If you’re like us, you’re getting tired of “studies” that make reusable grocery bags out to be nasty breeding grounds for every gross germ in the universe and the reason why plastic is better. The thing that really makes you sick? Not using common sense!
You may have read that last week, some Oregon researchers investigated a recent outbreak of norovirus amongst members of a girls’ soccer team. We won’t gross you out with the details, but suffice it to say that a girl got sick, and seven other players and chaperones fell ill even though nobody had come in direct contact with the original patient after she first displayed symptoms. The common link? **Insert scary music** A reusable grocery bag of snacks that had been stored in the bathroom.Yep, all of the sick people ate cookies that were stored in that reusable bag. How did the nasty bug get to the cookies? You can read the dirty details here.
The real takeaway from this “shocking” study is that reusable bags do NOT cause illness. Lack of common sense does. Don’t store food in a bathroom (gross!), thoroughly clean an environment in which a sick person was taking care of, ahem, business, and for the love of Pete–JUST WASH YOUR REUSABLE BAGS. Case closed. Don’t believe us? Read more about this recent news story and one person’s quest to be plastic free: http://myplasticfreelife.com/2012/05/dont-be-fooled-by-reusable-bag-norovirus-scare/
And if you don’t know the best way to wash a particular reusable bag, we wrote this handy-dandy blog a while back.
