Can your flip-flops kill you?
Summer footwear harbor more than 18,000 bacteria, including deadly germ
By Laura T. Coffey
TODAY staff
TODAY, with the help of the University of Miami emergency mobile flip-flop lab, tested some footwear and found that there were more than 18,000 bacteria on just one pair of flip-flops. Even more shocking than the number of germs were the types represented — bacteria from fecal matter, skin and respiratory germs. One pair of 6-year-old flip-flops had germs that cause yeast infection and diaper rash.
The New York Daily News recently tested two pairs of flip-flops as well, ones that traipsed through bars in New York’s West Village, plodded through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, rode the F, A, C, G, 2 and 3 subway trains, attended a Brooklyn Cyclones game in Coney Island and rode the Cyclone roller coaster. One pair wandered into the Coney Island subway station’s public restroom.
They found that the shoes that flopped their way into that public restroom harbored about 13,900 more bacteria than the other pair.
Presence of a deadly germ
Most disturbing of all, the flip-flops provided shelter to the potentially lethal germ Staphylococcus aureus. That’s serious, said Dr. Philip M. Tierno Jr., director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. He said the presence of this germ can be especially problematic if you have an open cut or blister on your foot, or if you handle your flip-flops a lot with your hands.
Tierno — also known as “Dr. Germ” — pointed out that if such shoes were worn for three months over the course of an entire summer, 93 percent of them would have fecal bacteria on them and 20 percent of them would have E. coli.
“As long as your skin is intact, as long as you use common sense and don’t knowingly expose yourself … you shouldn’t be alarmed,” said Dr. Lisa Plano, a microbiologist at the University of Miami. “Even though those nasty things are out there, those nasty things have always been out there — we just haven’t always been looking for them.”
Protect yourself
So armed with information like this, what’s a fan of casual footwear to do? Tierno said to avoid touching your flip-flops and your unwashed feet as much as possible.
© 2009 MSNBC Interactive.
Complete story found at http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32453516/ns/today-today_health/
