http://www.firstcoastnews.com/video/default.aspx?maven_playerId=articleplayer&maven_referralPlaylistId=playlist&maven_referralObject=807338273


ACKSONVILLE, FL-- Just about anywhere you go, you will see them. They are sometimes dangling from a shoulder. Others are carried by hand and yes, they can be spotted in some questionable places.

"Now that I think of it, I do take it everywhere. I place it in places where maybe I shouldn't," says Henny Stewart. From that dirty bathroom floor to the floor at work and even the car.

You may not be able to see anything lurking on it, but we wanted to know if that purse is carrying something else besides a wallet.

We targeted four handbags at First Coast News. "I would be surprised if there is anything on it," says Sandy McCaffrey.

A lab tech from Baptist Hospital was with us to swab the outside, inside, the handles and the bottom of the bags.

We then took our cameras and a handful of swabs to a downtown law firm. "I wish ya'll would have told me ahead of time. Maybe I could have sprayed it or something," says Evie Jackson.

There we found four other handbags. Some were old and some were new. "Ya'll might find some stuff...7 years worth," says Jackson.

Again we swabbed the outside and the inside. "It's probably an eight on a scale of one to ten," says Erin Slappey.

Once all the swabs were taken, our lab tech, Qianna Williams-Swain, dropped them off at the microbiology lab at Baptist Hospital.

Every single swab had two plates looking for staph and ecoli strains. Once the process of getting the stuff from the swab to the plates was done, it was time to incubate.

We left the plates for a couple of days, giving plenty of time for any bacteria to grow. And grow it did. While the bad news is the plates had bacteria growing on them, the good news is it's not all bad bacteria.

Some of it was bacteria from dirt. "I guess that comes from putting my purse on the floor," says Stewart.

Most of the results are the same. There was some staph, but it's not dangerous.

It's all normal stuff from the environment and our bodies. "I am a little shocked they didn't find anything."

The findings also showed that leather purses didn't grow as much bacteria as cloth purses.

"Maybe I'll wash it in the washing machine," says Amanda Starling, whose cloth purse came back with the worst results.

The women who took part in the test say one thing is for sure. "I will be more conscientious of where I lay the purse down."