If you step in mud, please pick up after your dog. Do you always de-shoe at the door when you get home?
Lots of Australians don't. As one gets home, what you wear on the bottom of your shoes is the last thing on one's mind.
We have spent a decade examining the indoor environment and the pollutants that people are exposed to in their own homes. The DustSafe program is far from complete, but the science leans towards the latter when it comes to the question of whether to shoe or de-shoe in the home.
It's best to leave your trash outside.
The question of whether or not to wear shoes in the house is not trivial because people spend up to 90% of their time indoors.
The policy focuses on the outdoor environment for soil, air quality and environmental public health risks. Regulators are interested in the question of indoor air quality.
Dust and dirt from people and pets are not the only things building up inside your home.
About a third of it is from outside, either blown in or put in on the offensive shoe bottoms.
Drug-resistant pathogens, including hospital-associated infectious agents, are present on shoes and floors.
You might see the dirt on your shoes in a new light if you add in cancer-causing toxins from asphalt road and lawn chemicals.
Please do not do this.
Measurement and assessment of exposure to a range of harmful substances found inside homes is what our work has involved.
A strong focus of our work has been to assess levels of potentially toxic metals inside homes in 35 nations.
The toxins are odourless and colourless. There is no way of knowing if the dangers of lead exposure are only in your soils or your water pipes, or if they are also on your living room floor.
There is a strong connection between the lead in your home and the soil in your yard.
Dirt blown in from your yard or trodden in on your shoes is the most likely reason for this connection.
The priority is to make sure matter from your outdoor environment stays there.
The Wall Street Journal argued that shoes in the home are not bad. The author said that E coli is so widespread that it's pretty much everywhere. The article pointed out that it can be swabbed on shoe bottoms.
Let's be clear. It's nice to be scientific and stick with the term E coli, but thebacteria associated with poo is more important.
If we are exposed to high levels, it could make us sick. It is just plain gross.
If you take your shoes off at the door, you won't have to walk around inside.
Your shoes are going to stay out of my house.
There are disadvantages to having a shoe-free household.
There aren't many drawbacks to having a shoe-free house. Leaving your shoes at the entry mat can leave you with potentially harmful pathogens.
Taking shoes off at the door is a basic and easy prevention activity that many people don't know about.
Do you need shoes to support your feet? It's easy, just have some indoor shoes that don't get worn outside.
The sterile house syndrome refers to increased rates of allergies among children. Some think it's related to sterile households.
Studies have shown that dirt can help develop your immune system and reduce allergy risk.
There are better and less gross ways to do that. Go for a bushwalk and enjoy the outdoors.
Don't bring the muckier parts of it into our homes.
The chief environmental scientist at the Environmental Protection Authority is Mark Patrick Taylor.
Gabriel Filippelli is the executive director of Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute.
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