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Mom Banned From McDonald's After Bacteria Test

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- An Arizona mother of four has received a hand-delivered letter from a lawyer prohibiting her from setting foot in a number of McDonald's restaurants and threatening her with criminal trespassing charges if she did.

Chandler resident Erin Carr-Jordan has been on a national crusade to clean up fast-food play areas, claiming the pathogens she found in them threaten children's health. She is also an Arizona State University Instructor.

Carr-Jordan visited McDonald's restaurants in 14 states, including a visit to a Sacramento-area location that yielded the highest level of fecal contamination she says she found at any restaurant.

The incident she believes led to the lawyer's letter happened during one of her repeated visits to an Arizona McDonald's, where she allegedly discovered antibiotic-resistant Staph or MRSA, known to cause potentially life-threatening infections in the restaurant's PlayPlace.

"I told parents who had kids who were playing that I was a researcher and that it might be a good idea for you to wash their kiddo's hands or sanitize them before they eat," Carr-Jordan told CBS13 in a Skype interview.

Being banned from the burger franchise catapulted Carr-Jordan's campaign into the national spotlight and sparked a wave of support through her Facebook page.

"I'm getting a massive amount of e-mails and phone calls saying, 'I'm not banned, give me some swabs and I'll go get video for you,'" she said.

A McDonald's spokeswoman in Illinois says the company has and will continue to talk with Carr-Jordan in an effort to address her concerns, but added that recent actions by Carr-Jordan have become disruptive to its employees and customers.

California is one of the only two states with legislation pending that would amend current health codes to require cleaning and maintenance of restaurant play structures.

(Copyright 2011 CBS Sacramento. The Associated Press may have contributed to this report.)

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