Death by Flip-Flop? Dangerous Germs Could be Lurking in Your Favorite Summer Footwear
Dirty flip-flops can carry potentially harmful bacteria and germs. Photo: Getty Images
Here's one for the that's-just-so-gross files.
The New York Daily News sent two reporters out around NYC wearing $3.50 flip-flops for four days.
They hit bars and a baseball game. They rode the train. They dared to enter a public restroom at the Coney Island subway station. The rubber sandals were then sent to a lab -- and, guess what? They were riddled with icky, nasty and potentially deadly germs.
The one that makes a flip-flop-lovin' gal shudder? Analysts found Staphylococcus aureus -- a bacteria that can kill you if left untreated.
"If you wear shoes for three months, 93 percent have fecal bacteria and 20 percent have E. coli," the News quotes Dr. Charles P. Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, as saying.
Other germs -- Tempted to toss your well-worn flips? Here are some cleaning tips. But today, we'll be wearing shoes. With socks.
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wes, 8-11-2009, 3:11PM
As someone who has chronic foot pain, my podiatrist will not even treat me, unless I where shoes indoors and out 24/7. That is bad medicine. He says it gives support, I say it causes chronic pain to get so bad I require narcotics to function, thus running up my foot bill and footware bill. Doctors in America are worse than Serbia. I know a Serbian Physician, who was shocked to see medical staff coming to and leaving work in their scrubs, and hospital shoes. In other countries, to prevent disease spread, hospial workers are required to leave hospital clothes at the hospital to be sanitized, and shoes are not to leave the hospital.
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