SDSU study: Germs hitch ride in plane bathrooms

[question everything]

SDSU study: Germs hitch ride in plane bathrooms

By Lisa Petrillo
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 26, 2005

If you're one of 51 million people flying this holiday season, the biggest health hazard you might face is one you can't even see.

According to new research from San Diego State University, whatever you do, don't go into the airplane bathroom.

OK, you can go in there. Just be careful, advises SDSU biology professor Scott Kelley. He assures travelers that while some of the deadliest diseases known to man have spread via airplanes, most parts of commercial airliners won't make you sick, probably. But the bathrooms, Kelley says, think flying germ farm.

His small but scientific sampling of commercial jetliners found the bathrooms, as he wrote recently in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, "present an especially significant concern to public health."

(snip)

The knob, he found, was the nastiest part of plane.

Lisa Petrillo: [phone]; [email protected]


Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20051226-9999-1m26germ.html

[mcscajun]

1. The doorknob or handle in ground-based public restrooms is the same.

...followed closely by the handles of the hot water faucets.

It's the primary reason for all these sensor-based facilities turning up in highway rest areas, malls, airports, etc. Doorless entry is more sanitary; sensor-based faucets and air hand dryers, too. The less we touch on our way to the sinks and out the door, the less we spread or can pick up.

[rfkrfk]

2. Bird Flu, the gift that keeps on giving, airliner ventilation systems...

are the ideal incubation system for bird flu.

when flying, do not sit next to a passenger
that {living or dead} has/had bird flu.

airlines, really need to offer,
bird flu, or no bird flu, sections

[gristy]

3. never, mind

you're, kidding, right?

[Hyernel]

4. Stewardess...there's a chicken in the restroom throwing up.

And theres a duck in the back holding a boxcutter...Says he's from al Quacka.