> 96% of shoes tested positive for coliform bacteria, which is commonly found in faecal matter This is given to us a a shocking statistic, but it reminds me of

> 96% of shoes tested positive for coliform bacteria, which is commonly found in faecal matter This is given to us a a shocking statistic, but it reminds me of the Mythbusters toothbrush test. They were testing whether you should keep your toothbrush nearer to or further from the toilet in your bathroom, to prevent it becoming exposed to airborne coliform bacteria when the toilet is flushed. So they attached brushes along the wall at a variety of distances, put a control brush in another part of the house, in the kitchen, waited a week and tested them. Fecal coliform bacteria were found in all the brushes in the bathroom, which appeared to show there was no safe distance from the toilet. But it was also found in the control. The lesson I took from this is that it's everywhere. So it may well be detectable on 96% of outdoor shoes but I bet it's already all over your house anyway. Incidentally the guardian seems to run an article/opinion piece like this every few years, that exposes that indoor shoe-wearing is a "proven health risk" by showing what's on shoes, or what can be tracked into the house on them. But they are always missing the crucial piece of evidence on health outcomes - OK, you've shown that shoes have got some nasties on them, but you crucially haven't linked the wearing of shoes in the house to levels of these things that are known to cause issues, or to worse health in general. They always make me think "So.... that's probably OK then?" much like the stats about the bacterial load that is to be found on workers' desks and how it's worse than the average toilet seat! OK, interesting factoid, but so many people do eat lunch at their desks anyway, and I'm not aware of any desk-related deaths or epidemics of food poisoning so ... it's probably OK?