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andybebbington

Soiled, reusable shopping bags pose health risk:

My nan heard this on the local radio this week and woundered how we ever survived prior to plastic bags.

Quote:
For the study, 25 reusable bags were tested in March and April — including 23 used bags obtained from shoppers and two bags that were two and three years old.


Four never-used reusable bags were also tested as control samples. Single-use plastic shopping bags were also swabbed.


- Swab testing showed 16 of 25, or 64 per cent, of the used reusable bags showed the presence of some level of bacterial contamination;


- Seven bags, or nearly 30 per cent, had elevated bacterial counts higher than the level considered safe for drinking water;


- Yeast was found in five bags, suggesting the presence of water, what Summerbell called "a key component of a microbial habitat;"


- Researchers found mould in six of the bags;


- An unacceptable total coliform count was found in three bags tested, indicating the presence of intestinal bacteria. But no E. coli or salmonella was found.
The co-owner of one Edmonton bakery that has given away 8,000 reusable cloth bags over the past year said she takes the study with a grain of salt because it was commissioned by a plastics industry group

http://www.calgaryherald.com/heal...astic+industry/1615972/story.html
wildgarlic

I think the co-owner of the bakery has it right!! If your shopping bag gets dirty then you wash it, right?
Smooth Hound

maybe we should wear plastic clothes and throw them away each night,
what a silly survey,
Townie

I use the cotton bags ... take them everywhere with me and when they get dirty, they get thrown in the washing machine and hung out to dry.

Any plastic bags toat ever end up in our house tend to be used for poo patrol.
Smooth Hound

i use my plastic bags as freezer bags, i take the chops or whatever out of the ridiculous packaging, and just put a bit of the label in the bag so i can see what ive got, i keep the trays for seeds or the chickens, and that way i get 3 times as much in the freezer, and probaably save electric too as im not paying to freeze air well i tell myself that anyway  
im afraid i keep forgetting to take my reusable bags to the shop with me
i am trying though
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