Good Morning America did a very interesting and disturbing feature on the cleanliness of new clothes. The staff at GMA bought lots of new (presumably pristine) clothing, from luxury stores and discount stores then turned them over to Dr. Philip Tierno, director of microbiology and immunology at New York University, to test the 14 items for germs. The results were just horrifying.
There was flora, or bacteria, on several items.
"On this black and tan blouse we found representation of respiratory secretions, skin flora, and some fecal flora," Tierno said.
On a jacket, Tierno discovered evidence of feces, skin flora and respiratory secretions, especially in the armpit and "close to the buttocks," Tierno said.
The biggest surprise came when Tierno tested a silk blouse.
There, he said, he found vaginal organisms, yeast and more fecal germs.
Tierno said a couple of the items had extremely high counts of germs, far above normal.
"Some garments were grossly contaminated with many organisms … indicating that either many people tried it or ... someone tried it on with heavy contamination," he said. "In a sense, you are touching somebody's arm pit or groin. So you want to be protected that's all.
"You may not come down with anything and, most cases you don't, but it's potentially possible," he added.
The organisms can survive weeks or even months on clothes, Tierno said.
Contracting a yeast infection this way is highly unlikely, though possible, experts say. And with the evidence of feces, viruses could also be passed along.
"A very bad type of diarrhea -- you can also transmit things like the norovirus, stomach virus. You can transmit things like MRSA [a staph bacteria]," Tierno said.
Dr. Tierno said that you should wash your new clothes before wearing them or run them through one cycle in a hot dryer -- both of which are great ways to absolutely ruin most luxury clothing.
He said people should wash their hands after touching clothing in stores, and recommended trying on clothing over regular clothing and not letting it touch your skin. We are not happy with this report. Not at all. In fact we're feeling quite germophobic after reading it.
It also makes us think about those clothes that are lent by designers to celebrities, who are supposed to clean the garments before they return them. We bet those sample pieces are actually quite unhygienic after all the fittings and people handling them.
