How to Avoid Illness from Reusable Bags

Sometimes even the most appealing concepts backfire. The environmentally sound notion of cutting way back on single use plastic shopping bags in recent years has spurred a widespread movement to use reusable bags. In fact, in many places plastic shopping bags have been strongly condemned by local governments by imposing a small tax on them or outright banning them at retail stores. What merits serious attention by consumers, however, is that those reusable bags have now been found to pose a significant health hazard. Before telling you how to protect yourself, consider these important revelations.

The examination of reusable bags in California and Arizona found that 51 percent of them contained nasty coliform bacteria, according to a 2011 study. But more alarming is that they found E. coli - which is very far from harmless - in 12 percent of the bags. This finding was not really all that surprising because of the habits of the people using these types of bags. Turns out that 75 percent said that they placed meat and vegetables in the same bag. Research showed that when bags were stored in hot car trunks for two hours, the bacteria grew tenfold.

Oregon researchers found that a "reusable grocery bag left in a hotel bathroom caused an outbreak of norovirus-induced diarrhea and nausea that struck nine of 13 members of a girls' soccer team," according to a 2012 story in the Los Angeles Times.

A more recent study on the public-health impact of plastic-bag bans found emergency-room admissions related to E. coli infections increased in San Francisco after a ban on plastic bags. Note that nearby counties without such a ban did not show this increase. Also revealed was that the San Francisco ban also correlated with increases in salmonella and other bacterial infections, and that similar effects were found in other California towns that adopted similar bans. Note that Seattle and Los Angeles also have bans on plastic bags.

What all these scientific findings show is that reusable shopping bags really do pose health threats, including death. Hard to believe by many, but still an indisputable fact. Perhaps you should immediately look at the inside of your own reusable bags right now and closely see whether or not they have food residues or stains inside them.

So, what should sensible people do to ensure their safety?

The first practice which turns out is rarely done is simple: Every few weeks wash your reusable bags along with clothes you wash. But this still deals with the problem after the fact. Also note that the good news is that washing bags eliminates 99.9 percent of the bacteria but the bad news is that 97 percent of people have reported that they never wash their bags. What about prevention?

Here is the smart prevention practice. Recognize that the fundamental problem is various types of foods leaving residues inside bags, especially meats, fruits and vegetables. Just visualize the not farfetched behavior of placing wet and dripping packages of ground beef or chicken in a reusable bag. But placing pieces of fruit and vegetable in a bag is also problematic. The problem is especially serious when the weather is warm, causing germs to multiply. To deal with this you should always place unpackaged foods within the smaller plastic bags available in almost all produce departments selling fruits and vegetables. Make it a practice of leaving some of them in your reusable bags. And meat and fish departments should also place their items in smaller bags unless they are very well packaged. If they do not, ask them to. Also note that many plastic containers in which fruits, especially salad greens and berries, are packed have intentional perforated holed in them; so also place them in those smaller plastic bags to ensure that pieces of food or drippings do not end up in your reusable bag. Just remember to throw out any small plastic bags you have used to protect your reusable bags or recycle them.

So now you know the facts. While it may make you feel good to be a good environmentalist using reusable textile or thicker plastic bags instead of thin plastic ones that are frowned upon, face the reality that it is up to you to make sure that doing so does not cause some threat to your health, or that of your loved ones.