HI PEGGY JO.
 
1ST. LYNETTE'S TIME SOLUTIONS (The Answer To Your  Person Assistance
including Tender Care

         House  Sitting) SUBMITS THIS TIDBIT FOR YOUR  READERS:

Have you  ever noticed gals who sit their handbags on public toilet
floors,
then go directly to their dining tables and set it on the table? 
Happens a lot! 
  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 plopped 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 they  have 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?
Womencarry handbags everywhere; from the office to public  toilets to the floor ofthe car. Most women won't be caught   
  their handbags, but did you ever stop to think about where
your handbag goes during the  day.
 
"I drive  a school bus, so my handbag has been on the floor of the bus  a
lot," says one woman. "On the floor of my car, and in  toilets."  
 
"I put my  handbag in grocery shopping carts and on the floor of the
toilet," says another woman "and of course in my home which should  be clean."

We  decided to find out if handbags harbor a lot of bacteria. We  learned how to test them at Nelson Laboratories in Salt Lake,  and then we set out to test the average woman's  handbag.
Most  women told us they didn't stop to think about what was on the bottom of their handbag. Most said at home  they usually set  their handbags on top of kitchen tables and counters where food  is prepared. 
Most of  the ladies we talked to told us they wouldn't be surprised if their handbags were at least a little bit dirty.   
It turns  out handbags are so surprisingly dirty, even the microbiologist who tested them was shocked.  Microbiologist  Amy Karen of Nelson Labs says nearly all   
  of the  handbags 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, and  salmonella and e-coli found on thehandbags could make people very  sick. 
  In one  sampling, four of five handbags tested positive for salmonella,and that's not the worst of it. "There is fecal contamination on the handbags" 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 dirtierhandbags than those  without,   
with one  exception. 
The  handbag of one single woman who frequented nightclubs had one of the worst contaminations of all. "Some type of feces, or possibly vomit"  says Amy.
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 iton 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. 
 "If you think about putting a pair of  shoes onto  
 
your  countertops, that's the same thing you're doing when you put your  handbag on the countertops"  -  Your handbag has gone where   
 
individuals before you have sneezed,  coughed, spat, urinated, emptied bowels, etc!
Do you  really want to bring that home with you?   
The  microbiologists at Nelson also said cleaning a handbag will  help.Wash cloth handbags and use leather cleaner to clean the  bottom of
leather handbags.

Hi Lynette,

Funny I have had an inate feeling from my teenage years about handbags. I've always tried to keep mine off the floor in public places as well as cringing when one is put on the kitchen counter.

Thanx for rhe article.

Peggy Jo