Alton, IL (KMOX) - Your family could be tracking some pretty nasty things into your home on their shoes. "Bacterial, viral inspections, especially salmonella," explains Dr. Isha McConkey, family medicine physician with OSF Health Care in Alton, "we've got pesticides, chemicals, especially in this area."
McConkey says you can also track in parasites like hookworms and roundworms. "All of these things can live on your shoes and they end up on our floors."
McConkey tells Total Information AM, it's great to take your shoes off right when you come in the door, but it's even better to leave your shoes outside, "because it's going to track inside eventualy." The main thing she emphasizes is cleaning your floors. "You need to use things like bleach. I would dilute it, but I would really get the surfaces of the shoes, as well as the floors."
McConkey says some things that could make us seriously ill create spores, and those spores can live for months on dry surfaces.
Adults, she says, have greater immunity. But if you have little kids who play on the floor, its far more critical to regularly clean surfaces.
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