I did NOT want to know about this, but now that I do, I have to share it. Misery loves company, you know. But that's not the only reason I'm passing this information on...there may be a few more of you out there that were like me...just sticking your heads in the ground, not wanting to think about this. Because now that I know it, I realize it should have been pretty obvious. At least some of it.
I'm talking about the results of an investigation by Good Morning America on new clothing; they purchased 14 different pieces from three popular chain clothing stores, high-end and low-end, and gave them to microbiologist Dr. Philip Tierno from New York University to test for germs.
Talk about being a fun-sucker. Clearance racks will never hold the same allure for me after hearing the results of his report...
Tierno discovered bacteria, or "flora", on several items. He found "representation of respiratory secretions, skin flora, and some fecal flora" on one blouse; tests on a jacket revealed evidence of feces, skin flora and "respiratory secretions" in the armpit and even "close to the buttocks"; on a silk blouse he found vaginal organisms, yeast and more fecal evidence.
Ugh. Ew. Yuck.
According to the report, you can actually get sick from some of this bacteria. To protect yourself, Tierno recommends washing your new clothes before wearing them or at least running them through a cycle in a hot dryer. Of course, he says to wash your hands after shopping...and he also recommends wearing clothes BENEATH your clothes when trying them on...somehow that kind of makes trying them on useless, doesn't it? You'd end up buying everything too big! Maybe someone will invent a "shopping bodysuit"...
I have a feeling I'll be saving quite a bit of money this year; now it will be hard for me not to wonder who has been in the clothes I'm trying on...and what they were doing in them.
Read Good Morning America's full yucky report here.
