More Than 60 Percent of Dishwashers Test Positive For Harmful Fungi, But There's A Simple Natural Solution For Prevention

by April McCarthy
PreventDisease

Researchers found that the warm, damp environment in dishwashers is ideal for the growth of a species of fungi that can be harmful to the lungs and hard to treat if infected. They also discovered that the fungi are particularly likely to grow in dishwashers as they thrive in salty conditions, such as those created by dishwasher powder.

A previous report published in Fungal Biology showcased how a group of researchers from institutions in Slovenia, the Netherlands and China took samples from the rubber seals inside 189 dishwashers from 18 countries and found that 62 percent of them tested positive for fungi.

The dishwasher would seem a nice place for fungi to dwell: it is moist and warm, and it has abundant organic matter to feed on in the form of food scraps. But dishwasher-dwelling fungi have to be of a hardy sort to handle the occasional burst of extreme heat as well as the alkalinity and salt content of dish detergents. In laboratory tests on the dishwasher-dwelling Exophiala dermatitidis and Exophiala phaeomuriformis, the researchers reported in Medical Mycology that the fungi are tolerant to a wide range of temperatures, pH levels and salt concentrations, a degree of so-called polyextremotolerance that had not been found before in fungi.

In that sense, the dishwasher fungi are something like domestic extremophiles, the life-forms that occupy seemingly inhospitable niches across the globe, from scorching hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean to frigid high deserts. Extremophiles are a popular subject for study because they demonstrate just how adaptable life is and offer hope that other planets, even those a bit different than Earth, could be inhabited.

If inhaled, these fungi can colonise the lungs and cause infections that can be difficult to treat. Breathing in spores from these fungi can cause persistent lung infections, particularly in people with compromised health.
Read more »