Nurse sees our need for hang-ups

Nurse Sue Walkinton's interest in hygiene has sparked a new business for her.

Mrs Walkinton retires from her work as a practice nurse in Patea at the end of the year. She then plans to go on the road and explain the devices she wants to sell to eateries of all kinds.

Her business is called Standbags, and she and husband Richard are directors.

It had its beginning in Mexico three years ago.

"I observed how women and men came into this hotel dining room and as they came through the door they would automatically pick up [a stand] and take it to their table with them. Then they would remove their scarf and their bag and hang them up."

She took a photograph of the stands they were using.

Even before the Mexico trip Mrs Walkinton had noticed the way handbags are moved from less-than-clean places like toilet floors, the baby seats of shopping trolleys and gym changing rooms to places that ought to be squeaky clean - tables in restaurants and cafes.

As her idea for handbag stands simmered she looked for research to back it up. There was none in New Zealand, but she found a United States study that swabbed the bottoms of 50 handbags and tested the results in a laboratory.

A quarter of them were contaminated with the bacteria E coli found in faeces and some with the salmonella bacteria that can cause food poisoning.

Mrs Walkinton had three sample handbag stands made by Willgraeme Products Ltd in Wanganui's London St and trialled them at Oggies Cafe in Wilson St.

She said customers seemed to like having a place next to their seats to hang their bags.

She ordered a set of 100 stands and is hoping her idea will be taken up nationwide.