When obsessions conflict

I recently switched out our shower head for a low-flow version that spits out 30% less water. Knowing I was saving water satisfied my urge to go green … until I realized that the new shower head doesn’t pour water out in individual streams like the old one but instead sprays it – like an aerosol.

That’s when I remembered that municipal water supplies are full of toxic minerals, and how a recent Wake Forest University study raised concern that shower heads excel at aerosolizing these toxic minerals. An aerosol of manganese, for instance, is like a superhighway piping this neurotoxin right into one’s brain.

Here’s what manganese does for you:

Manganese is an essential element for humans. It is therefore beneficial at low levels. However, at high levels it is neurotoxic. It can result in manganism, a condition with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s Disease. Infants and the elderly are more at risk to the effects of manganese. Breathing in manganese is more toxic than taking it through food or water.

Ah, neurological symptoms similar to Parkinson’s, delivered with your morning shower. Good stuff.

Perhaps one of the secrets of my late grandmother’s late-life mental acuity was that she took baths and not showers. I won’t go that far (and I might be unduly paranoid), but the water-wasting, non-aerosolizing, brain-saving shower head’s going back on.

There’s no sense in being green if you’re not around to enjoy it.