In a world obsessed with cleanliness, one hygiene expert’s controversial claim challenges conventional wisdom: showers, it seems, are purely for scent enhancement and not for maintaining personal hygiene.
Professor Sally Bloomfield emerges with a controversial claim: showers are not necessary for maintaining personal hygiene. While some people enjoy nightly showers before bedtime or invigorating morning showers to kickstart their day, Bloomfield asserts that showering merely enhances one’s scent, rather than contributing to overall cleanliness.
This hygiene expert and professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine insists that daily bathing is not crucial for personal hygiene. In fact, Bloomfield proposes that for those who dislike showers or baths, there is no obligation to partake, provided they can tolerate their own unpleasant odor.
Bloomfield believes that the primary motivation behind regular showers is a desire to be “socially acceptable” by eliminating foul body odors that may hinder social interaction. Intriguingly, Amou Haji, the world’s “dirtiest man,” recently passed away at 94 after avoiding showers for an astounding seven decades in Iran.
Professor Bloomfield argues that more individuals should follow Haji’s example and forgo showers, as they do little for personal hygiene. While she supported a handwashing campaign by the British government amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she asserts that those who skip showers maintain a similar level of health to those who shower daily.
Despite her unorthodox views, Bloomfield admits to showering daily to keep her hair looking “reasonable.”
She expressed her thoughts on BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast, stating, “In my opinion, we don’t need to bathe and shower every day. In fact, we don’t need to bathe and shower at all. There are microbes on our body that produce nasty odors but they’re not harmful to us. And the reason we bathe and shower is that we want to get rid of those odors and we want to feel comfortable. That’s fine — but as far as preventing disease, it’s really not important.”
She continued, “We don’t need to shower or wash at all. The reason we do it is to be socially acceptable. We do it in the summer to get rid of sweat and to make us feel more comfortable. But we also have some harmless bugs that are set up at home in places that are dark and moist and they break down sweat and they break down urine to produce nasty odors, which make us unacceptable to other people. So those are the reasons that we mainly shower ourselves.”
Bloomfield emphasized the importance of handwashing to prevent the spread of infections and diseases but clarified the distinction between cleanliness and hygiene. She stated, “Cleanliness is what we do to look and feel clean, but hygiene is the cleaning we do to prevent the spread of germs.”
Source: AWM
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