Note: A female friend of mine send me this email & I
decided to blog it as a Public Service Announcement
to all women who have handbags.
******************************************************
I never gave it a thought. Who would have thought?
Have you ever noticed girls 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...
Mom 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 mom! 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?
THE TEST:
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 alot," says one woman. "On the floor of my car, and in toilets."
"I put my handbag in grocery shopping carts, on the floor
of the toilet while changing a nappy," says another woman,
"and of course in my home which should be clean."
We decided to find out if handbags 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 handbag.
Most women told us they didn't stop to think about what was on
the bottom of their handbag.
Most said at home they usually set
their handbags 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 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 handbag tested positive
for salmonella, and that's not the worst of it.
"There is fecal 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 condemnations of all.
"Some type of feces, 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 counter top.
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
counter tops, that's the same thing you 're doing when
you put your handbag on the counter tops - your handbag
has gone where individuals before you have sneezed,
coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc! Do you
really want to bring that home with you?"
The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a
handbag will help.
STEPS TO KEEP YOUR HANDBAGS CLEAN:
Wash cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean
the bottom of leather handbags.
THIS IS WORTH SHARING!!!
**WOMEN PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO YOUR
GIRLFRIENDS, SISTERS, NIECES, COUSINS, & DAUGHTERS!
Cited
Received By Electronic Mail(E-Mail), 2008.
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