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Soccer Team gets Norovirus from Reusable Bag

Liberal activists may want to curb their efforts to ban plastic grocery bags.

By Washington Free Beacon Staff··
Soccer Team gets Norovirus from Reusable Bag

Liberal activists may want to curb their efforts to ban plastic grocery bags.

Oregon investigators have traced an outbreak of norovirus to a reusable grocery bag that members of a Beaverton girls' soccer team passed around when they shared cookies.

At the tournament, one girl got sick on Saturday and spent six hours in a chaperone's bathroom. Symptoms of the bug, often called "stomach flu," include vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps. The chaperone took the girl back to Oregon.

On Sunday, team members had lunch in a hotel room, passing around the bag and eating cookies it held. On Monday, six girls got sick.

Oregon has been a hotspot for canvas reusable bags over plastic and paper bags. Portland became one of the largest cities in the U.S. to ban plastic bags in July 2011. A statewide voter initiative to ban traditional grocery bags failed in 2010, despite heavy support from environmental groups.