Those increasingly mandated reusable shopping bags might not be healthy for you or your environment. A study done by the University of Arizona has found the deadly pathogen Novovirus in reusable shopping bags.
Norovirus is a common gastrointestinal disturbance of the stomach and small intestine, which can result in abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, and vomiting. The Norovirus is attributed to 21 million cases of illness every year. While commonly referred to as stomach flu, the Norovirus is not related to influenza.
The reusable shopping bag is the carrier of the virus and often affects food items that are carried in the bag, and then consumed by the bag’s owner or someone that has shared items from the bag.
In 2010, a group of school students participating in a state soccer tournament fell ill. While first attributed to a type of food poisoning it was determined that the bag in which the cookies the students ate was contaminated with the Norovirus. It was found that the bag had been stored in a bathroom and had been contaminated with the Norovirus and then spread when the bag was used to transport cookies for the student’s event.
Health and Human Services where the incident took place commented that when our clothes are dirty, we wash them, and the same should apply to the reusable shopping bags. One challenge is that the Novovirus bugs have the ability to live for long periods of time on a variety of objects and surfaces.
Scientists have shown that simply leaving your reusable shopping bags in a closed trunk for two hours increased the number of virus bugs by a factor of ten. To make sure that this type of virus doesn’t affect you, simple hygiene and hand washing and cleaning of any potential environment is recommended. Also, washing the reusable bag or making use of a new bag will lessen the chance of an outbreak.