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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.
In our state one can ask for paper or plastic or do the leftist thing and bring your own.
In the old days I used to bring my own and there were wonderful washable bags that I used.
Now I ask for paper, because two shopping bags give me the perfect firestarter. I collect bags all year. Everything in the store goes into a bag. Milk, everything.
LOL!! Women can should do it, too!
It’s not unintended. And the law didn’t come from Bainbridge either. It came from ICLEI which has been outed in the Rio + 20 conference as MARXISTS.
The bag ‘ban’ is nothing but another Marxist control on citizens and business. All the seemingly inconsequential ordinances and laws add up to one big agenda, and it’s global communism.
Read some of the threads about ICLEI, Agenda 21 and the Rio conference. These groups have been spelling out communism for years, they get funded by international NGOs to corrupt American public officials to force Marxism on their constituents. Many government officials belong to ICLEI, but the ICLEI plans and techniques for subverting our Constitution are not shown to the public, only ‘members’ e.g. our public officials get to see them.
Now that you are informed, you understand the problem isn’t cloth bags, but Marxist public officials.
What about paper bags? Trees are a renewable resource...
Cool! Now if someone could just find a way to sell full flush toilets again and dishwashers and washing machines that used enough water to get things clean....
No, I was being facetious, not to be taken literally.
But it wouldn't surprise me if it happens, what with the government intrusions in my locale for take-out containers (that are now inefficient since foam was banned and bio-degradable containers were substitute). Hands get burnt, food leaks out, and the costs were passed on to the consumer. Add to that the fighting going on over plastic and paper bags at the grocery store. Here, they have garbage nazis snooping in garbage to fine people for trashing the wrong stuff.
Parents bring young children to the store, take them to a poorly maintained restroom with "fluids" all over the floor, and then let the children stand in the shopping cart. The same cart where the next shopper will place their groceries.
Some stores now have a mini cart, too small for a child to sit or stand in. I prefer to shop there.
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