That is one reason, aside from cultural and religious considerations, some people kick off their shoes at the door. But while gross,the germs on your shoes are unlikely to cause illness,some experts said.
in a small, widely cited study, researchers found that fecal bacteria such as E. coli, which can make you sick if thay are ingested or make their way into a cut in your skin, were commonly present on the bottoms of shoes. And when those shoes came into contact with clean flooring, 90-99 percent of the bacteria were transferred to it. (The study was not peer reviewed and was funded by a shoe company marketing washable shoes.)
“The frist three or four steps when you walk in the house are the moast contaminated on the floor because you’re bringing all that stuff from outside and walking on the floors,” said Charles Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona and co-author of the study.
Other studies have reported that Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that can cause severe diarrhea, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can also be found on the bottoms of shoes.
“We live in a germy world,” and bacteria and viruses can be found on nearly any object, including our shoes, said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases and preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University.But there aren’t any instances in the scientific literature of pathogens being transmitted from the soles of shoes to noses or mouths in high enough numbers to initiate infections, he said.
“That’s why we don’t have public health recommendations that people sanitize their shoes,” he said.
Schaffner,who sometimes wears street shoes in his own home,said it is more notable that “our hands can pick up germs,and then we touch our mouths,noses and eyes. That’s the mode of inoculation.”
Going shoeless at home has another benefit, some experts said.
When you wear shoes all the time,it may lead to deconditioning of the deeper muscles of the foot,said Amiethab Aiyer,an orthopedic surgeon specializing in foot and ankle conditions at Johns Hopkins. “Their relative strength and relative conditioning could lapse over time,” he said.
“From the perspective of maintaining strength and conditioning of the musculature in the feet, and to avoid the germ elements, it might potentially be helpful to not wear shoes around the house,” he said.
From a cultural perspective, Aiyer, who is Indian American, said he and his family do not wear shoes in the house, both for cleanliness and out of respect for the home.