Showery with a Chance of Disease

While I do usually like the BBC as a news source, this is the sort of scaremongering that really bugs the crap out of me. If you read it you'll find that showering is no dirtier than anything else. I shall now endeavour to explain why.

First of all, how long does the shower head need to go unused before there's significant build up of the bacteria in question? That is not addressed. If it goes for months (because you're a bather rather than a showerer-er-er - is that even a word?) then yes I'd expect some build up of dampness. But if it's used every day then surely the water gets refreshed regularly enough to prevent more than a handful of spores.

Secondly, an article quote:
Lead researcher Professor Norman Pace, said: "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."
Who in their right mind stands under the shower when they first turn it on anyway? You'd need to be fucking mental. What temperature is that water going to come out? You just don't know. Shower temperatures are Russian roulette at the best of times, the last thing any sensible person would do is stick their face in the path of potentially scalding hot water. Anyone who does that deserves any disease they get.

Thirdly, the overuse of "can", "probably", "potential" and "may" in the article means it's admitting to not having all the facts. It's skepticism based on an investigation which under certain circumstances might lead to some individuals being infected.

Fourthly, another quote:
"These bacteria, which belong to the same family as TB, can be found in the environment and occasionally in water supplies but rarely cause disease in healthy people."
Which means that the vast majority of people, normal people, most people in the world in fact, are not at risk from this at all. The rest of the population, that's folks like pregnant women and the elderly, should be taking care already, and not - for example - randomly hurling themselves under boiling waterfalls.

The article closes with the admission that they don't actually have enough evidence to be making wild claims like the article title does. So please, until you have actual insurmountable evidence, stop scaring people.