SILINGAN

HANDBAGS...

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 alot!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 handbagsdown on the counter where she was cooking or setting up food. She alwayssaid that handbags are really dirty, because of where they have been.It's something just about every woman carries with them. While we may knowwhat'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 thefloor of the car. Most women won't be caught without their handbags, butdid 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 and on the floor of thetoilet,' says another woman 'and of course in my home which should beclean.'We decided to find out if handbags harbor a lot of bacteria. We learned howto test them at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake , and then we set out totest the average woman's handbag.Most women told us they didn't stop to think about what was on the bottomof their handbag. Most said at home they usually set their handbags on topof kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared.Most of the ladies we talked to told us they wouldn't be surprised if theirhandbags were at least a little bit dirty.

It turns out handbags are sosurprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked.Microbiologist Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of the handbagstested were not only high in bacteria, but high in harmful kinds ofbacteria. Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staphylococcus aurous cancause serious skin infections, and salmonella and e-coli found on thehandbags could make people very sick.In one sampling, four of five hand bags tested positive for salmonella, andthat's not the worst of it. 'There is fecal contamination on the handbags'says Amy. Leather or vinyl handbags tended to be cleaner than clothhandbags, and lifestyle seemed to play a role. People with kids tended tohave dirtier handbags than those without,with one exception.

The handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of theworst contaminations of all. 'Some type of feces, or possibly vomit' saysAmy.So the moral of this story is that your handbag won't kill you, but it doeshave the potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where youeat.Use hooks to hang your handbag at home and in toilets, and don't put it onyour desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop.Experts say you should think of your handbag the same way you would a pairof shoes.'If you think about putting a pair of shoes onto your countertops, that'sthe 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?