We were having trouble with water pressure in our new hand shower in our NYC apartment, so our contractor decided to remove not only the water stopper restricting the flow, but in the process he removed the filter screen. He claimed it wouldn't make much of a difference and that we could always wash the hand shower every few months to clean it out but I am a little worried that this is going to expose us to too much dirt, chlorine, etc. Any thoughts on how foolhardy this is?

thanks