Before you eat off those oh-so-clean floors, consider the insecticide

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Insecticides may have gotten rid of your house’s cockroaches or fleas or ants or termites or whatever was bedeviling you (or the people who lived in your house before you). But the chemicals themselves can linger.

Scientists from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency swiped the floors of 500 randomly selected homes, focusing on the kitchen area. They then analyzed those wipes for insecticide residue.

What they found suggests you should stick with plates, regardless of how clean your floors look and how strong your desire to explore alternative dining styles.

Permethrin, used on crops, pets and human heads (to treat lice), was most common, found in 89% of homes. It’s from the pyrethrin and pyrethyroid class of insecticides.

Chlorpyrifos, used to control cockroaches and other pests, was found in 78% of homes.

And then came chlordane (which, notably, has been banned since 1988), piperonyl butoxide, cypermethrin and fipronil.

The short and to-the-point abstract of their study concludes: ‘Results show that most floors in occupied homes in the U.S. have measurable levels of insecticides that may serve as sources of exposure to occupants.’

Here’s the whole study, ‘American Healthy Homes Survey: A National Study of Residential Pesticides Measured From Floor Wipes.’ It was published Monday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

-- Tami Dennis