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Ever since Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, showers have seemed potentially lethal. Janet Leigh, who played the victim in the famous murder scene at the Bates Motel, avoided them as much as possible thereafter. In a recent study, researchers investigated whether microbes in shower water might be as dangerous as a lurking Anthony Perkins.
They analyzed ribosomal RNA sequences from the interior surfaces of 45 showerheads in nine American cities, sampling some on several occasions. The number of organisms identified at each site varied between 2 and 29, and the flora tended to be stable over time. The bacteria were mostly ubiquitous soil and water microbes that tend to form biofilms but rarely cause human infection. Mycobacterium avium and M. gordona…