A new study has revealed that women's handbags have even more bacteria than a toilet. Yes, you read right! So much so, that one in every five handbags carries enough germs to even pose health risks. How GROSS is that? But to be completely honest with you, this didn't exactly surprise me. I'll be the first to admit that I practically carry everything I own in my super huge leather purse. I'm talking everything from vitamins, pain relievers, makeup, hand sanitizer, hand cream, my tooth brush and paste, books, my iPod, and yes the list goes on and on. But still, are our handbags REALLY dirtier than a nasty toilet?
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Apparently a woman's purse could be one of the nastiest, most bacteria-infested things any human being could own. The test that was carried out by British company Initial Washroom Hygiene (IWH) found hand cream to be one of the dirtiest items found in the average hand bag. Makes sense, considering it's usually the first thing you grab, next to sanitizers, whenever you're out and about. The test also found leather bags contain the highest amounts of bacteria due to the material's spongy texture. Noooo! I use leather bags!
Peter Barrat, Technical Manager at the IWH and head of the study says: "Handbags come into regular contact with our hands and a variety of surfaces, so the risk of transferring different germs onto them is very high, especially as bags are rarely cleaned." Even so, you mean to tell me that sticking my head into my handbag is just as gross as laying it on a toilet seat? That probably means that all the pee, saliva, and other highly contaminated things that I come in contact with in N.Y.C.'s grimy subway stations are probably all over my handbags. I don't know about you but that's definitely enough to give me an anxiety attack.
But before you decide to live the rest of your life in a safety bubble away from all germs (something I'm actually considering), you might want to just take some advice from Barrat, who suggests cleaning your purses regularly with anti-bacterial wipes to help prevent any buildup or contamination. That's a much more practical option, right? Anything to prevent pee and E. coli from swirling around in my purse sounds good to me!
Image via Valerie Reneé/Flickr
