Eating off the Floor Might Kill You

According to the EPA, your kitchen floor is probably toxic. Published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, the EPA's new study says that most kitchen floors in American homes harbor pesticides and carcinogenic chemicals, many of which were taken off the market years ago.

Among the chemicals detected in the study were fipronil, found in many flea and tick medicines. It was detected in 40% of the 500 homes tested, and is suspected to be carcinogenic. More astonishing is the prevalence of chlordane, a cancer-causing organophosphate pesticide present in nearly 75% of homes tested. Worse still was the presence of permethrin, found in an astounding 90% of tested homes. It interferes with hormonal activity in the body.

The problem with these toxic chemicals is twofold: First, they or chemicals like them are found in many products, and many of them are difficult to avoid—for example, few Americans would want flea-ridden pets in their houses or roaches under their sink, and they would therefore use insecticides to wipe them out. The problem that follows is that these pesticides stay around. It's not just that people are using these pesticides; the problem is that these pesticides aren't going away.