From reader Diane:
I never gave it a thought. Who'd a thunk? Have you ever noticed gals
who sit their purses on public restroom floors - that go directly to
their dining tables? 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...Mom got so upset when a guest came in the door and plopped
their purses down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up
the buffet.She always said that purses are really dirty, because of
where they have been. Smart Momma!!!
It's something just about every woman carries with them. While we may
know what's inside our purses, do you have any idea what's on the
outside?
Shauna Lake put purses to the test - for bacteria - with surprising
results. You may think twice about where you put your purse. Women
carry purses everywhere; from the office to public restrooms to the
floor of the car. Most women won't be caught without their purses, but
did you ever stop to think about where your purse goes during the day?
"I drive a school bus, so my purse has been on the floor of the bus a
lot," says one woman. "On the floor of my car, probably in restrooms!"
"I put my purse in grocery shopping carts, on the floor of bathroom
stalls while changing a diaper," says another woman and of course in
my home which should be clean."
We decided to find out if purses harbor 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 purse. Most women told us they didn't
stop to think about what was on the bottom of their purse. Most said
they usually set their purses on top of kitchen tables and counters
where food is prepared. Most of the ladies we talked to told us they
wouldn't be surprised if their purses were at least a little bit
dirty. It turns out purses are so surprisingly dirty, even the
microbiologist who tested them was shocked.
Microbiologist Amy Karren of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the purses
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 purses could make people very sick. In one sampling, four of five
purses tested positive for salmonella, and that's not the worst of it.
"There is fecal contamination on the purses," says Amy.
Leather or vinyl purses tended to be cleaner than cloth purses, and
lifestyle seemed to play a role. People with kids tended to have
dirtier purses than those without, with one exception. The purse of
one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the worst
contaminations of all. "Some type of feces, or even possibly vomit or
something like that,"
says Amy.
So the moral of this story - your purse 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 purse at home and in restrooms,
and don't put it on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen
countertop. Experts say you should think of your purse 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 purse on the countertops" - your purse has gone where every
individual before you has spat, coughed, urinated, emptied bowels, etc!
Do you really want to bring that home with you? The microbiologists at
Nelson also said cleaning a purse will help. Wash cloth purses and use
leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather purses.
Food for thought!
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