{"id":6601,"date":"2014-06-10T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/?p=6601"},"modified":"2014-06-04T19:35:28","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T23:35:28","slug":"airplanes-can-make-you-sick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/","title":{"rendered":"Germaphobes beware: Airplanes Can Make You Sick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">People who know me tend to laugh and strangers raise their eyebrows when I get out my alcohol swabs or Lysol Wipes on an airplane. \u00a0But a new study conducted by Auburn University and Wake Forest University researchers shows that I&#8217;m not insane. \u00a0Airplanes Can Make You Sick.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When discussing with one friend who flies occasionally (5 times a year) she suggested that I was extreme and that perhaps while flying you just shouldn&#8217;t touch your face with your hands and then, after deplaning, sanitize your hands. \u00a0Try not touching your face on a 14 hour flight! \u00a0The more frequently I flew, the more often I got sick. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">At some point I started carrying alcohol swabs and\/or Lysol wipes with me. \u00a0I would wipe down the armrest, the tray table and the TV\/entertainment system controls. It seemed to me that when I was consistent about cleaning, I got sick way less. \u00a0Well, it turns out that may have been true!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Researchers released results showing that some of the deadliest germs can live for up to a week on airplane. A week!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In order to conduct the research Delta Airlines provided samples of six different materials commonly used on planes: aplastic tray table, a metal toilet flush, a\u00a0seat back pocket, a plastic window shade, a rubber armrest, and a leather seat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They applied two types of bacteria, E. coli and methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to the surfaces, mimicked the conditions inside an airline cabin (20 percent humidity, 75-degree temperature), and waited, a week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">MRSA causes nasty wounds and soft-tissue infections and E.Coli can lead to diarrhea and other more dangerous illnesses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The MRSA survived for up to 7 days on the the surfaces that surround your plane seat. The more porous the surface, the longer the bacteria lived. MRSA lasted for 7\u00a0days on the cloth seat pocket, 6 days on rubber armrest, 5 days on plastic\u00a0tray tables and window shades\u00a0and 4 on metal toilet flush handle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The E. coli bacteria were a little less persistent, surviving for 4\u00a0days on the armrest, 3 days on the tray table and window shade, and 2 days on the toilet flusher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Perhaps the most disturbing part of the study?\u00a0\u00a0Researchers found that while the bacteria didn&#8217;t survive as long on plastic surfaces, those surfaces provided a more efficient mode of transportation. In other words,\u00a0MRSA and E. coli transfers easily from the armrest to your hands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">So, what can you do? Experts say that you should sanitize your surroundings and your hands regularly. \u00a0You need to both disinfect and sanitize. \u00a0There&#8217;s no one product that can protect you from everything, but there are many products that are very effective against a variety of bacteria.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I typically don&#8217;t clean the toilet flusher handle, but I use paper towel to touch it and the bathroom door handle. \u00a0In my hotel rooms, on the other hand, I clean the toilet flusher handle, the light switches and phones. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It might be a bit extreme, but why take the chance when you don&#8217;t have to? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The research for the study was conducted in\u00a0<a style=\"color: #555555;\" href=\"http:\/\/ocm.auburn.edu\/featured_story\/airliner.html#.U3vNjF7rR0E\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Auburn University<\/span><\/a>\u2018s and Wake Forest&#8217;s department of Biological Sciences with funding provided by the\u00a0Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through the Airliner Cabin Environmental Research Center (ACER).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What are the researchers studying now? Tuberculosis; they\u2019re currently studying airline transmissibility of these bacteria and several other serious pathogens. Frequent fliers, stay tuned&#8230;.Airplanes Can Make You Sick or so it seems!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Do you clean the armrests, tray tables or other spaces onboard?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People who know me tend to laugh and strangers raise their eyebrows when I get out my alcohol swabs or Lysol Wipes on an airplane. \u00a0But a new study conducted by Auburn University and Wake Forest University researchers shows that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"Germaphobes beware: Airplanes Can Make You Sick","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10,91],"tags":[741,166,611],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Germaphobes beware: Airplanes Can Make You Sick  - VeryGoodPoints<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Airplanes Can Make You Sick, airplanes &amp; Germs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Germaphobes beware: Airplanes Can Make You Sick  - VeryGoodPoints\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Airplanes Can Make You Sick, airplanes &amp; Germs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2014\/06\/Virgin-Atlantic-Premium-Economy-Seats.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@xplorationsguru\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@first2board\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stacey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/\",\"name\":\"Germaphobes beware: Airplanes Can Make You Sick - VeryGoodPoints\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-10T13:00:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-04T23:35:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/#\/schema\/person\/2d156cb98436ec3fdef81353d9302a35\"},\"description\":\"Airplanes Can Make You Sick, airplanes & Germs\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Germaphobes beware: Airplanes Can Make You Sick\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/\",\"name\":\"VeryGoodPoints\",\"description\":\"Just Another First2Board Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/#\/schema\/person\/2d156cb98436ec3fdef81353d9302a35\",\"name\":\"Stacey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/272c0e772b6f9eca7e807b507eee8f4c?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/272c0e772b6f9eca7e807b507eee8f4c?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Stacey\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/xplorationsguru\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/author\/staceysegal\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Germaphobes beware: Airplanes Can Make You Sick  - VeryGoodPoints","description":"Airplanes Can Make You Sick, airplanes & Germs","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Germaphobes beware: Airplanes Can Make You Sick  - VeryGoodPoints","twitter_description":"Airplanes Can Make You Sick, airplanes & Germs","twitter_image":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2014\/06\/Virgin-Atlantic-Premium-Economy-Seats.jpg","twitter_creator":"@xplorationsguru","twitter_site":"@first2board","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Stacey","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/","url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/","name":"Germaphobes beware: Airplanes Can Make You Sick - VeryGoodPoints","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-10T13:00:16+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-04T23:35:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/#\/schema\/person\/2d156cb98436ec3fdef81353d9302a35"},"description":"Airplanes Can Make You Sick, airplanes & Germs","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2014\/06\/10\/airplanes-can-make-you-sick\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Germaphobes beware: Airplanes Can Make You Sick"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/#website","url":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/","name":"VeryGoodPoints","description":"Just Another First2Board Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/#\/schema\/person\/2d156cb98436ec3fdef81353d9302a35","name":"Stacey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/272c0e772b6f9eca7e807b507eee8f4c?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/272c0e772b6f9eca7e807b507eee8f4c?s=96&r=g","caption":"Stacey"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.first2board.com\/verygoodpoints","https:\/\/twitter.com\/xplorationsguru"],"url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/author\/staceysegal\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2014\/06\/Virgin-Atlantic-Premium-Economy-Seats.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39prY-1It","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6601"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}