BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Taking showers may be bad for your health, since dirty shower heads can deliver a face full of harmful bacteria, warn U.S. scientists, according to media reports Tuesday.

    It is revealed that nearly a third of the shower heads in their test harbour significant levels of Mycobacterium avium, which forms a biofilm that clings to the inside of the device and can cause lung disease.

    According to the scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder, water spurting from shower heads can distribute bacteria-filled droplets that suspend themselves in the air and can easily be inhaled into the deepest parts of the lungs.

    "If you are getting a face full of water when you first turn your shower on, that means you are probably getting a particularly high load of Mycobacterium avium, which may not be too healthy," said Lead researcher Professor Norman Pace.

    People with weakened immune systems, like the elderly, pregnant women or those who are fighting off other diseases, can be susceptible to infection.

    Showers have also been claimed to be route for spreading other infectious diseases, including a type of pneumonia called Legionnaires' disease and chest infections with a bacterium called Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

    (Agencies)