Pesticide Residue Common on Kitchen Floors

HealthDay, June, 2009 by Jennifer Thomas

Perhaps it's time to rethink the "three-second rule" when it comes to eating food after it falls on the floor.

New U.S. research shows that most kitchen floors have some insecticide residue, including traces of organochlorine insecticides, such as chlordane, heptachlor and DDT, that were withdrawn from the market or banned in the 1970s and 1980s.

The study is in the June 15 issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology .

Researchers swabbed the kitchen floors of a nationally representative sample of 500 randomly selected homes between June 2005 and June 2006.

The floor swipes were gathered as part of a survey by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that collected data on a range of...

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