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Greening Our Way to Infection. The ban on single-use plastic grocery bags is unsanitary—and it comes at the worst imaginable time.
City Journal ^ | March 12, 2020 | John Tierney

Posted on 03/12/2020 8:24:56 PM PDT by karpov

The COVID-19 outbreak is giving new meaning to those “sustainable” shopping bags that politicians and environmentalists have been so eager to impose on the public. These reusable tote bags can sustain the COVID-19 and flu viruses—and spread the viruses throughout the store.

Researchers have been warning for years about the risks of these bags spreading deadly viral and bacterial diseases, but public officials have ignored their concerns, determined to eliminate single-use bags and other plastic products despite their obvious advantages in reducing the spread of pathogens. In New York State, a new law took effect this month banning single-use plastic bags in most retail businesses, and this week Democratic state legislators advanced a bill that would force coffee shops to accept consumers’ reusable cups—a practice that Starbucks and other chains have wisely suspended to avoid spreading the COVID-19 virus.

John Flanagan, the Republican leader of the New York State Senate, has criticized the new legislation and called for a suspension of the law banning plastic bags. “Senate Democrats’ desperate need to be green is unclean during the coronavirus outbreak,” he said Tuesday, but so far he’s been a lonely voice among public officials.

The COVID-19 virus is just one of many pathogens that shoppers can spread unless they wash the bags regularly, which few people bother to do. Viruses and bacteria can survive in the tote bags up to nine days, according to one study of coronaviruses.

The risk of spreading viruses was clearly demonstrated in a 2018 study published in the Journal of Environmental Health. The researchers, led by Ryan Sinclair of the Loma Linda University School of Public Health, sent shoppers into three California grocery stores carrying polypropylene plastic tote bags that had been sprayed with a harmless surrogate of a virus.

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: New York
KEYWORDS: contamination; virus
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1 posted on 03/12/2020 8:24:56 PM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

With the economy taking a dump they’ll charge a dollar for plastic bags instead of fifteen cents.


2 posted on 03/12/2020 8:29:27 PM PDT by HighSierra5
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To: karpov

Bring back the bags!!!!!!!!!!


3 posted on 03/12/2020 8:29:49 PM PDT by 1_Rain_Drop
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To: HighSierra5

They’re not allowed to give out plastic bags. Only paper bags. We now call then “nickel bags” because they cost a nickel... yet some stores in NYC charge 90 cents for them.


4 posted on 03/12/2020 8:33:34 PM PDT by 1_Rain_Drop
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To: karpov

I use the bags for garbage.


5 posted on 03/12/2020 8:33:38 PM PDT by DLfromthedesert
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To: 1_Rain_Drop

https://mobile.twitter.com/HOT97/status/1237346021895790593


6 posted on 03/12/2020 8:35:25 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear ("Progressives" (elitist Communists) "Love you to death".)
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To: DLfromthedesert

So do we.


7 posted on 03/12/2020 8:36:06 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear ("Progressives" (elitist Communists) "Love you to death".)
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To: karpov

this is an opening...maybe we can blame the ban on plastic bags for the spread of the coronavirus!


8 posted on 03/12/2020 8:37:12 PM PDT by cherry
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To: karpov

Same crazy libs that forced us to use plastic bags to “save the trees”.

Then they bitch about plastic.


9 posted on 03/12/2020 8:40:03 PM PDT by Fledermaus (PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC! Someone sneezed. Shut down everything. Cowards.)
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To: karpov

The other “green” thing are those annoying faucets that only work for a short time and never get you warm water. And the hot air blowers.


10 posted on 03/12/2020 8:59:25 PM PDT by Mercat
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To: Mercat

Yes, the “green” faucets that provide a trickle of water because the GPM is so low it never has the chance to draw any hot water thru the pipes.


11 posted on 03/12/2020 9:08:16 PM PDT by matt04
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To: karpov

I use the plastic bags to suffocate cute fuzzy animals.</sarc>


12 posted on 03/12/2020 9:19:23 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA
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To: karpov

Bing bing bing! Somebody who’s willing to say that banning plastic bags can cause all sorts of health problems.


13 posted on 03/12/2020 9:21:40 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: ConservativeInPA

I use the plastic bags to suffocate cute fuzzy animals.</sarc>


I go down to the beach and feed them to the sea turtles.


14 posted on 03/12/2020 9:22:26 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: kaehurowing
I go down to the beach and feed them to the sea turtles.

Sounds like we would get along. Do you ever go clubbing ... baby seals, that is? I'm also a member of PETA - People Eating Tasty Animals.

15 posted on 03/12/2020 9:26:08 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA
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To: karpov
indoor plumbing with a flush toilet, dishwashers, toilet paper, disposables from utensils to paper plates and bags have done an enormous job of reducing communicable disease.

So, naturally the left wants to fix what works and is not broken.

16 posted on 03/12/2020 9:27:25 PM PDT by going hot (happiness is a momma deuce)
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To: 1_Rain_Drop
Next the green-eyed tyrants will ban single use medical plastics. Equal outcomes means everyone gets HIV.


17 posted on 03/12/2020 9:35:07 PM PDT by Reeses (A journey of a thousand miles begins with a government pat down.)
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To: ConservativeInPA

I’ve been in trouble ever since the Seventies, when I put that bumper sticker on my car that said “NUKE A GAY WHALE FOR THE SHAH.”


18 posted on 03/12/2020 9:37:51 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: karpov
When I hear about 'well meaning' people and unintended consequences I think of the Golgafrinchan.

The Golgafrinchan decided to rid their plant of useless middle men including telephone sanitizers and they sent them into space on the B Ark.

The Golgafrinchan were then wiped by a virulent disease contracted from dirty telephones.

19 posted on 03/12/2020 9:38:18 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: DLfromthedesert

empty beer cans


20 posted on 03/12/2020 9:39:02 PM PDT by technically right
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