Don’t Be A Dummy, Wash Your Reusable Bags


In this day and age, I shouldn’t have to remind y’all, all y’all–to wash your reusable bags.  I mean, really, you wouldn’t wear the same clothes every day, would you?  Okay, who washes their jeans–but seriously, people!  What you’re bringing home in your shopping bags is a lot grosser than that pair of jeans you’ve been wearing all week.  And I’m betting you don’t usually eat off your jeans.

Listen up!  A recent study finds that reusable shopping bags could carry dangerous levels of bacteria that could make you sick.

Well, duuhh.

In a world where we’re obsessed with hand sanitizer and lysol wipes, and told not to cross-contaminate food and produce in the kitchen, this seems like a no-brainer.   Why not apply the same logic and wash your reusable grocery bags, for goodness sakes.

A study at the University of Arizona found that most people don’t wash their reusable bags, and that the bags were chock-full of bacterial contamination. (Read the full report here.)

The UA study tested 84 bags collected from shoppers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tucson. Fifty percent of the bags were contaminated with harmful pathogens — 12 percent of which was E.coli.

E.coli!  That’s the stuff found in fecal matter, or poo.  Ewwww!

E. coli can cause a whole host of nasty — and potentially deadly — diseases.  It’s definitely something you want to avoid eating.

The UA study is more than a little alarming.  Especially when you consider that regular hand and clothes washing has been around since –oh, I don’t know–the Romans started the tradition about 3000 years ago.  But, hey, it always takes some people a little longer to catch up, I guess.

Amazingly, a full 97 percent of those interviewed for the study never washed or bleached their reusable bags, even though a thorough washing kills nearly all bacteria that accumulate in the bags.

So, please, people, take responsibility for your bags and maintain them properly.

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