Muahahahaa…
The righteous and the hectors come unstuck again.
Professor Charles Gerba, who led the study said: "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."
A poll revealed 97 per cent of shoppers who used eco-friendly bags never washed or bleached them.
Ah yes. As well as rinsing out containers for recycling, and separating paper and food waste, we’re going to be told to ‘sanitise’ our shopping bags.
I’ve got a better idea. Get a new carrier bag each time you visit the store. Burn the bag when you get home. Sanitised.
AJ
Al Jahom's Final Word 
Wouldn’t it be ironic if some sort of “environmentally-friendly” policy was actually significantly worse for the environment?
It would never happen, of course, given the realism and scientific awareness of the Greenies. But I can’t help thinking about it when I see overflowing bins (thanks, fortnightly collections), or when I’m driving around looking for a parking space (thanks, sustainable transport policy: closing the car parks certainly helped improve our “choice”). And when I hear of the Green Party’s policy on nuclear power, I just think about all the CO2-belching fossil fuel power stations that continue to operate because of “green” anti-nuclear lobbying. Never mind, it will all be alright when they’re replaced with windmills.
This is a bit of a bizarre report – where’s the E coli coming from? Surely people aren’t putting raw, unpackaged meat directly into these bags, are they?
I don’t see the problem. If I forget my ‘green’ reusable bags (which happens a lot, I just throw the, err, throwaway ones in the bin.
Get out of that, E-coli.
There’s loads of bacteria everywhere. The bacteria in the bags is probably not any worse than the bacteria on the kitchen worktop. And everyone has e-coli in their guts. It’s a specfici e-coli which is dangerous but there are hundreds of other strains which aren’t. Usual scaremongering by a scientist to get publicity for themselves and churnalists just repeating the press release without doing any research nor writing a proper story.
Slightly OT but has Marks & Spencer quietly shelved its 5p/reusable bag policy? In Muswell Hill, at any rate, it appears that M&S supplies its yellow reusables free.