Good Lifestyle

Live our dayday life in the middle of thePandemic of Covid-19 Permanent evaluation means small choices we do. Every decision on where we go, what we are carrying, and what we buy can apparently take an importance of life or death. While the risks of coronavirus must be kept in perspective, there are a few things we do who canincrease the risk of our exhibition, Especially when it comes that everyone from the activity must do:grocery store.

And a commercial behavior that some maintain risks to pick up the virus is something that many buyers thought was responsible behavior: bring a reusable bag to the store.

Until COVID-19 hit, which wears a canvas tote bag or a light polyester bag at the store was a means of cutting back on unnecessary waste and avoid using plastic bags that end up in a discharge and do not break down. Concerns about the negative impact of single-use plastic bags leads to three states (California, Hawaii and New York) andbig cities (Seattle, Chicago and Washington, DC) prohibiting the use of single-use bags. (Prohibition of New York State entered into force recently, in March 2020)

In their place, consumers have been invited to opt for paper bags, or, better yet, bring their own reusable bag to make their grocery store. Now, in this time upside down a global pandemic, a reusable tote can bring a unnecessary risk back to a customer's home, and expose their compatriotic customers to risks they can not even do not to know.

aStudy August 2011 by researchers from the University of Arizona and the University of Loma Linda found that "a large number of bacteria were found in almost all the reusable bags, the E. particularly unpleasant E. coli found in 12 percent of the Bags examined.

The researchers discovered that when these bags were washed, the bacteria could be reduced by 99.9 percent or more, but that the consumers rarely remembered to give their bags a washing, whether by hand or machine. (It should be noted that this study was funded by the American Chemistry Council, which represents the main manufacturers of plastics, would therefore be encouraged to discourage the use of reusable bags.)

"So, there is the idea that you could bring [the virus] in [at the store], which is what we test," Ryan Gene Sinclair, Professor of Environmental Microbiology at Loma Linda University who led the study, said MPR News from Minnesota. "But ... as I thought of it from the coronavirus, it is also to bring things from the store. »

In a 2018 study, led by Sinclair and his teampublished in theEnvironmental Health JournalThe customers went to three California grocery stores carrying plastic tote bags that had been "contaminated" with a harmless, traceable virus. After the box, high levels of the virus were found were transmitted to the surfaces in the store: Caddies, cash desktops, touch screens self check-out, packaged foods, unpackaged products, as well as the hands of cashiers and consumers themselves.

"Even if you have a clean, reusable grocery bag, I think everything you touch on these areas in the grocery store can also bring things," said Sinclair.

Add to these findings, the fact that the Covid-19 bacteria has been foundStay on plastic surfaces For days, and you have good reasons to leave the bag at home.

The concern for how reusable bags can spread a virus has led the large chains,including the target and trader Joe, Refusing to allow customers to bring their own bags in the store. The governors of Illinois, New Hampshire and Massachusetts also issued temporary prohibitions on reusable bags accordingly.

"Our grocery store employees are on the COVID-19 front line work tirelessly to keep families New Hampshire fed," New Hampshire governor Chris Sununusaid in the declaration. "With the identified community transmission, it is important that consumers keep their reusable bags at home due to the potential risk of bagging machines, grocers and customers. »

Recently, the CDCupdate Its guidelines on Covid-19 transmission, pointing out that it is much more likely to spread from person to person than via object surfaces (such as plastic bags). But for those who aspire to exercise caution in their grocery shopping behavior, go with disposable bags, at least for now, can be an easy way to avoid Covid-19 potential risks, unless You remember washing your reusable bag each time you use this.

Like Joseph Vinetz, professor of infectious diseases at Yale School of Medicine, told MPR News: "I think that to use billions of plastic bags a year, it's a bad thing for our environment. But right now, it's even worse for our environment to have a pending pandemic. "To keep you informed of the latest grocery developments, make sure Prepare for these changes directed to the chain near you .