By: Larry MacDonald
Many grocery stores, nudged by government legislation and environmental concerns, now charge 5 cents for each plastic bag used to pack groceries. But the side effect may be the creation of a health hazard.
Several bloggers have posted on the shift to the five-cent bag. Michael James noted: “Economic incentives like this one are often a much better way of driving behaviour than setting rules.” A post by blogger Canadian Capitalist remarked on the incentive aspect as well, plus the bonus points one gets on their President’s Choice card for each reusable bag purchased at a Loblaw store. All good stuff.
Yet, there may be another economic lesson and that is the law of unintended consequences (the main lesson in Henry Hazelitt’s book, Economics in One Lesson). It apears the push to switch shoppers to reusable bags poses health risks.
Two laboratories obtained reusable bags from shoppers leaving major grocery stores (offering each shopper a new reusable bag as replacement for their existing bag). They also asked the shoppers a series of questions about their bag, including its age, frequency of use, and whether it was ever washed. Four new bags also were tested as controls.
More than 30% of the used bags were found to have unsafe levels of bacteria. As well, yeast or mold was in 40% of them. Disposable plastic bags, by comparison, contained no evidence of bacterial contamination, mold or yeast.
It appears the dark, warm interior of a folded reusable bag is an ideal incubator for bacteria, should it acquire a small amount of water and/or food residue. A third lab assessed and confirmed the findings of the first two. More detail is available in The Grocery Bag Dilemma.
Anyways, it appears the main upshot here is that those who use reusable bags should make sure they are clean!
8 Responses to “ The health risk of 5-cent grocery bags ”
Hi Larry,
It makes sense that reusable grocery bags would grow bacteria, etc., but it’s hard to figure out how much of a concern this is. The tone of the following report (particularly the URL) made me suspicious:
http://www.nastysack.com/Grocery%20Carry%20Bag%20Sanitation.pdf
In the few minutes I devoted to the task, I couldn’t find out who paid for this study, and I couldn’t find any other scientists who have weighed in on this issue.
By Michael James on Aug 18, 2009
MJ
Here is a quote from one scientist on the health risk:
“The main risk is food poisoning,” Dr. Richard Summerbell, research director at Toronto-based Sporometrics and former chief of medical mycology for the Ontario Ministry of Health, stated in a news release. Dr. Summerbell evaluated the study results.”But other significant risks include skin infections such as bacterial boils, allergic reactions, triggering of asthma attacks, and ear infections,” he stated.
The study found that 64% of the reusable bags tested were contaminated with some level of bacteria and close to 30% had elevated bacterial counts higher than what’s considered safe for drinking water. Further, 40% of the bags had yeast or mold, and some of the bags had an unacceptable presence of coliforms, fecal intestinal bacteria, when there should have been 0.”
It’s possible there may have been funding by a group with a vested interest but I would presume scientists as a group are more interested in what’s true than what’s lucrative. Also three different labs were involved in substantiating the findings, which makes it less likely the findings were “purchased.”
Anyways, I guess the main upshot is that those of us using reusable bags should make sure they are clean!
By Larry MacDonald on Aug 18, 2009
If one is concerned about bacteria, one should also be concerned about how food is presented in the store – open to anyone to touch, in bulk containers (how often are they cleaned?) – and what happened to it when it was grown (covered in pesticides?) and transported…
Fortunately the answer to this problem – washing the food – should also solve the nasty bag bacteria problem too.
And for non-fresh food, don’t worry – chances are it’s safely swaddled in multiple layers of plastic and cardboard.
By Lisa on Aug 18, 2009
I agree that reusable bags should be washed. It may just be a matter of establishing a regular habit of throwing the bags in the wash.
That said, I’m not convinced that comparing bacteria levels in reusable and plastic bags actually tells us something. A more relevant question is: are people getting sick from that bacteria in reusable bags? As Lisa mentions, foods eaten raw should be washed thoroughly anyway. Even if food is cooked, it is good practice to rinse it to get rid of pesticides and other nasty chemicals.
By Canadian Capitalist on Aug 18, 2009
MJ, Lisa, CC
Washing fruits, vegetables and other bulk food items is definitely a good idea. Another thing that may protect against the risk is putting food from bulk containers in the clear plastic bags that are dispensed next to the bins.
Lastly, making sure reusable shopping bags are cleaned periodically seems a good idea too. Our family recently switched to reusable bags and weren’t as aware of this precaution as the others.
After thought: I have to confess we have been using those clear plastic bags beside the bulk bins to put our fruits etc. in without thinking until now that they might not be good for the environment too. Maybe we need reusable bags for them too?
By Larry MacDonald on Aug 20, 2009
We have the plastic resuable bags but we also have cloth reusable bags. I have always washed the cloth bags never thought about the plastic resuable bags, but I will now.
I reuse all the small plastic bags, bread bags etc for the collect of dog poop.
By Sherry Bruce on Aug 25, 2009
My mother, grandmother and probably her mother used reusable bags as there were no disposable bags available. Yet we had less allergy problems back then. As pointed out most people probably wash or peel fruits and veggies so this should not be a major problem and who cares about the typical cardboard box being a bit dirty, I only eat what’s inside. It has been reported that most home counter contamination comes from the outside of grocery bags which sit on the ground when we open the car or perhaps a not too clean trunk or back of our cars. Perhaps we could go back to paper bags, oh sorry that’s a bit politically incorrect.
Be reasonable folks, a bit of common sense goes a long way but then I forget we seem incapable of simple though these days we need someone to tell us what to do, how to do it and when.
Then again what are our “scientists” going to do without all these studies?
By Gibby on Aug 27, 2009