Trillions of invisible germs are there with you, writes Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor, in Seattle
The next time you step into the shower, beware, you are not alone. Trillions of bacteria are there with you, embedded safely in the soap film clinging to the shower curtain, a major science conference in Seattle has heard. That soap film is a robust bio-film packed with bacteria, according to Prof Norman Pace of the University of Colorado at Boulder. "Turn on the shower and you are immediately immersed in a bio-aerosol," he told the American Association conference.
Prof Pace and colleagues quantified and categorised the bacteria in the white film that coats most shower curtains and found that a single square inch piece of curtain typically harboured bugs in the "billions". The bacteria that favour joining you in the shower for a splash include some nasty customers which pose a risk to those with compromised immunity, he added.
Prof Pace warned that a kitchen sponge and a hot tub are also spectacular breeding grounds for these bacteria. "I would not get into a public hot tub. I wouldn't get into a personal one either because they are breeding grounds," he said. He also discovered in another study that a therapeutic pool used in patient therapy and larger public swimming pools heave with invisible life.
"We are completely surrounded by a world of micro-organisms that we can't see but affect us profoundly," he said.
His presentation at the meeting occurred during a session looking at a range of organisms readily found in the environment but which are recognised human pathogens. Prof Philip Hanna of the University of Michigan Medical School, described how he looked for and found in soils the spores of Bacillus anthracis, better known as the deadly anthrax organism.
It had long been assumed that anthrax remains an inert spore in the wild until it comes to life in an animal host.
However, he reported that anthrax can wake up, live, reproduce and multiply in the soil and then return to being an inert spore without a host.