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Thread ID: 70923	2006-07-21 02:55:00	Bag-teria - YUK !!!	FoxyMX (5)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
472499	2006-07-21 02:55:00	Your (or your lady's) purse/handbag/briefcase/backpack may be carrying disease into your home. :yuck: (KUTV) SALT LAKE CITY--Its' something just about every woman carries with her. 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 in the future. 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, 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, 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 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 was fecal contamination on the purses," says Amy. (You know... poop?) 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 requented 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 has 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, on 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. "Would you consider putting a pair of shoes onto your countertops? Well that's the same thing you're doing when you put your purse on the countertops," says Amy. 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.Snopes have confirmed this as no myth or urban legend (www.snopes.com) so you would be wise to take heed. And it is not just women who are guilty, as Snopes say: While one might be tempted to regard the caution about bacteria-harboring handbags as being of interest to women only, members of the non-purse-slinging public (i.e., men) should also take it to heart with regard to their briefcases, as should high school and college students of both sexes in relation to their backpacks and book bags. On the other hand, money is not as dirty as first thought: But the presence of the bacteria (on money) was so insignificant it would be impossible to cause diarrhoea, vomiting or other gastrointestinal symptoms. Lead investigator Frank Vriesekoop, from Ballarat University, said the one-year study showed that fears about currency hygiene were unwarranted. "This shows once and for all that our money isn't riddled with pathogens like so many people believe," Dr Vriesekoop said. "There's been so much hype but in fact the chances of you picking something up from your cash are virtually nonexistent."Above info from here (www.nzherald.co.nz).	FoxyMX (5)
472500	2006-07-21 06:21:00	People need to toughen up.	Metla (12)
472501	2006-07-21 06:27:00	I will be more careful with my purse from now on. I will strive to keep it as pure as a Nun's daughter.	godfather (25)
472502	2006-07-21 09:44:00	Here you go, here are some small stones. You can now throw them at your own shadows...	bob_doe_nz (92)
472503	2006-07-21 09:48:00	That doesn't really surprise me . What does puzzle me about all the hygiiene fuss is washing your hands after going to the toilet . I have no problem with that and do it myself, but there seems to be a big oversight in all this . Consider, you finish your bizz and what's the first thing you do? No, not wash your hands but reposition underwear and then the trousers, frocks, skirts, shorts, belts, shirts/blouses/tops tucked in etc, and only after all that wash your hands . And all through the day our hands are rearanging clothing, loosenig, tightening belts, hitching things up and down, hands in and out of pockets all over that area of clothing which has been arranged previously with the great unwashed hands! OK I don't lie awake at nights worrying about this and we don't all seem to be dropping dead from it but with all this hygiene awareness and all the experts on the telly scaring us about the germs taking over and some hygiene fetishists nuking toilet seats before they use them this seems to me to be an elementary oversight .	mark c (247)
472504	2006-07-21 10:01:00	Consider, you finish your bizz and what's the first thing you do? No, not wash your hands but reposition underwear and then the trousers, frocks, skirts, shorts, belts, shirts/blouses/tops tucked in etc, and only after all that wash your hands . And all through the day our hands are rearanging clothing, loosenig, tightening belts, hitching things up and down, hands in and out of pockets all over that area of clothing which has been arranged previously with the great unwashed hands! You forgot to wipe your bum . That's gross .	vinref (6194)
472505	2006-07-21 10:06:00	Made me larf . :thumbs: I took that to be implicit in "the bizz" .	mark c (247)
472506	2006-07-21 10:20:00	Made me larf . :thumbs: I took that to be implicit in "the bizz" . Bahahaha . . . Anyways, you also forgot touching the toilet door handles . Almost all toilets force you to do this after you washed your hands . You have to hope that other people who used it washed their hands . Ditto for any other public thing you touch . But the whole thing is overblown anyways . If you have a healthy immune system, you shouldn't have much trouble . That's why people are not dying from these bacteria in droves . I should be dead by now as well - I used to culture many of them in Uni, and I have been doing a bit of gardening lately . If you fear death and debilitating illness, stay away from fatty foods, cigarettes and the fools hanging off them, the road, the sun, Beirut, blah blah blah . . .	vinref (6194)
472507	2006-07-21 11:15:00	If you watch Spongebob, do what Mr. Krabs does - washes his money, and loses it down the sink. :lol: :D :confused:	pcuser42 (130)
472508	2006-07-21 11:40:00	You forgot to wipe your bum. That's gross. :lol: Yeah when I exit a public toilet I grab one of those paper towels and grab the door handle with that, then put my foot on the door to keep it open then chuck the paper in the bin. Other toilets I sometimes time it so someone else is leaving at the same time and they can handle the door handle for me. Or if it comes down to it I'll use my pinky finger on the highest part of the door handle, the part which is least likely to be touched. After all I read some statistic somewhere that like 80% of people don't wash their hands after going to the toilet. :illogical	alphazulusixeightniner (185)
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