Bag-teria

The winter flu and cold seasons have begun, so we germophobes at mspmag.com began looking for ways to keep you healthy. What we uncovered during our research was quite . . . disheartening: The purse, one of our most coveted accessories, is a breeding ground for germs. Wanting more information—and to make sure this whole thing wasn’t being blown out of proportion—we called on the experts at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.

Christine Hendrickson, director of Infection Prevention and Control, tested three women’s purses using an ATP detection tool, which measures amounts of organic matter, including live and dead microbes, on a given surface. A level of 500 Relative Light Units (RLUs) or less is deemed to be clean.

“As I suspected, the bottoms of the purses came out cleaner than the insides, ranging from the 200s to 500s,” Hendrickson says. “So, our purses [on the outside] are essentially clean.”

It is the inside, however, that warrants concern. “The rates shot up to the thousands,” she says. Hendrickson notes that this is probably due to the fact that most women have a special pocket that holds their lipstick and/or a cell phone, and it is this pocket that gets frequented dozens of times a day. The good news, however, is that most of these bacteria belong to the owner of the purse and are unlikely to cause him or her any harm.

Although Hendrickson put our concern to rest, she stresses the importance of common sense when it comes to warding off colds and infections. “Make sure you have clean hands before you put your fingers near your mouth, nose, or eyes,” she says. “Proper hand washing before we eat and after we use the restroom and a balanced life are the best defenses against everyday exposures to germs.”