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How Bad Is It To Wear Outside Shoes In The House?
By MELISSA MAYNARD
A lot of the time, we tend to leave our shoes on as a habit when we arrive home. However, research has detailed why we may want to start taking them off by the front door as soon as we get home.
Dr. Charles Gerba, Professor of Microbiology and Environmental Sciences at the University of Arizona, partook in a study of the soles of footwear to take a closer look at just what can enter the home. "If you wear shoes for more than a month, 93% will have fecal bacteria on the bottom of them," he explained.
"Shoes make microorganisms fairly mobile, and you're tracking that all around the house," Gerba said. He added that not only is fecal bacteria brought in from outside, but the bacteria that can spew out of a toilet onto the bathroom floor can be taken around the home, too.
Dr. Leila Kay Karimpoor, an Internal Medicine Specialist in Santa Monica, California weighed in as well. "The same way you wouldn't walk in mud and then bring a trail into your house, you also wouldn't want to go to a place that could be crowded where you could pick up a pathogen and trail it back into your house," she told Insider.