Almost everyone carries a cell phone these days, and many of them are contained in leather or plastic cases for protection from damage. Have you considered how the seams and folds in those cases can be the home for bacteria - and even viruses?

If you put that phone down, it can pick up whatever happens to be there. Further, any contaminates your hands have come in contact with since the last time you washed with an anti-bacterial soap or used an anti-bacterial wipe or gel will be instantly transferred to that phone case.

Studies have shown that a typical cell phone can be home to to a wide variety of bacteria, including staph, salmonella, and pseudomonas ( which cause eye infection.)

So, do use a disinfecting wipe on that phone, and be careful where you put it down.

Ladies purses are in even greater danger.

Purses are generally too large to go into a pocket, so they get set down everywhere from the floor under the table in a restaurant to the floor under a chair at a concert or seminar or the floor in a retailer's dressing room. Then, they get tossed on the floor of the car, and set down on the floor near the door at home.

From there they often get moved to a desk top or even a kitchen counter top. It's easy to forget that the purse can be carrying dangerous bacteria when it doesn't LOOK dirty at all.

Briefcases and back packs are subjected to the same treatment - set down anywhere near where you are, and then placed on surfaces in your home or office where you would least expect to find dangerous bacteria.

Since purses, briefcases, and back packs are a necessary part of life for most of us, the only solution is to pay attention. You probably can't avoid setting them down where they'll come into contact with bacteria, but you can wipe or spray the bottoms with disinfectant before transferring them to a desk top, a counter, or - in the case of chiildren - your bedspread.