Sure, somehow you know you shouldn't go indoors with your shoes on to avoid bringing dirt inside. However, not everyone is aware of the possible health consequences of doing so. Photo: Getty Images
By Friederike Ostermeyer | 27. April 2022, 11:15 am
Germs, bacteria, excrement – those who leave their shoes on in the apartment carry all sorts of undesirable things in with them and thus harm their health. Four reasons to slip into slippers when you come home from now on.
What is a no-go in Asian countries such as Japan is considered normal in many German households: the habit of keeping one's street shoes on in one's own or other people's homes. This is clearly not just a cultural ie. Because experts are sounding the alarm that shoes in the home – at least what gets carried in from outside via them – are not only unsavory, but can be massively detrimental to your health.
Overview
What effects does dirt from the street have on indoor spaces??
Prof. Markus Patrick Taylor and Prof. Grabriel Filippelli are two environmental scientists who have taken a very close look at the effects of walking into an apartment in street shoes. "If you leave your shoes on the entrance mat, potentially harmful pathogens will also remain there," they write in a technical article on the British science portal "The Conversiation". 1 Both researchers have compiled studies that give pause for thought.
4 things shoes bring into the home that harm your health
We spend about 90 percent of our time indoors. So it's a fair question to ask: Keep shoes on or off? At least as far as our own homes are concerned, the answer is clear, according to the two researchers: slip into slippers as soon as you enter an apartment. Because even if a large part of house dust consists of textile fibers and dandruff, or. The diterpene is made up of human and animal hair, a good third of which is carried in from the outside world. Either through your footwear or open windows. The former, however, is avoidable, say the two researchers.
1. Pathogens lurk on 80 percent of shoe soles
A 2016 study showed that pathogens adhere to 80 percent of shoe soles. 2 Including salmonella and listeria, both of which are associated with food poisoning. Many of the pathogens described were found to be resistant to drugs in the study. This means that said germs hardly respond to antibiotics anymore and are therefore difficult to treat.
2. Almost all shoes show traces of feces of feces
Another study found that on 96 percent of street shoes E.Coli bacteria are. 3 These indicate contact with feces, most likely from floors in public restrooms or contact with animal feces outdoors. Said bacteria, while thus also naturally occurring in the human gut, can trigger violent diarrheal illnesses.
3. Shoes carry pesticides and lead particles into your home that are harmful to your health
Weed killer lasts for days on your shoes. Finally, these bring unwanted chemicals into your home that, in the worst cases, can cause severe skin rashes. 4 In addition, toxic lead particles can also be carried in via ground contact, which can lead to cognitive impairment and even neurological damage. This is especially dangerous for children of crawling age, whose brain is still developing. 5
4. Non-degradable chemicals enter the home through shoes
So-called polyfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs for short, are considered difficult to break down and bind proteins in the blood, kidney and liver (FITBOOK reported). As "forever chemicals," they stay in the body and cause damage that is as yet unforeseeable. However, scientists suspect that PFCs are associated with an increased risk of cancer. But these unpredictable environmental toxins adhere mainly to outdoor sports shoes, as they are used in production to guarantee their dirt- and water-repellent properties. 6
Is it really okay to ask my guests to take off their shoes in the apartment?? Find out what an etiquette expert has to say about this from our friends at myHOMEBOOK.
Result: Without shoes it lives healthier in the dwelling
"Why walk around the house dirty when you have a very simple alternative – take your shoes off at the door?", ask the two researchers in view of the study situation finally. One's own home is a place where it is important to keep the outside world outside – both physically and psychologically. The ritual of taking off one's shoes when entering one's home and becoming a slipper hero also benefits one's health in the end.