HANDBAGS
Have you ever noticed gals who sit their handbags on public toilet floors -
then go directly to their dining tables and set it on the table? Happens a
lot!
It's not always the 'restaurant food' that causes stomach distress.
Sometimes "what you don't know 'will' hurt you"!
Read on...
Mum got so upset when guests came in the door and plopped their handbags
down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up food. She always
said that handbags are really dirty, because of where they have been.
Smart Mum!!!
It's something just about every woman carries with them. While we may know
what's inside our handbags, do you have any idea what's on the outside?
Shauna Lake put handbags to the test - for bacteria - with surprising
results. You may think twice about where you put your handbag.
Women carry handbags everywhere; from the office to public toilets to the
floor of the car. Most women won't be caught without their handbags, but
did you ever stop to think about where your handbag goes during the day?
"I drive a school bus, so my handbag has been on the floor of the bus a
lot," says one woman. "On the floor of my car, and in toilets."
We decided to find out if handbags harbour a lot of bacteria. We learned
how to test them at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake, and then we set out
to test the average woman's handbag.
Most of the ladies we talked to told us they wouldn't be surprised if their
handbags were at least a little bit dirty. It turns out handbags are so
surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked.
Microbiologist Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the handbags
tested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds of
bacteria. Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staphylococcus aurous can
cause serious skin infections, and salmonella and e-coli found on the
handbags could make people very sick.
In one sampling, four of five handbags tested positive for salmonella, and
that's not the worst of it. "There is faecal contamination on the handbags,"
says Amy.
Leather or vinyl handbags tended to be cleaner than cloth handbags, and
lifestyle seemed to play a role.
People with kids tended to have dirtier handbags than those without, with
one exception. The handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs
had one of the worst contaminations of all.
"Some type of faeces, or possibly vomit" says Amy.
So the moral of this story - your handbag won't kill you, but it does have
the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you eat.
Use hooks to hang your handbag at home and in toilets, and don't put it on
your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop.
Experts say you should think of your handbag the same way you would a pair
of shoes. "If you think about putting a pair of shoes onto your
countertops, that's the same thing you're doing when you put your handbag
on the countertops" - your handbag has gone where individuals before you
have sneezed, coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc!
Wash cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather
handbags.
