Scientists settle debate on whether baths or showers are more hygienic
Thomas Bamford
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Images
A shower and a bath both leave you feeling clean, but according to scientists, only one of them actually is.
A microbiologist has waded into the great shower versus bath rebate, and depending on your preference, you might not like what she has to say.
So, are baths actually hygienic?
Dr Primrose Freestone, a clinical microbiologist from the University of Leicester, speaking to the Daily Mail put it bluntly as possible.
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"When you have a bath the water is not changed, so all you're doing is redistributing the bacteria living on you to different body sites," she said.
In other words, that long, relaxing soak you've been treating yourself to? You're essentially sitting in your own petri-dish of bacteria.
Showers win the hygiene debate for the simple reason that the water keeps moving, Dr Freestone explained.
"A shower is a continuous changing stream of water which washed away potential germs," and that it "removes more skin microbes and dead skin cells than a bath as the water is a constant stream and therefore provides a friction force to the skin."
She added that a morning shower is particularly useful for washing off any sweat or bacteria picked up from your bed sheets overnight.
According to World Population Review, Americans lean towards showering, with 90% choosing showers over baths, compared to the UK, where 32% still prefer a bath.
Despite this, Dr Freestone isn't telling you to rip out the bathtub.
Baths do have some genuine benefits: they help you relax, ease aches and pains, reduce tension and helps improve blood flow. The problem is that they're just way more spa than scrub.
Her suggest is simple: have your bath, enjoy it, then jump in the shower afterwards. That way you get the wellbeing benefits without spending the rest of the day coated in redistributed bacteria.
There's another hidden germ risk hiding in plain sight on your bathroom floor, and that's your bathroom mat.
Experts at Plumbworld warned that bath mats are "an overlooked item that can hold onto moisture and bacteria," soaking up water every time you step out and growing mould underneath, especially on rubber-backed mats that trap water against the floor.
The fix is washing them weekly on a hot cycle and drying them properly rather than leaving them flat and damp on the floor.