Do you know how much bacteria live on your handbags???

This is an article which I have spotted on one of the discussion group:

Have you ever noticed gals who sit their handbags on public toilet floors, then go directly to their dining tables and set it on thetable? Happens a lot! It's not always the 'restaurant food' that causes stomach distress. sometimes "what you don't know will hurt you"!

Read on...Mom got so upset when guests came in the door and ploppe their handbags down on the counter where she was cooking or setting up food. She always said that handbags are really dirty, because of where theyhave been. It's something just about every woman carries with them. While we may know what's inside our handbags, do you have any idea what's on the outside?

Women carry handbags everywhere; from the office to public toilets to the floor of the car. Most women won't be caught withouttheir handbags, but did you ever stop to think about where yourhandbag goes during the day.Most women didn't stop to think about what was on the bottom oftheir handbag. At home they usually set their handbags on top of kitchen tables and counters where food is prepared.

It turns out handbagsare so surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked.Microbiologist Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all of thehandbags 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, andsalmonella and e-coli found on the handbags could make people verysick.In one sampling, four of five handbags tested positive for salmonella,and that's not the worst of it. "There is fecal contamination on thehandbags" says Amy.. Leather or vinyl handbags tended to be cleaner than cloth handbags, and lifestyle seemed to play a role. People with kids tended to have dirtier handbags than those without, with one exception. The handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one ofthe worst contaminations of all. Some type of faeces, or possiblyvomit".

So the moral of this story is that your handbag won't kill you, but it does have the
potential to make you very sick if you keep it on places where you eat. Use hooks to hang your handbag at home and in toilets, and don't put it on your desk, a restaurant table, or on your kitchen countertop.Experts say you should think of your handbag the same way you would a pair of shoes.

Your handbag has gone where individuals before youhave sneezed, coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc! Do you really want to bring that home with you? Cleaning a handbag will help.Wash cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean the bottom ofleather handbags?