Get footloose

Your feet do a lot of hard time on dirty city streets laden with tar and toxins, so take a tip from many eastern cultures and slip off your shoes when you come home to avoid tracking pollutants on your soles indoors.

This simple habit also helps keep floors clean and unscuffed, and gives feet a breather. Our feet aren't evolved to be constantly encased in shoes, nor to walk on exclusively hard, even surfaces such as tar and concrete.

Keep some of your shoes on a neat rack near the door to encourage visitors to remove theirs too; you can always have slippers and clean socks at hand if people prefer not to go barefoot.

- Olivia Rose-Innes, EnviroHealth Editor, July 2011, Health24