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Taking Off Shoes At Airport Could Be Health Hazard
- 10News lifts samples from Security Checkpoints*

   About 17million pair of feet move through Lindbergh Field
   Airport in San Diego every year. Each passenger is asked to
   take off their shoes at security. Some are clean, some are
   dirty, and some carry diseases, 10News reported.

   "If there are individuals walking barefoot or with socks, they will
   transmit to another person walking over the same spot" lower
   leg disease expert Dr. Daniel Lee said.

   What do socked or barefoot passengers leave behind?

   10News used petri dishes to gather samples where passengers picked up their carry-ons off the conveyer belt at the security
   checkpoint. After sampling in San Diego, a 10News employee headed to Las Vegas and Phoenix. Investigative reporter, Marti
   Emerald gave the samples to Quadrants Scientific in Rancho Bernardo.

   The lab identified a mold from McCarron Airport in Las Vegas as trichophyston, which causes ringworm and favus, a nasty disease of
   the scalp. The next test was from Sky Harbor in Phoenix, where samples were lifted to test for bacteria. Scientists found bacteria
   and fungus unique to the areas where passengers removed their shoes.

   "I do have concerns over the organisms you found," Lee said. "Staphylococcus causes skin infections that go deep through the
   layers and people who are sensitive can pick it up." Lee said this particular organism is resistant to many of the antibiotics used
   these days.

"The other organism I saw was Neisseria. It is of the species and genus that can lead to gonorrhea," Lee said.
Lee suggests wearing medical booties through security.

   * Taken from a 2006 10News - San Diego Report

   WebMD asked its members whether they had any concerns
   about bare feet and airport floors. This is what people wrote...

   "I think this is a major health issue and it needs to be addressed.
   I've already dealt with having a toenail fungus and it wasn't easy to
   get rid of. I was nervous about what else I could pick up by doing
   this."

   "I was even told to remove my socks. The scary part of all that is
   that I've been fighting a fungus on my left foot for about a year - no
   joke - and that's about the time I was all but stripped at the Orlando
   International Airport when I escorted my stepson to his plane. I've
   had to replace all my shoes, bleach my tile floors, I've taken topical
   creams (almost every OTC kind, then got an Rx or two from my
   doc), and even an Rx pill to take - and nothing has worked."