Pathogens move through the air and populate on surfaces. One surface that often is overlooked is a floor. We clean and disinfect tables and equipment, but we sometimes forget they will be re-contaminated if we don’t address the floors. Floors connect the inside of buildings. It is important that we consider them when implementing infection control programs. Everything from shoes to carts to toys to wheelchairs that contact contaminated floors will move pathogens throughout a building or home, on to hands and ultimately high-contact surfaces.

Some cultures practice leaving shoes at the door before entering. Some professionals, including those who work in the hospital industry, remove their shoes when they get home because they recognize their potential contamination and want to protect against the spread of pathogens that might adversely affect their families. Below are a series of links that illustrate the need to be more diligent about floors in efforts to reduce the spread of infection and illness. In hospitals, studies show, floors contaminated by C. Difficile, Acinetobacter Baumannii and a host of other infectious agents. Infection control must be a top to bottom – ceiling to floor – effort to be as effective as possible.


Non-slip socks: a potential reservoir for transmitting multidrug-resistant organisms in hospitals?

Evaluation of Hospital Floors as a Potential Source of Pathogen Dissemination Using a Nonpathogenic Virus as a Surrogate Marker

Environmental Contamination due to Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii surrounding Colonized or Infected Patients

Hospital floors may pose a larger health risk than previously thought

You Can Get Sick From Germs on Hospital Floors

Are hospital floors an underappreciated reservoir for transmission of health care-associated pathogens?

C. Difficile Is Everywhere – Even on the Bottom of Footwear

Bacterial contamination in a modern operating suite. 3. Importance of floor contamination as a source of airborne bacteria.

Ward floors and other surfaces as reservoirs of hospital infection

Spores on wheels: Wheelchairs are a potential vector for dissemination of pathogens in healthcare facilities

One of the best studies on floor contamination, came from the Hospital Microbiome Project.  It showed the floors were contaminated by the works boots and that flora soon was covering the entire hospital.   I reached out to Dr Bahnfleth, from Penn St and he provided a number of studies showing the aerolization of particles the size of biology being resuspended from the floor.  Big Thank you to Dr. Bahnfleth.

Measurements and Factorial Analysis of Micron-Sized Particle Adhesion Force to Indoor Flooring Materials by Electrostatic Detachment Method

Resuspension of allergen-containing particles under mechanical and aerodynamic disturbances from human walking

Modeling Particle Dispersion under Human Activity Disturbance in a Multizone Indoor Environment


Particulate dispersion also come from the duct system.  Another superhighway for germs in your facility.  Most hospitals fear cleaning their duct work because of the potential evironmental contamination.  We recommend using a persistant cleaning tools in your ducts and on your coils

Critical Review of Aerosol Particle Transport Models for Building HVAC Ducts