Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Anti-shower

The news may be old, but still -- how much more evidence do I need to abstain from daily showers? I've got SCIENCE on my side, bitches.

Daily Shower Could Cause Brain Damage
The Gold Coast Bulletin
July 4, 2005

Taking regular showers could pose a health risk and even result in permanent brain damage, scientists claim.

US researchers believe that breathing in small amounts of manganese dissolved in the water may harm the nervous system. The damage may occur even at levels of the naturally occurring metal normally considered safe. Although manganese levels in public water supplies are monitored, regulators have not considered the long-term effects of inhaling vaporised manganese while showering, they claim.

"Inhaling manganese, rather than eating or drinking it, is far more efficient at delivering manganese to the brain," said Dr John Spangler of New Carolina. "The nerve cells involved in smell are a direct pathway for toxins to enter the brain."

Dr Spangler's team calculated from animal studies the amount of manganese people would absorb by showering for 10 minutes a day. After 10 years of showering in manganese-contaminated water, children would be exposed to levels of the metal three times higher than the doses needed to leave deposits in rats' brains. Adults with a longer history of showering could be exposed to doses 50 per cent higher. Children, pregnant women, the elderly and patients with liver disease were at the highest risk from manganese.

Everyone is exposed to small amounts of manganese, which is found in food and rocks, and enters the air, soil and water. But in sufficient doses manganese damages the brain and spinal cord, leading to learning and co-ordination disabilities, behavioural changes, and tremors.

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