With all the recent news about swine flu, everyone has clean hands on their mind. We use our hands all day everyday. There was a recent study that is not entirely shocking but rather disturbing. I am going to go out on a limb and say that most handbag lovers on Purse Blog and Purse Forum are entirely conscious of keeping their bags clean and off the ground. Either way, our hands pick up germs everyday and our handbags are on the receiving end of man-handling our most prized accessories. So keep your hands clean and your handbags in turn may stay a bit cleaner. The other other advice given is to wipe down your bag with a sanitizing wipe and not place your bag on the ground. What do you think?
We wanted to find out what kind of germs a woman’s bag might pick up along the course of a day. A lab tested more than two dozen handbags for traces of various bacteria. Even the scientist who conducted the tests was surprised at what she found.
“I had no idea that it would be that much bacteria,” said microbiologist Amy Karren of Nelson Labs.
This was not just the harmless kind of bacteria you find around your house, this was the kind that makes you sick.
“We found pseudomonas, staphylococcus aureus, E-coli family and salmonella”, she said.
Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staph aureus can cause skin infections and E-coli and salmonella can cause serious intestinal problems.
The test found leather or vinyl purses were generally cleaner than cloth bags and women with kids tend to have dirtier purses than singles.
