Eco-friendly shopping bags 'harbour potentially deadly bugs'

by Daily Mail Reporter


Health risk: Eco-friendly bags contain traces of lethal toxins, claim a team of researchers

Reusable shopping bags harbour potentially deadly bugs and could threaten public health, claim scientists.

Tests on shoppers' bags revealed that half contained traces of the lethal toxin E.coli, which killed 26 people in Scotland in 1996 in one of the world's worst
food-poisoning outbreaks.

The scientists also found many bags were contaminated with salmonella.

They say reusable bags must be washed regularly at high temperature to kill bugs left by the packaging from raw meat.

The research was funded by the American Chemistry Council, an industry body which is involved in a major lobbying campaign in the US to try and stop states like California going ahead with a ban
on single-use carrier bags.

California and other states want shoppers to switch to reusable bags.

There is no recorded case anywhere in the world of someone falling ill because their reusable shopping bag was contaminated with bugs.

The level of bacteria the researchers found was high enough to 'cause a wide range of serious health problems and even death', particularly to children.

The tests were carried out by a team at the University of Arizona, who stopped 84 shoppers to check the state of their bags.

The popularity of reusable 'eco-friendly' bags has soared in Britain as the growth in recycling means fewer consumers use disposable plastic bags.

However some experts fear unwashed bags could pose a health threat.

Professor Charles Gerba, who led the study, said: 'Our findings suggest a serious threat to public health, especially from bacteria such as E.coli.

'Consumers are alarmingly unaware of these risks and the critical need to sanitise their bags weekly.'



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Comment by Nikki on July 2, 2010 at 3:40pm
Plastic bags will most likely be banned here soon and I don't like paper. For years I have been using washable canvas bags but they seem to have been replaced with cheap or free bags with logos which is more about marketing than the environment. The problem is these cheap bags don't last long and end up in the trash. I also like the European-style string bags which are washable and lightweight. Here's some examples of canvas and string at this site:
http://www.reusablebags.com/store/shopping-bags-string-c-2_8.html
Comment by Tara on July 2, 2010 at 1:58am
Ain't that a bitch right? Granted, I hate the accumulation of plastic bags I acquire over a period of time, however I think if we use our common sense, respect for ourselves and our surroundings and recycle, recycle, recycle.....they are no burden on anybody, especially the earth.

Isn't it something that so many enviro peeps want to take away something that is bad for the earth, (plastic is bad but not bad when recycled properly) and give you something back that will be bad for you. Things that make you go hmmm......

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