Most people take off their shoes when they get home. But some people take it a step further and take off their entire outfit before getting ready for the evening.
Some who switch from ‘outerwear’ to ‘indoorwear’ point to their parents for the inherited habit, while others say they have become parents themselves or the pandemic has pushed them to change their clothes.
On TikTok, content creators are posting clips describing their “unreasonable obsession” with demanding their partners take off their clothes as soon as they step into the house – to avoid contaminating clean furniture with potentially harmful germs.
In a videowhich has had more than three million views, the TikToker suggests that going to bed wearing outdoor clothing could put you at risk of acne, rashes and poor circulation.
Meanwhile, a 2016 study of Boston’s subway system, which operates about 238 million rides a year, found traces of four different types of bacteria — all of which cause potentially harmful infections.
People switching from ‘outerwear’ to ‘innerwear’ point to their parents for the inherited habit, while others say they have become parents themselves or the pandemic has pushed them to change their clothes
They include acne-causing Propionibacterium and Corynebacterium, which cause diphtheria, as well Staphylococci and Streptococci, which cause strep throat.
Does this mean that fabric that has been near public transport needs to be washed straight away?
Graham Snyder, medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said you’re unlikely to contract an infection from insect spores on your clothing.
And when this does happen, it usually involves people sharing particularly dirty textiles, such as used towels in a changing room.
It is possible for lice and scabies mites to attach to your clothing, but these are rarely found on clothing.
Others who subscribe to the inner-outerwear dichotomy say there are other factors involved, such as comfort and headroom.
Dr Synder said The Washington Post: ‘My rational brain says that if I don’t change my clothes right away, there seems to be little chance of me getting sick from something.’
But he added: ‘I feel a bit of remorse in wanting to separate the clean from the dirty. And I’m the type of person (who thinks) that the bed is a clean place. So I shower in the evening before I go to bed.’
Washing your hands after coming inside is a much better way to ward off infections, Dr. Synder said.
And Dr. Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health who has researched the germs in New York City, said he always puts on a glove or other physical barrier when holding on to the subway on transit poles.
“There are all kinds of bacteria and viruses on surfaces,” he told The New York Times.
As an alternative, Dr. recommends Lipkin to wrap an elbow around the sticks rather than the hands, as you are less likely to infect yourself through your elbow.
Curtis Huttenhower, a computational biologist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said that in his research he found that the types of germs in the subway are the kind commonly found in any communal environment, such as an office.
He said: ‘I can’t say you’ll never encounter a pathogen on the subway, but the chances aren’t really any greater than in other environments.’
Dr. However, Huttenhower recommended taking extra care during flu season or if someone who is clearly unwell has touched the same pole.
Transmission of infections through clothing only occurs when you wear clothing with a disease-causing pathogen on it – and you touch the specific spot where the pathogens are for long enough that the microbes end up on your fingers.
Then you should immediately touch your eyes, nose or mouth, said Dr. Thomas Russo, professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences.
“The risk is not zero, but I think it is very low,” Dr. Russo said.