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I was watching news this evening and they had a report on how dirty women's purses are.
OH MY Gosh !!!!!! It was awful !.. They did bacterial cultures on something like 10 different women's purses that worked there at the TV station and they ALL had horrible amounts of bacteria. Many many different kinds, and lots of kinds that can make you very sick.
This makes perfect sense though. We take our purses everywhere, sit them in the floor of our cars, on the counters at stores, in baskets at the market (where soiled diapers have sat)... and some women put them on the floor in public bathroom stalls.
I've always been aware they were pretty dirty...but I had no idea they were as bad as the bacterial growth that they found. I never, never set mine on the kitchen counter or table.
Same thing with rings of keys... they're loaded with nasties too.
Anyone care to share their ideas for cleaning these nasty necessities ? I'd like to throw them into the washer with my sneakers, but don't think they'd come out too good. LOL
I use disinfecting wipes to clean mine (it's leather), if you have a fabric purse instead then maybe one of the aerosol disinfecting sprays would work better (might want to test first on a small area and make sure it doesn't change the color though!).
But consider that the human body was meant to be in contact with bacteria - that's why we have skin and a gut system that is considered to be "outside" our body. Typically only compromised people will become ill from such contact. I bet you have never gotten sick from your purse. If we over-sterilize our world we risk damaging our own immune systems by not challenging them to form antibodies. Think about how much bacteria there was on a farm a few years ago or back in the old days before easy running water. Obviously we are not going around putting our purse in our mouth or other such nasty habits, but sterilizing your purse seems a bit overkill to me. but thats just me.
True, we can get carried away and over do it. But I think the whole point the report was trying to make, was that our purses carried much greater concentrations and more numerous varieties of bacterias than most other everyday items we use. Because we carry them everywhere, and they don't get changed and washed (like our clothes) as often.
Public areas are full of nasty things that are not what we used to have out on the farm. Most of the stuff on the farm was never exposed to antibiotics, therefore not the same as the hybridized germs we find in our society now. So many common bacterias have mutated because of the use of antibiotics and are no longer even sensitive to them. Also, so many are viral, and would not even be affected by any antibiotics at all anyway. Many viruses can live for 36 hours or longer on hard surfaces, and enter our bodies when we touch something and simply rub our eyes.
Usually I'm not what one would call a germ freak, but I am a consistent hand washer. I feel a strong need to wash my hands after coming in from shopping, or any other public place where lots of other people have frequented.
Maybe that comes from the years I spent working in a pathology lab. I saw so many kinds of things that grew on cultures that had made people sick. I may be a little overly cautious.
I'd be willing to bet that someone's gotten sick from bacteria brought in on purses, they just probably didn't realize that's where it came from. Think about it, you have the purse in the public restroom, on the floor in the airplane, etc picking up all sorts of nasty stuff, then you come home and put it on the kitchen counter. Or you're touching your purse while you're at a restaurant, and then you pick up a piece of bread and eat it. Granted, I'm sure there are other things that cause illness more frequently, but it doesn't hurt to be careful.
There are non-pathogenic bacteria that colonize our skin, etc and it's not a good idea to wipe them out, but getting rid of pathogens is smart, you don't have to be immunocompromised to get sick from many of the bacteria they found. And given where the purse has been, chances are there are a lot more "bad" bacteria on your purse than there are good bacteria, so personally I think it's a surface that's probably worth disinfecting.
After posting this thread, of course I've really been extra aware of where I put my purse. The other night we went out to dinner at a restaurant, and while seated at the table, there was no place else to put my purse other than on the floor. Sometimes I have hung it over the back of my chair in eateries, but this one had some really funky shaped rounded back chairs nothing cound be hung on.
What do you all do with your purses when seated at the table at restaurants, where there's no booth to put your purse in the seat, or a vacant chair at your table to put it in?
This one caught me off guard. I usually think of bathroom floors etc., when I think of the bad places to sit one's purse. Under the table in restaurants is a pretty dirty place too. Yukkie-poo !
There is a product that you can carry in your purse (small item) that hooks over the edge of the table when you are eating (at restaurant, etc.) and hook the handle of your purse on the underside hook. These were very popular in the 1940-1960's. I know of one place in Oklahoma City, OK. that makes the and sells them, about $12.00 I think and of course, + shipping. These are small objects that would fit inside most any small or large purse. And it's very handy. Sometimes the old ways were the best. That's when we used to wear white gloves most of the time if we went out and we didn't want to get those very dirty like picking up our purse from off the floor. Want a doozy of a job? Wash white kid gloves & reshape them! ghostlady
