Posted on 07/01/2012 9:06:12 AM PDT by matt1234
As Seattle's ban on plastic grocery bags goes into effect on Sunday July 1, some shoppers may not realize that they need to wash their reusable grocery bags or risk contamination with harmful bacteria.
"I'm very careful about what I put in the bag, but I'm not good about washing the bag," says one Seattle shopper.
That could be a problem for that Seattle shopper, as she and more than half a million others transition to using only reusable bags for their regular trips to the grocery store.
A 2010 outbreak of norovirus in a group of young soccer players visiting Seattle was just recently linked to a reusable grocery bag. According to a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in May, the bag had apparently been set down in a restroom where another girl was getting sick. Later, the group ate Girl Scout Cookies that had been held inside the bag.
Epidemiologist Kimberly Repp told KING-5 News in an interview that it's a good reminder about proper cleaning.
"When cleaning an area where someone has become ill, to not just think about cleaning the toilet but all the surfaces that could possibly transport to another area. So, the toothbrush, the hairbrush, anything that has been stored in the bathroom should be cleaned," says Repp.
Norovirus causes about 21 million illnesses, 70 thousand hospitalizations and 800 deaths a year in the United States, according to the study.
As for those reusable bags, a 2010 study by the University of Arizona found more than half of the bags investigated had some sort of bacteria. E.coli was found in 12% of the bags.
Experts say they are not trying to unnecessarily scare the public. They simply want to get people to use proper care to keep reusable bags clean.
Throwing them in the washing machine after each use should do the trick. If they're made of plastic, wash them with dish soap or at least a disinfecting wipe.
Seattle is not the only local city making the switch. The City of Bainbridge has enacted a ban that will take effect November 1. Issaquah has a plastic bag ban set to take effect in March of next year if an effort to repeal it fails.
ewwww -- who sets anything down on any surface in a public restroom? I even tear off a towel to use the door handle. And our weightlifting class for women calls squats the "New Jersey Turnpike Ladies Room position."
The law of unintended consequences strikes again. Solve one problem and create another that was never considered. This one sounds like the cure is worse than the affliction.
I’m throwing my bags into the laundry with the towels in just a few minutes! I do like using the cloth bags. The plastic ones at the grocery store are so thin and rip so easily. There is nothing more fun than toting an almost four-year-old, a ten-month-old in a clunky car seat, and a bag of groceries when that bag tears half way to the truck! The plastic bag ban though is just pure hog wash.
I do not support plastic bag bands but, this is not a reason not to use reusable bags. I wash my socks and underwear every time I use them and this has not not caused me great harm. I can see where the lefties might have a problem because the poor who not not have a washer or dryer in there who would be hurt them most. But that is there problem. Poor vs environment. Who will the lefties choose. Maybe the store could provide free plastic liners to put in the reusable bags. They haven’t banned liners just bags.
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I needed a new tool and my Internet search for what I wanted at the price I wanted led me to an store in Seattle. So I armed up and braved the venture into loonytown.
When I completed the purchase and turned to leave I thought better about carrying this particular tool out onto the street and asked for a bag. The owner got this look of semi-distress and fumbled around under the counter. Finally she straightened up and announced with a smile, “This is the last one!”
She then reminded me of the bag ban and how it would start the next morning. I asked her how she planned to meet the needs tomorrow and she furled her brow and said (and I quote): “Oh, I don’t know, maybe they can sneak it out under their coats”.
Friggin sheep!
So how is it saving the planet if you must use more fresh water and more electricty plus the price of using more soap to wash the darn things? Does it cost more to make and use the plastic bags than it does for everyone to use resources to wash reusables at home?
>>>The law of unintended consequences strikes again. Solve one problem and create another that was never considered. This one sounds like the cure is worse than the affliction.>>>
YEP!
The problem with THAT position is that women tend to spray the toilet seat, then not clean up after themselves. DISGUSTING! I've been threatening to make stickers, and place them in every public bathroom in which I find this phenomenon. They would read,
"If you sprinkle when you tinkle,
please be neat and wipe the seat!".
American society regresses.
Yes, my impression of Seattle libs (after 20 yrs. in the area) is braindead conformists. Ironically, most of them consider themselves nonconformists. However, the vast majority nonconform in exactly the same ways.
But we all know the things that happen to sheep, and none of them are good for the sheep.
Liberals - making you poorer, sicker, and less free, one law at a time.
Fortunately I have an even happier alternative - I won’t patronize stores in communities where I am subjected to mind-numbing stupidity.
I have never understood why parents bring toddlers and young children with them to supermarkets, etc.
Plastic grocery bags → kill the environment
Reusable grocery bags → kill us
Damn nannystatism!!
You do realize that the Left wants to eliminate supermarkets and other “big box” stores altogether. This is just another beating being afflicted upon American capitalism.
Needless to say this threw the Seattle and Olympia teachers completely out of sync. No one questions their stupid commie deliveries and actively challenges it in public and on paper. I did and always WON :-D. Not hard to do. Facts and figures nearly argue themselves.
Confused them too as I was so young, female, and beautiful. The ugly women dyke monsters (which of course there are loads of in Seattle/Olympia were thrown and the men well . . . had to admit defeat. Student becomes the MASTER. haha.
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