I received this today via email, and decided it was worth sharing.  Read on....

Have you ever noticed gals who sit their purses on public restroom 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..."  Here's the article:


Mom got so upset when guests came in the door and plopped their purses down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up food. 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 re 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, and in restrooms."

"I put my purse in grocery shopping carts, where a baby just sat with a dirty diaper, on the floor of bathroom stalls, 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 at home 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 Karen 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 seem ed 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 possibly vomit" 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, 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 individuals before you have sneezed, coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc! Do you really want to bring that home with you?

Themicrobiologists at Nelson also said Cleaning a purse will help. Wash cloth purses and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom of leather purses.

It's rude to place your handbag on the table anyway . . .

All of the germ talk, the bleach talk, the hand sanitizer talk makes me crazy!  I know so many women who have lived full lives even though they have actually sat on toilet seats and touch washroom faucets (by the way, how do you think that pee gets all over the seat in the ladies room?).  Plenty of babies have survived the binky that fell onto the floor.  We all know people who are still alive after licking where other people urinate and deficate, don't we?

Kate

This is actually not a paid endorsement but if you steer Purell my way, I'll be happy to receive compensation.

Seriously though, is anyone this surprised by this knowledge ?

xo Lisa

To have it stolen.

In my town, we had a rash of rather unique purse snatchings a few years ago. The perpetrator (who was finally caught) would hang out in a bathroom, acting as if she was waiting on a friend. When a lady entered a stall, she would often set her purse on the floor of the stall. As soon as she began her - umm, business - a hand would slide under the stall door, grab the purse, and out the door the thief would run. The victim of course was in no position to give chase, and the thief was smart about picking restrooms that weren't very busy, and waiting until there was no one else in the restroom when she made her grab and dash.

So the moral is - regardless of germs, always hang your purse up in a bathroom stall. Same goes for any shopping bags you might have with you.

I read on some internet article that the desk in a typical office was filthier than the toilet seat at the same office.

Makes you wonder about where's the best place to have your lunch.

Don't even get me started on hotel bedspreads.  

too much use of antibacterial hand soaps could possibly lead to people getting more sick when they are exposed to germs that are otherwise common albeit gross.  

On another note:

Anyone here care to bring a portable black light into our hotel rooms where we are having our consensual fun?  The irradiated reflective spots would be disturbing be they 5-star or otherwise establishments...

then the handles coming out but yet the latter is the germophobes worse nightmare...

they teach all the staff (employees and volunteers) to use the paper towel that you dry your hands with to open the restroom doors when you exit.  They keep a trashcan next to the door so that you can open the door, keep the door open with your foot or body and throw away the towel.  I've been doing that in other places but they don't always have a trashcan close to the door.

In places that still use paper towel dispensers actuated by a lever I make it a practice to wipe the lever with my papertowel after I dispensed it. Just so that the next guy does not reach onto something wet. Oh, I throughly wash my hands BEFORE I pee - and afterwards. Same for solid deposit visits.

the fact that most (we all realize that not all) people do wash their hands afterwards plus the observation that many cleaning attendants tend to be more thorough on the inner handles, is why the article that I read cited that the in-handles are dirtier than the out-handles.

I just thought this was an interesting observation.  Not sure how valid it is but interesting nonetheless...

   

-- Modified on 11/8/2006 7:47:02 AM