Posted on 05/09/2012 7:47:44 AM PDT by AT7Saluki
Oregon public health officials have traced a nasty outbreak of norovirus infections in a group of soccer players to an unlikely source: a reusable grocery bag contaminated with what some experts are calling “the perfect pathogens.”
The incident is raising questions, once again, about the cleanliness of the portable shopping bags that many consumers use to avoid the paper vs. plastic impact on the environment.
“We wash our clothes when they’re dirty; we should wash our bags, too,” said Kimberly K. Repp, an epidemiologist with the Washington County Department of Health and Human Services in Hillsboro, Ore. Her work is published this week in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
(Excerpt) Read more at vitals.msnbc.msn.com ...
Washing the bag after every use eliminates its “environmental friendliness,” as it then uses MORE natural resources over its lifespan than disposable bags.
It’s been so long, that I forget: What is the “environmental impact” of the paper grocery bags I grew up with?
If they blow away, they rot and disintegrate within a year or two.
What’s the problem?
Who needs scum trial lawyers when we have the EPA-CDC and government saying that everyone and every company is now incarcerated by the government for EVER, and that we are the problem children of society when they take from us and rape us.
Yes, sir... useful idiots sucking up to government need to apply for “I’m stupid, I need to blow my brains, too funny”.
>What’s the problem?
That Greens are idiots.
This proves soccer is unhealthy..
It's those evil, plastic bags that have the left in an uproar.
some places can’t wash them because of phosphate-free detergents, yuck all around
Since the Greenies think that overpopulation is such a great problem, they should welcome this development.
it was such a good idea!
on paper.
[/s]
Another ‘great’ lib idea without any consideration for the unforeseen consequences.
In this case, just bring back the brown kraft paper bag. They are naturally green because they can be recycled and if they are discarded they decompose in quick order. With polymer technology they can be made quite strong.
” Washing the bag after every use eliminates its “environmental friendliness,” as it then uses MORE natural resources over its lifespan than disposable bags. “
Ah, but the true purpose for the ‘reusable’ bag is to provide an obvious symbol of the ‘environmentally aware’, to demonstrate their obvious moral superiority over their unenlightened neighbors...
(And the fact that their use slows the checkout process to a snail pace is just icing on the -gluten free, sugar free, flavor free - cake.. )
Which costs more in energy waste and money, using a new paper bag, or washing a cloth bag with soap and hot water every time you use it?
Let's be practical. It would use more money and energy to keep throwing the shopping bags in the washing machine and the dryer than it would to recycle a paper bag.
I recycle all our cans and bottles and plastic containers--except for an occasional can or jar that is filled with something really messy, which would take more energy to wash out than it would to throw away.
In any case, yes, it can be dangerous to keep reusing a shopping bag.
And from this will come a Presdential executive order and a new Cabinet postion...
Exactly!!!
Now, we love wind power, so bulldozing thousands of trees in order to put up butt ugly windmills is our new desire.
We used to use glass bottles; but, no we all had to change to plastic bottles. Now, plastic bottles are evil. It is never ending because the need for lefties to control our lives is also never ending. They will tie themselves into pretzels if it benefits their politics of the moment.
Greenies don't like paper mills. Besides the paper and wood industry own so much the forest land that the enviros would like to make off limits to humans.
The PROBLEM is liberals want to feel superior to the great unwashed - and one of the ways they do that is to carry silly bags with phrases like 'SAVE the EARTH' while shopping. It allows them to identify each other and to assure the world that they're 'cool' and the rest of us aren't. It's the "lite" version of turning human beings into animals by making them dependent - while congratulating themselves for 'feeling'.. and caring...
In short - liberals are weird - and this is just one more example.
Laundry gets done anyway, so tossing a couple of reusable cloth bags in with a load doesn’t add much to energy and resource usage.
I hate this new system of bringing your own grocery bag. I have them and keep them in my car. We still have the plastic ones and can beg for paper...I use them up..plastic is in the waste baskets and paper is used for my recycle items...and the reuse bags I use in MY car for the bags that now are so weak that they may break before I get them to my house..maybe I should go to the post office or UPS and get some boxes to reuse and then toss...this is so stupid..it was not broke but the green commie weenies had to fix it anyway.
Well, if middle and high schools had a “Bags for Babies”
clean-up drives every Wednesday. Where collected plastic
bags were donated to Planned Parenthood, the use of
one-time-use plastic bags would become mandatory.
The problems of contaminated reusable bags could be solved.
This is off of Seneca Sawmills daily lumber offerings list.
Seneca is a large producer of douglas fir studs and dimension lumber in Eugene, OR
NOTICE: It is okay to print this email. Paper is a plentiful, biodegradable, renewable, recyclable, sustainable product made from trees that support our economy by providing jobs and income for millions of Americans. Thanks to improved forest management, we have more trees in America today than we had 100 years ago.
Well, no need to get carried away. The left has an answer to this a bit scaled back. From Ayers/Weather-underground, only 25,000,000 should die. You know, the NWO-intolerant types.
Well, at least the environment is healthy.
Also, today most paper grocery bags are made from at least 50% recycled cardboard.
The real reason most grocery stores switched to plastic was because it was cheaper. They used the green agenda to cut their costs.
i use tote bags a lot because i walk to the store many days and do same day shopping. these big bags are easier to throw over a shoulder. i have started putting meat and chicken in plastic bags before putting them in my bag (ps i do not punch the “bring your own bag discounnt” button.) i use the plastic bags for all sorts of stuff and paper bags for storage and package wraps.
remember when we would sign for our school books and mom would help putting covers on them using paper bags?
[ Since the Greenies think that overpopulation is such a great problem, they should welcome this development. ]
The greenies are such a large group of anti-human misanthropes that it is scary. They think the world would be better served by only having like 50,000 humans around. So you would have to kill off over 99.99% of humanity. Paul Elrich once lamented that humanity having a cheap unlimited energy source would be akin to giving an idiot child a machine gun...
These people are dangerous and very anti-human... Kinda makes you wonder if they are actually human...
I can't think of anything the libs/greens have come up with that doesn't have unforeseen consequences.
Idiot environmentalists.
Reusable Grocery Bags are disgusting, anyone using them is foolish IMHO. Yes, plastic has its problems, but choose paper if you are environmentally conscious.
I would NEVER use a reusable grocery bag, the idea of having a bag that has had meat juices leaked in it, and other things, and just holding onto it again and again and putting food in and carrying it is just asking for trouble.
And yes folks paper is completely renewable, and Weyerhauser et al has been harvesting and replanting trees for generations, very successfully too I might add. Its in their own best interest to take care of their timberlands... without it they go out of business.
No amount of reason could convince them otherwise.
I still keep a jar of old-fashioned Spic'n'Span phosphate cleaning powder in the kitchen, and every time I load the dishwasher with that phosphate-free crap that Cascade has turned into, I just drop four or five grains of Spin'n'Span in the detergent cups. Problem solved.
Buy some chicken (dripping) and put it in that bag. Yummy. The belt that all your groceries were on has not been cleaned either.
It’s been so long, that I forget: What is the “environmental impact” of the paper grocery bags I grew up with?
If they blow away, they rot and disintegrate within a year or two.
What’s the problem?
I ask for paper whenever possible and I compost them. They end their life as healthy dirt/worm food in our garden.
“The day my grocery stop furnishing bags - plastic, or paper - is the day I’ll find another store that does.”
The problem is that local governments are mandating the change. Once the rules are in effect there’s no place to go.
I absolutely HATE the plastic bags which are about 1.5 molecules thick, and rip open if you put more than 2 cans of tuna fish in them.
Plus they don't stand up in the car trunk.
I have six reusable bags which are hell for stout (each one can handle a half dozen 2-liter soda bottles without a problem) and you'll pry them out of my cold dead hands.....I'll take my chances with the cleanliness issue since I, you know, wash my hands and clean the food before preparing it.
“It’s been so long, that I forget: What is the “environmental impact” of the paper grocery bags I grew up with?
If they blow away, they rot and disintegrate within a year or two.
What’s the problem?”
You’re forgetting that the paper bags were causing us to cut down the Amazon rainforest at a shockingly fast pace! Or so we were told....It would have caused an Ice Age by now.
WASH YOUR HANDS!!!! Frequently.
I only use the throw away plastic free ones...
I throw them away if they held chicken or other meat...etc.
those used to hold dry goods I reuse them for everything under the sun.
Excuse me? You’re KILLING trees to get those bags!
Most of the “eco-bags” are plasticized, they’re a lot more sturdy than the plastic grocery bags, people will surely disgard them one day (probably after they have the Norovirus) and then how long will they take to disintegrate?? No one has pointed that out yet.
They stopped it because the environmentalist complained they were killing trees.
I would happily use medium weigh denim bags with denim handles for groceries. Plastic and paper bags tear easily; denim bags would be as tough as a pair of Wranglers. it would be easy to wash these as well..
Okay San Jose, San Francisco, et all. WTF where you thinking when you passed these idiotic ordinances.
You thought it would be a win-win which ever option the consumer chose?
Buy bags for your groceries @ 10 cent per and the city gets a new form of revenue.
Don’t buy a bag and Mother Gaia is saved?
You never considered the health implications which was just one the many reasons to use a disposable bag.
E-coli, Staph, Salmonella, Noro Virus, Cholera(Yep, it can happen)
prevention of those diseases was one the many wonders of plastic bag and you will see more outbreaks of diseases when people eat food contaminated by a bag that has been reused one to many times with no thought of hygienic.
Imagine a party where 200 people enjoy a barbecue of contaminated food from an unhygienic bag.
Now imagine those same people take home leftovers and Voila!
Not unlikely at all.
Exactly, what's not to love about paper bags.
RESOURCE
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