directly beneficial, and a proportionally very tiny number which are directly harmful to us.
If it really bothers you, just don't go looking at it. Out of sight, out of mind, etc.
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