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 more below...
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? 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." "I put my handbag in
grocery shopping carts, on the
floor
of the toilet," 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. Pseudomonad 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 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
contaminations 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 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! Do you really want to
bring that home with you?
The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning
a handbag will help. Wash cloth handbags and use
leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather
handbags.
THIS IS WORTH SHARING!!!
PASS IT ON TO
YOUR GIRLFRIENDS AND DAUGHTERS, ETC. AND MEN
PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO YOUR WIVES,
DAUGHTERS, ETC.
TOO!