Diseases from Dirty Purses?
Mom always got so upset when her guests came in the
door and plopped their purses down on the counter
where she was cooking or setting up the buffet.
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
her. While you may know what's inside your purse,
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 from now on.
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, probably 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 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 seemed to play a role.
People with kids tended to have dirtier purses
than those without, with one exception. The purse
of a single woman who frequented 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. "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," says Amy.
The microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a
purse will help. Wash cloth purses with soap
and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom
of leather purses.
