A hot shower can always give a relaxing feeling with the steam rising as the water rains down on the body. But knowing that there could be pathogens living on the shower heads will make showering less appealing.
A recent study conducted in Benedum Hall at the University of Pittsburgh aims to investigate shower head materials that could affect microbial exposure on people, especially those who are immunocompromised individuals.
They called their project Investigating Home Water and Aerosols' Links to Opportunistic Pathogen Exposure (INHALE) Lab, which is headed by civil and environmental engineering assistant professor Sarah Haig of the Swanson School of Engineering.
They installed nine shower heads in three newly built shower stalls that will run for eight minutes per day. It is the average time that an American spends in the shower.
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INHALE Lab
Haig used to work with cystic fibrosis patients and their families before joining Swanson School. She tests the plumbing of their houses to know if there are opportunistic pathogens that could risk the compromised immune systems of the patients, such as nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
She said that parents would usually ask her a lot of questions on how to clean their shower heads, but she could not give a good answer because she does not know any.
That became her inspiration for the INHALE Lab, wherein they could compare materials and disinfection materials usually found at home that can limit the microbes to find the answer of how to best clean the shower heads.
Additionally, the study will help people make decisions in reducing pathogen exposure at their homes by choosing the right fixtures for their houses.
The shower stalls measure about 250 square feet and have its own water heaters and plumbing. They used a mix of shower head materials from the standard plastic to the metal shower heads, and shower heads embedded with antimicrobial silver.
Since the lab is still new and has sat idle for a couple of months due to coronavirus lockdowns, they need to flush the pipeline daily to condition the pipes and allow bacteria to set in before beginning their research.
But many other projects will use the unique capabilities of the shower lab.
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Understanding microbes in the shower
The National Science Foundation funds one of the projects that will be using the lab, wherein they will investigate the effect of silver in shower heads in OP Legionella. They aim to see if the silver with antibiotic resistance property will affect the bacteria.
Another project funded by the Central Research Development Fund will examine which prevention methods are best for preventing the Ops that can become airborne when the shower is running- the most typical way of becoming infected by the bacteria.
"The INHALE lab will help us understand the microbes in our showers, how they're disseminated, and most importantly, how to control them under conditions that replicate your own shower," says Janet E. Stout, the president of the Special Pathogens Laboratory.
Haig hopes that their study using the INHALE Lab will help families, hospitals, and other institutions or facilities to make decisions that will keep people who are immunocompromised or those with pulmonary from getting infected by harmful OPs.
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