Showerheads spewing bacteria? Showerhead cleaning tips can help

In a story ripe for fright matching Alfred Hitchcock's famous shower scene, researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have discovered that taking a shower can deliver a face full of potentially dangerous bacteria.

Researchers analyzed roughly 50 showerheads from nine cities in seven states that included New York City, Chicago and Denver. The result? Thirty percent of the devices harbored significant levels of Mycobacterium avium, a bacteria linked to pulmonary disease that most often infects people with compromised immune systems but which can occasionally infect healthy people, said Professor Norman Pace, who lead the study.