Recycled Bags Kill Thousands – Scare Story Of The Day
RECYCLED bags contain e.coli. The Telegraph says e.coli killed 26 people in Scotland in 1996.
The BBC says 20 people died.
The Scotsman says 21.
We can agree that e-coli is not good for you. And for good measure the Telegraph says that if the e-coli doesn’t kill you the salmonella might – it’s also in the bags.
The idea is that if you don’t wash your bags between use you run a risk of infecting your food. Researchers at the University of Arizona examined the bags of 84 shoppers.
The researchers warned the levels of bacteria they found were high enough to cause a wide range of serious health problems and even death.
But would you eat the bag or lick out its insides?
Professor Charles Gerba, who led the study says:
“Our findings suggest a serious threat to public health, especially from bacteria such as E.coli, which were detected in half of the bags sampled. Consumers are alarmingly unaware of these risks and the critical need to sanitise their bags on a weekly basis.”
So. Has anyone contracted either illnesses from their recycled bags? Have incidences of these illnesses risen as the use of recycled bags grows? The Telegraph says there are “hundreds of millions” of these bags in circulation.
A poll revealed 97 per cent of shoppers who used eco-friendly bags never washed or bleached them.
Ninety-seven percent of hundreds of millions of bags is..?
A particularly nasty strain, known as E. coli 0157, can be lethal for children and older people and fewer than 100 of the tiny organisms can cause illness.
Nasty. And facts?
Ten children last year were admitted to hospital after an outbreak at a petting farm in Surrey.
They were carrying recycled bags? Dunno. But next time they might be…
Spotter: June
Posted: 1st, July 2010 | In: Reviews Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
