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Your Reusable Grocery Bags Are Full Of Disgusting Bacteria, And Possibly Poop

If you're reducing your carbon footprint via reusable grocery bags, congratulations for helping the environment! And the opposite of congratulations for possibly contaminating your food and personal space with bacteria. And, oh yeah, poop.

According to researchers at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University, only 3 percent of shoppers who have reusable bags ever wash them. As a result, half of the bags tested carried coliform bacteria, while 8 percent contained E. coli. That's E. coli as in "the stuff growing in fresh turds." And don't assume you're in the clear just because you're not hopping a squat over your bag; the fecal bacteria can make its way in there through transfer from a grocery cart, checkout counter, or food packaging. In other words, that (literal) shit is everywhere, including your spiffy bag.

To top it all off, you're probably making the problem even worse by storing the bags in the trunk of your car. While that might seem like the most convenient place to keep them, bacteria love the warm, dark environment, and will seize the opportunity to reproduce. Rapidly. That's right, if the junk in your trunk includes your shopping bags, you're probably the proud owner of a shit bacteria ranch you never knew about.

The solution? There are lots of tips to prevent bacteria from getting out of hand, but the most important is to wash those freaking things. That, or learn to juggle a large number of items and do away with bags altogether.

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Your Shower Head Blasts You With Concentrated Germs, And The Curtain Is Even Worse

By now you're probably feeling a bit germy, but before you hop in the shower to de-funk, there are a few things you should know. As it happens, bacteria love a hot shower even more than we do, so you're probably covering your body in a whole lot more than soap.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found that shower heads have a way of concentrating nasty bacteria. Specifically, 15 out of the 50 shower heads they analyzed contained Mycobacterium avium, which is linked to pulmonary disease. That stuff was always in the water; the issue is that shower heads are remarkably good at accumulating it and then blasting it right at your face while you think you're cleaning yourself.

University of Colorado Boulder

University of Colorado BoulderHmm, maybe cats have the right idea ...

3

Any Surface In Your Home That Gets Dusty Is Full Of Toxic Chemicals

Nobody likes dust, but that doesn't stop us from becoming big-time collectors. Trouble is, dust isn't merely unsightly stuff that makes you sneeze and casts aspersions on your housekeeping abilities. It's also full of toxic substances that can be more than a little harmful to your health. So "being incredibly hard to clean off Legos" isn't the worst part about it after all.

A study conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that household dust contains chemicals and microparticle residue from cleaners, electronics, cosmetic products, construction materials, and various other substances in your home. The team found 45 different toxic chemicals that were common in dust, with some of the most popular being flame retardants, phenols, and phthalates. Those sound like words we made up, but they're chemicals associated with cancer, infertility, development problems in children, and other fun stuff like that.

"So what? It's not like I'm licking the dust off my desk, Cracked!" That's not how it works, dear straw reader. Keep in mind that the toxic dust doesn't only collect on your flat surfaces. It's in the air you breathe, and when you touch dusty stuff and get it on your skin, those chemicals can be absorbed into your body. It might be time to invest in a microfiber cloth or 20, is what we're saying.

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The Single Dirtiest Thing In Your Home Is Your Kitchen Sponge

Turns out sponges are even better at holding bacteria than they are at holding water. They're really good at it, actually. They're like ... some sort of thing that's great at soaking up stuff, we don't know.

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Your Washing Machine Is Filthy And Coats Your Clothes In Bacteria And Diseases

A few years ago, we talked about how your laundry gets covered in poop from being washed with underwear, and how one load of undies fills the wash water with 100 million E. coli bacteria, give or take a skid mark. While that's still very true and very gross, the nasty doesn't stop there.

See, regular washing doesn't kill germs in laundry, so your machine collects bacteria from all the clothing and linens from all the people and pets in your household. The accumulated germs sit there and chill until they have the chance to party on your clothes or your hands when you touch wet laundry. Now, if you have your own washing machine and live alone, you're pretty much just recycling your own germs. But if you share a machine with other people? Then you're wearing their funk on your body every time you put on your clothes. That weird guy from the laundromat might as well have rubbed his sweaty butt all over you.

spyderskidoo/iStock"OK ... 'Reg Load,' 'Perm Press,' 'Ass.' Perfect."

One study from the University of Arizona (which has a whole building devoted to filth-related research, it seems) found that a single germ-laden article of clothing "infected" 90 percent of the load it was washed with. This becomes a huge problem when someone sharing your washer is sick, since most "organisms that cause colds, flu and stomach flu ... will survive the wash cycle." How can you get rid of the Petri dish inside your washer? Experts recommend periodically letting it go through a wash cycle with no clothes, just bleach and water. You can also hang your clothing to dry in the sun, as UV radiation kills even the most stubborn poop and flu bacteria. Alternatively, wait for the sun to expand and cleanse the entire world with its beautiful, purifying fire.

Getting a new shower head might be a good idea -- check out this one that changes colors!

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For more, check out 6 Items You Touch Every Day That Are Filthier Than A Toilet and 6 Everyday Things You Had No Clue Were Made Of Dead Animals.

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