Your bathing area is one of the germiest parts of your bathroom. Learn where bacteria hide and find out whether showering is more sanitary than soaking.
If a long soak in a hot bath is the most relaxing part of your daily self-care routine, you may not have given much thought to how many germs are lurking in the water.
Perhaps the Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney’s new line of soap bars, infused with her actual bathwater, has you wondering exactly how clean that water might be. (The limited-edition soap bars from Dr. Squatch will go on sale June 6 and cost $8 apiece, according to the company.)
So how clean is bathwater? And the bathtub itself — exactly how clean is that?
The Most Surprising Places Germs Hide
Maybe you don't need to worry about bacteria on your money or the public bathroom door handle after all. You may be surprised to learn about places where germs really thrive.
Next up video playing in 10 seconds
How Clean Is Bathwater After a Long Soak?
You might think the toilet is the dirtiest place in your bathroom, but the bathing areas — including the tub, shower floor, and shower curtain — actually have about 60 times more bacteria than a toilet seat, according to SafeHome.org.
This shouldn’t be surprising, because bacteria thrive in moist environments. Some of this bacteria is harmless. But so-called gram-negative bacteria, the type most often found on bathing surfaces, have the potential to make you sick, SafeHome.org notes.
Gram-negative bacteria can cause skin infections, pneumonia, or other serious illnesses, although this most often happens from exposure in hospitals, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Flushing the toilet with the seat up can send germs into your tub, according to SafeHome.org. Most people also have fecal matter on their bodies that gets into the water every time they take a bath, says Charles Gerba, PhD, an environmental biology professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
“In bathwater we found about 100,000 fecal bacteria per cup of water,” says Dr. Gerba, who has studied this subject extensively. Most people have fecal material on their skin that they shed into the water every time they take a bath, Gerba says.
Can Cleaning Your Tub Keep Bathwater Pure?
Regularly cleaning your tub can help, especially with fecal material, Gerba says. It’s a good idea to use a disinfectant spray after each bath, especially if you have young kids using the tub, he suggests.
“Most fecal bacteria will die off in a day or two, so the risk is low if the tub is used infrequently,” Gerba says.
The trick is to have a consistent cleaning routine instead of waiting until your tub obviously looks gross, according to SafeHome.org.
A good rule of thumb is to disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily — which includes your tub if bathing is a daily ritual — according to Henry Ford Health. Even if you only take occasional baths, you should scrub the tub, toilet, and other surfaces you touch at least once a week, Henry Ford Health recommends.
As for how to clean the tub, you may want to borrow a page from Martha Stewart. Her lifestyle website recommends wetting down the tub with warm water, then applying a paste consisting of a mix of baking soda and a dollop of dish soap. Let that sit for 10 to 15 minutes and then scrub off to get your tub sparkling.
Are Showers Any Cleaner?
Not necessarily. “Shower water has just as much fecal bacteria after use as a tub, but it goes right down the drain,” Gerba says. The bigger concern with showers is that germs will linger on tiles and grout, especially if you don’t disinfect after each use.
There’s one type of bacteria that perfectly illustrates this point. It’s called Serratia marcescens, and it can form a pinkish or red-tinged slimy substance in your toilet, tub, or shower stall, according to North Dakota State University.
This type of bacteria grows in moist areas with fecal residue or soap residue such as the tub, shower, or sink, according to North Dakota State University. Regular cleaning can prevent this bacteria from thriving in your tub, and a cleaner that contains chlorine bleach is a good way to combat it, per North Dakota State University.
What About Sydney Sweeney’s Bathwater Soap?
As for how germ-free you’ll be after a shower or bath with Sydney Sweeney’s soap, it’s really hard to say, according to Gerba. Depending on what’s in the soap, any fecal bacteria from the bathwater used to make it may be dead, Gerba says.
“The bathwater soap is interesting, but I’m not sure how they process this,” Gerba says.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Emily Kay Votruba has copyedited and fact-checked for national magazines, websites, and books since 1997, including Self, GQ, Gourmet, Golf Magazine,Outside, Cornell University Press, Penguin Random House, and Harper's Magazine. Her projects have included cookbooks (Padma Lakshmi's Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet), self-help and advice titles (Mika Brzezinski's Know Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You're Worth), memoirs (Larry King's My Remarkable Journey), and science (Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Learn, by Cathy Davidson). She started freelancing for Everyday Health in 2016.
Lisa Rapaport is a journalist with more than 20 years of experience on the health beat as a writer and editor. She holds a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and spent a year as a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow at the University of Michigan. Her work has appeared in dozens of local and national media outlets, including Reuters, Bloomberg, WNYC, The Washington Post,Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, The Sacramento Bee, and The Buffalo News.
